With a limited budget your kitchen could look like this...

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MEMBERS of Parliament have filed expense claims for everything from moat maintenance to trouser presses, but it’s the kitchen revamp that has proved most popular.

The appropriately-titled Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claimed £550 for a stone Habitat kitchen sink. Gordon Brown billed the taxpayer £9,000 for an Ikea kitchen in his Westminster flat. Not to be outdone, Tony Blair splashed £11,200 of our cash on a new kitchen in his constituency home in Sedgefield. Foreign Secretary David Miliband spent £9,000 on his.

But perhaps these esteemed MPs were on to something. A Rightmove survey recently found that kitchens were the most important room for buyers.

So, if you happen to have the expense budget of a Third World dictatorship, how can you make the most of your kitchen?

“A contemporary kitchen with clean lines and big-brand mod cons definitely has a bearing on a property’s value,” says Charles Peerless of Winkworth estate agents. But knowing your market is also important. “Modern zinc worktops will appeal to penthouse buyers whereas a more conventional style using an Aga and a Belfast sink will work in residential areas like Fulham,” says Peerless.

Ian Stone of Lourdes estate agents agrees that it all depends on the buyer’s demographic. “The state-of-the-art high-spec kitchen isn’t a priority for young professionals,” he says. “They’re more worried about having a parking space than storage space in the kitchen. We had a Canary Wharf flat that failed to sell last year, despite the owner spending £16,000 on the kitchen. It looked sleek, but not one viewer commented on it.”

Spending £10,000 on a small apartment kitchen is the beginning of the plusher end of the scale, but the unwritten rule is to spend five per cent of your property’s value. But even if you don’t have this amount, there are some clever fixes that can turn a grotty galley into your dream kitchen.

Amanda Kaye of LK Interiors says: “If you want to cheat, compromise on the kitchen units. There’s very little difference in quality between cheaper companies like Magnet and the top-end designers. But don’t scrimp on the work surface.”

Reconstituted stone and granite are de rigueur, but they come at a hefty price. Reclaimed teak is a less costly alternative.

Laminate flooring is another cheap option, but house doctor Shelly Robinson offers a nicer alternative. “Karndean is a little more expensive than laminate but gives a far better impression of a wooden floor,” she says. “Although, often we find wooden boards underneath which we sand and vinyl.”

Lighting is crucial too.

“If you’re on a budget, don’t fit recess spotlights,” says Robinson. “They add enormously to the cost, whereas a lovely chrome strip of directional spotlights will do just as well."

And adding colour helps.

“Two-tone is on the way back in,” says interior designer Anita Kohn of Living In Space. “Try a bright red vinyl on the floor, matched with a red lampshade, oven gloves and towel. Changing the handles can have an impact, too. A kitchen done some time ago may have glass knobs that can be easily updated to T-bar chrome handles.”