A mum from Shrewsbury has managed to completely revamp her 'time wap' kitchen for just £68.
Sam Waters, 29, was left housebound for more than a week by flooding, and decided to do the job herself after being quoted more than £10,000 to get a new kitchen installed.
So - with a little help from husband Will their three-year-old son Artie - she got to work using bargains from eBay and Wilko along with some inspiration from Facebook to complete the transformation.
"The house was built in the 60s and it's only had one owner since then so it hadn't changed at all - it was just like a time warp," Sam, originally from South Wales, said.
"We had to do lots of work on it and decorated the bedrooms first because they were quite easy to do."
But they paused when it came to the kitchen.
"We were quoted £7,000 to £10,000 - we didn't really have the money for that so I just gave up on the idea and thought we'd never be able to redo the kitchen," Sam explained.
"But I've been housebound from all the flooding in Shrewsbury so I decided to do about two or three hours on the kitchen every day, in between looking after my son Artie."
Sam said that it was the biggest job she'd taken on so far herself.
"I've done a bit of DIY before in carpentry as a hobby over Christmas but I've never done anything on my own home before," she explained.
"My dad made sure he taught me how to put up shelves and change a tyre when I was younger - I like to think I'm quite handy!
"I joined a DIY group on Facebook where I got lots of inspiration from people who were literally just giving cupboards a lick of paint, and it changed the whole room, so I thought I'd give it a go myself.
"I also enjoy going around show homes and getting inspiration, and I referred to lots of pictures before I went to Wilkos to get some paint.
"With a little painting help from Will and Artie, it took me about six half-days to complete."
After gutting and cleaning the kitchen to create a fresh canvas, Sam first took all the cupboards off and sanded them down ready for paint, as before they had a high-gloss finish.
She then used sugar soap to rid the cupboards of a thick yellow layer of nicotine, as the previous owner was a smoker, and painted them all with a pot of grey paint from Wilko, costing £12.
Sam bought all the new cupboard handles for just £18 on eBay , and screwed them to each of the ten cupboards and drawers after the paint had dried.
To whitewash the once yellow tinged walls and tiles, she used a tin of £8 paint from Wilko, and some white wood paint for the kitchen window.
The tiled area around the cooker was created with a £10 roll of vinyl from B&Q, which she also used to wrap recycled shelves from the original kitchen.
But her main task was finding a use for a particularly strange built-in cupboard, which is placed inside the wall across from the main kitchen units.
Teacher Sam said: "There's a cupboard where the old boiler vent used to be, no one could figure out what it was for when we moved in.
"It's the reason why the professional quotes were so high because if we had it knocked down there would need to be a strong structure put in place to brace the ceiling.
"So I just thought, why don't we turn it into a kitchen cupboard?
"I sanded and painted the inside, whitewashed the brick effect wall and added two shelves inside which cost £20 - it now stores all our pots on and pans.
"Recycling old stuff from your house is easier to do than you think!"
Overall, Sam spent just £68 on the transformation, and has received rave reviews from her family and others online, after posting it on Facebook.
Sam added: "I did a big reveal of the kitchen for my mum and she was gobsmacked.
"I can't believe how popular the Facebook post became - it just makes me feel proud of my work.
"People keep asking me where I got the tiles from but they're just the old ones that have been painted over.
"I absolutely love the kitchen now and don't feel the need to pay any more money on it.
"My next project will be the kitchen floor, which I will probably use vinyl on.
"If the weather was good, I would have been re-doing the garden, but being stuck in my house meant that I managed to transform my kitchen because of the floods!"
