A dull kitchen was given a shaker-style transformation for £100 with a clever DIY hack

A savvy DIY-er completely transformed her dated, wooden kitchen for £100 thanks to a clever Shaker-kitchen makeover hack.

Kathryn Symons, with the help of her husband, decided to update the space after their old Welsh dresser inspired them to try some new kitchen ideas.

'What inspired me to do this project on my kitchen was my Welsh dresser, I have always loved the doors on it. My husband and I had it handmade when we got married nearly 25 years ago,' explains Kathryn.

'It was white pine originally but had yellowed over the years. I wanted my kitchen cupboards to reflect the style of the dresser doors.'

Kathryn started researching how to get a Shaker kitchen effect without the price tag. It took a while to get her husband on board with the DIY project, but after some convincing, he agreed to give it a try.

The couple started by ordering thin MDF from eBay which they cut to the width and length of the cabinet doors. 'We attached the MDF to the doors using wood glue and used a staple gun to secure them, the small holes were filled with wood filler,' she adds.

Once the base layer was completed all that was left was to give the doors a lick of colour. Kathryn turned the doors of the cabinets and Welsh dresser from drab to fab by covering them with three coats of Frenchic paint in Swanky Pants. If you are a fan of the lovely grey hue, you can pick up Frenchic Swanky pants from Amazon for £15.94.

The finishing touch was a new set of silver handles. Kathryn's husband created a template for them to check they all lined up perfectly on the newly decorated cabinets. The finished result is almost unrecognisable from the original kitchen.

It is proof of how simple and transformative grey kitchen ideas can be. The only thing that changed in this kitchen was the cabinets, but they have given a new lease of life to the other surfaces without changing them.

The entire project came to just £100, a tiny fraction of the cost it would have taken to replace the cabinets with shaker-style ones. This is one DIY hack to bank for your next home improvement project.