Ikea kitchen hacks: 5 ways to make standard stylish (Ikea kitchen or not)

You know what? To make the most of these Ikea kitchen hacks, you don't even need an Ikea kitchen? Ikea – or B&Q or Wickes or Wren... – all have some lovely doors, but because they are so lovely and because they are so affordable, we all run the risk of having matching kitchens... so, we have come up with a few clever ways for you to update and make your kitchen different! 

Try out a few of these tips to add more personality to your kitchen space and to create a fresh new look, without having to rip out the whole thing and start again (bad for budget, bad for the planet).

Oh and if you don't have Ikea doors, you can still use all these kitchen ideas to update whatever doors you have, Ikea or not.

1. Get new handles 

Easy peasy. Getting new handles can be a very cheap way to update your kitchen doors. Ikea make some lovely really affordable ones, we especially like the Osternas leather handles. If you're going for a more traditional look, you can of course browse elsewhere for knobs and handles that will fit Ikea doors; Etsy sell some cute ones at good prices. 

2. Paint your Ikea kitchen doors 

Our favourite way to update any kitchen doors is to paint them. You can do it yourself and it can totally transform a space on a really small budget. Two tone kitchens like this one are bang on trend at the moment, so why not pinch this idea and paint your bottom cabinets a dark colour and keep the top ones bright and white? We love.

Follow our step by step guide to how to paint kitchen cabinets to get the look. 

3. Wallpaper your kitchen cabinets 

Want to bring some pattern into your kitchen? Wallpapering your kitchen cabinets is just as doable as painting them. We say stick to wallpapering either your wall cabinets or lower cabinets so the pattern doesn't totally overwhelm the room. 

If you have glass fronted kitchen cabinets, you could wallpaper the back of them, too, for a more subtle injection of pattern. 

4. Create open shelving by removing your doors

Yep, just take your kitchen doors off. Give them a quick freshen up by painting the insides or even, as we mentioned above, wallpapering the backs of them. Then just fill them with all your nicest crockery and kitchen accessories. 

5. Or just remove your top cabinets all together 

And if you don't need all that storage, just take your top cabinets off altogether and replace them with shelving. This works especially well in a smaller kitchen where too many cabinets can shrink the space. 

6. Replace your doors (without buying a whole new kitchen)

And if your Ikea kitchen doors are past saving, you can replace them. You could just get new doors from Ikea as their standard doors will fit their standard Metod cabinets, or you could upgrade your doors to something more bespoke. There are loads of companies about now how make door fronts for Ikea's cabinets – check out Plykea , Naked Doors and Super Front. 

Read more:

• The best kitchen cupboard paint
• DIY kitchen worktop ideas to update your kitchen quickly and cheaply
• Small kitchen ideas: 15 ways to make the most of your space