If you want to give your kitchen a new look, the trigger reaction is to start looking at the costs of new kitchens. For many people, that’s enough to put you off, especially when you factor in the inconvenience of not having a functioning kitchen for however many weeks while the work is done.

If you long for a new look in your kitchen, but can’t afford a totally new one, then there are ways around it. And even though the changes won’t cost much, they can make a huge difference.

For starters, you can paint the kitchen cupboards a new colour, which will totally transform the whole room. If you’re doing this, you should also take the opportunity to put new handles and knobs on the door and drawer fronts, as this can really modernise an older style kitchen.

Decide whether you are happy with the work surface that you have and the splashback tile area behind it. These are relatively cheap to change, and will only take a day of a handyman’s time – if you don’t feel you have the know-how to do it yourself.

As for the rest of the room, it depends how much space you have. If you have a dining kitchen, you might want to replace the dining table and chairs you have for a new set. Depending on the space you have in the room, it can be nice to include a small sofa so that the kids have somewhere to sit while you’re busy doing the cooking. There is always a huge choice of sofas for sale – a quick search online can narrow down sizes and budgets.

If you’re not sure what kind of look and style you want your revamped kitchen to have, have a look at Harveys Furniture on YouTube and take note of the room sets that have been used in the videos – you’ll find some great new looks that you might want to recreate.