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Andrew and David Harrison-Colley refreshed their existing kitchen for under £400, reported as about $542, while they wait for a planned kitchen extension. Their updates included repainting the lower cabinets, adding open shelving and paneling, replacing a damaged countertop and finding a used oven. The reported total reflects their project; individual costs and a full itemized budget were not provided.
Andrew and David Harrison-Colley refreshed their existing kitchen for under £400, or about $542, while they plan a larger kitchen extension, according to an Apartment Therapy before-and-after report. The couple repainted their lower cabinets, replaced upper cupboards with open shelves and made other practical updates, turning a temporary kitchen into a more usable space without waiting for the planned construction.
The couple, who share home projects through @the_home_boys, began by removing the peeling, light oak-look thermofoil from their lower cabinet doors. David wrote on Instagram that the underlying MDF cabinets were still in good condition. They used a hairdryer to loosen the covering, then patched holes, sanded, primed and painted the doors Farrow & Ball’s “Pigeon,” a gray shade.
They also took down the upper cabinets and installed open shelving across the wall. The couple plans to reuse the shelves, along with a new faucet and a cupboard built to conceal the refrigerator, in the future kitchen. For the worktop, they replaced water-damaged counters with an oak slab and sealed it with Osmo TopOil. Andrew and David said the surface had held up during the two-year interim.
To update the wall, they covered old white square tiles with paneling rather than risk damaging the walls by removing the tiles. They painted the paneling and walls Coat Paint’s “Good Intentions.” Other changes included replacing a nonworking oven with a secondhand one found on Facebook Marketplace and sewing a linen skirt to cover the washing machine. Apartment Therapy reported the project total as less than £400; it did not provide a detailed list of costs for each item.
A Lower-Cost Update Before Building
The project shows how homeowners can make a kitchen more functional while a larger renovation is still in the planning stage. Rather than replace every cabinet, the couple kept the existing lower units because the MDF beneath the peeling surface remained usable, according to David. Reusing sound components can limit the scale of a short-term refresh, though the reported budget is specific to this project and is not a quote for other kitchens.
Several choices also address immediate problems, not only appearance: the old countertop was water-damaged, the oven no longer worked, and the couple wanted to conceal the washing machine. Their plan to transfer some fixtures and shelves to the new kitchen connects the interim work to the longer-term project. The report does not establish whether every update will be suitable for every future layout.
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Why the Kitchen Was Temporary
Andrew and David are planning a new kitchen extension at their home, but the report does not give a construction schedule. While waiting for that work, they chose to improve the smaller kitchen they already had, aiming to make it more attractive and practical for daily use.
The makeover was designed with that temporary role in mind: the couple tried to keep costs down and expects to reuse some additions later. Apartment Therapy described the total as under £400, approximately $542 at the conversion used in the article. The headline’s “less than $600” is a rounded dollar framing of that reported amount, rather than an independently itemized estimate.
“The cabinets were still in great condition.”
— David Harrison-Colley, in a post cited by Apartment Therapy
Budget and Extension Details
The report gives a total of under £400, about $542, but does not publish a complete itemized budget or clarify how costs were divided among materials, secondhand purchases and any labor. The conversion is the amount cited in the article, not a current price check. The couple’s Instagram statements are reported by Apartment Therapy; the article does not independently document each project expense.
The timeline, final design and overall cost of the planned extension remain unspecified. The report also does not say which additional elements, beyond the shelves, faucet and refrigerator cupboard, may be reused. Those details could affect how much of this temporary makeover carries into the new kitchen.
The Planned Kitchen Extension
The next major development is the couple’s planned kitchen extension, but Apartment Therapy did not report a start date or construction milestones. The current kitchen is serving as their working space in the meantime. Andrew and David have said they intend to bring the open shelves, faucet and refrigerator cupboard into the new kitchen, though the report provides no further update on the build.
For now, the documented outcome is the interim makeover and the couple’s account that the oak worktop had held up over two years. Whether the planned extension proceeds on a particular schedule, and what its completed layout will include, is not yet clear.
Key Questions
How much did the kitchen makeover cost?
Apartment Therapy reported that the project cost under £400, or about $542. The story did not include an itemized breakdown, so the price of each update is not available.
What did the couple change?
They stripped and repainted the lower cabinet doors, replaced upper cabinets with open shelves, added paneling over the tiled backsplash, installed an oak countertop and replaced a broken oven with a secondhand one. They also made a linen skirt to cover the washing machine.
Did they replace the lower cabinets?
No. David said the MDF cabinets were still in good condition. The couple removed the peeling thermofoil covering, prepared the surfaces and painted the doors.
Why did they cover the backsplash tiles?
Andrew and David said they did not want to risk damaging the walls by removing the existing white square tiles, so they covered them with paneling and painted it.
Is this the couple’s finished kitchen?
No. The makeover is an interim update while they plan a larger kitchen extension. They said they plan to reuse the shelves, faucet and a cupboard built to conceal the refrigerator, but the extension’s schedule and final design have not been reported.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
