If your kitchen is large enough, how about building one of them fangled kitchen islands? All the posh designer kitchen shops have a kitchen island and they certainly look expensive… but the good news is you can build one on the cheap and nobody will know the difference. Step one… visit your local DIY store and check if they have any returned or damaged kitchen units. If yes, buy them as cheap as you can, along with kitchen doors, drawer fronts, and the worktops of your choice.

Buy putting two double units back to back will give you a square 2×2 kitchen island. By adding a third double unit to one end will give you an oblong 2×3 kitchen island, or by arranging them in a ‘c’ shape will give a 4×2 layout with plenty of room under the open side for shelving or a breakfast bar. They layout you choose should fit you kitchen. Make sure there is plenty of room all around before fixing the structure together.

Screw the units together, put the worktops on and fill the gap where they meet with flexible filler. Finally attach the kitchen doors to your cheap kitchen base units and hey-presto, you’ve got an expensive looking kitchen island. OK it’s not exactly the same as those in the designer kitchen shops as there is no sink plumbed in, but this is a quick, easy and cheap way of getting a designer kitchen on a credit crunch budget.

By Carl Liver & Barry Summers