We bought a full kitchen on Facebook Marketplace for £50 and gave it a glow-up

A couple spent eight months transforming their kitchen for an estimated £1k - by upcycling a used kitchen they bought on Facebook Marketplace for £50. Louise Horton, 35, and her husband, Peter, 37, a site manager, struck gold when they found someone selling their entire kitchen - including the oven - with the only catch being the buyer would need to collect everything.

Louise and Peter went and stripped down the seller's kitchen before taking home all the cabinets, doors, shelves, carcasses and the Leisure oven - which costs over £500 alone brand new. They then began sanding, priming and painting every piece of wood in a deep green colour before reconstructing it, describing it as a ‘labour of love on a tiny budget’.

They were even able to score a free sink from a neighbour - who was also doing up their kitchen at the time. Louise - who began tinkering with DIY projects during lockdown - says she looks at what she could "do" to a room, rather than buy for it.

They combined their second-hand furniture with a modern compound laminate worktop - designed to look like marble - costing around £800. The only other costs the couple forked out were for a kitchen island - setting them back £300 and a set of double doors which they found on Facebook Marketplace.

Louise, an actress, from Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, said: "The guy was getting a new kitchen refitted and didn't want to go through the hassle of stripping it all out. It's such a beautiful kitchen to work in now and I got quotes for an MDF kitchen and they were in the £20k region - so we saved a lot on it.”

The mum-of-three added that making it all fit in the space was the hardest part. "The cabinets didn't quite reach the ceiling so we added some carcasses that went straight up and then some coving around the top to give it that built-in look.”

They also bought a splashback countertop - a compound laminate that looks like solid marble. “If you're using something second-hand and combining it with something modern it can make it all look brand new.”