Kitchen style on a budget

Kitchens lend themselves especially easily to budget ideas, because their practical nature benefits from a thrifty, simple approach. Keep furniture casual and unfitted, using open shelves to store china, hanging gingham curtains instead of smart cabinet doors and supplementing junk-shop chairs with bargain sets. Flatpack garden benches, available cheaply at DIY centres, can be painted and cushioned to provide comfortable country settles at the kitchen table. Make the most of high-street tableware such as mass-produced blue-and-white rice bowls, plain white china and cheerful camping-shop enamelware, and collect old-fashioned stone-stoppered beer and lemonade bottles to use as airtight containers for oils and vinegars.

• Save glass coffee and preserve jars and look for lidded glassware in junk shops for an eclectic mix of storage containers.

• For the simplest, cheapest kitchen floor, paint the boards in cool light-reflective white or cream. Use specialist floor paints, designed to withstand wear, or emulsion paint sealed with matt varnish.

• Inexpensive dress fabrics are ideal for lightweight furnishings such as cushions or curtains: gather crisp cottons onto a wire or pole along the worktop to front cupboards or conceal appliances.

• Stock up on everyday china from high-street sources such as Woolworths, Ikea and Cargo Homeshop - easily smart enough to display on open shelves if you mix in a few interesting pieces.