Shabby Chic; Volume III

JodyBPM

lemonslice wrote: »

Hello everyone May I please join?

We moved house in december and while we have spent everything we had on ripping out the awful bathroom, our poor kitchen has recieved no love
and now we have no money left, this is what it looks like this isnt ours but a good likeness

lots & lots of oak not solid, wood cupboards, a oak wood floor and fabulous fruit & veg tiles ... one murual by the hob and lots of random veg /fruit tiles dotted around

Its also has fake narrow 'beams' painted brown along the celling,

do you think painting the cupboards would be a disaster, My husband would take some convincing but its so dull & dark,

Im abit scared to start incase I make it look worse!

any tips? also the previous owners have painted-badly a sicky yellow/beige over wallpaper which is peeling.. a trend throughout the whole house..

I forgot to add, I love shabby vintage style but maybe this is the wrong vintage!

I'd paint it. We had a small dark kitchen and it was transformed by a lick of paint and a new worktop...

Kitchen before:


Kitchen after:





We used ESP under satinwood paint, and a couple of years on, its still looking pretty good, no chips etc!

Ellie83

Gorgeestwo wrote: »

These are our best car boot bargains ever, both chairs for £1
They've gone from this


to this


We've done them for the children's bedrooms, hence the different fabrics
They were painted in Annie Sloan old white and the material is Clarke & Clarke :j:j

How ingenious! And beautiful! And very thrifty!!!!

Ellie83

JodyBPM wrote: »

I'd paint it. We had a small dark kitchen and it was transformed by a lick of paint and a new worktop...

Kitchen before:


Kitchen after:





We used ESP under satinwood paint, and a couple of years on, its still looking pretty good, no chips etc!

That is beautiful! What is ESP though? Sorry, I am still learning about vintage upcycling

shirlgirl2004

Ellie83 wrote: »

That is beautiful! What is ESP though? Sorry, I am still learning about vintage upcycling

Easy Surface Primer (or preparation). It means you don't have to spend days sanding.

JodyBPM

Ellie83 wrote: »

That is beautiful! What is ESP though? Sorry, I am still learning about vintage upcycling

ESP (Easy Surface Preparation) is a primer for smooth surfaces (eg melamine etc) it gives a key without the need for sanding. I've had my tin of it for donkey's years, it goes a long way! Our kitchen doors were actually veneer rather than solid wood, so we used the ESP, and its held up pretty well to constant use and battering!

Ellie83

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Easy Surface Primer (or preparation). It means you don't have to spend days sanding.

JodyBPM wrote: »

ESP (Easy Surface Preparation) is a primer for smooth surfaces (eg melamine etc) it gives a key without the need for sanding. I've had my tin of it for donkey's years, it goes a long way! Our kitchen doors were actually veneer rather than solid wood, so we used the ESP, and its held up pretty well to constant use and battering!

I did not know such a product existed! I have an old chest of drawers made of wood veneer: it means I can get rid of its ugly brownish colour. Thanks, you've made my day! :rotfl:

emma_kate

lots & lots of oak not solid, wood cupboards, a oak wood floor and fabulous fruit & veg tiles ... one murual by the hob and lots of random veg /fruit tiles dotted around

Its also has fake narrow 'beams' painted brown along the celling,

do you think painting the cupboards would be a disaster, My husband would take some convincing but its so dull & dark,

Im abit scared to start incase I make it look worse!



I forgot to add, I love shabby vintage style but maybe this is the wrong vintage![/QUOTE]

Welcome lemonslice!

Do it! I would if I had wooden doors! Or even doors that shape, if they're not wood. Just do your prep, (ESP sounds great) or a melamine primer, and use a tough paint that you can clean. It will be sooo much lighter!
Sometimes it's better to ask for fogiveness rather than permission.

Ellie83

emma_kate wrote: »

Sometimes it's better to ask for fogiveness rather than permission.

Oooo, I will have to learn this one by heart so I can use it later!!!

chalkysoil

welcome Lemonslice ! Well my kitchen is old crap, the people before me bought it ex display frpm BnQ in the 80's and fitted it themselves We meant to replace it but have been here 15 years now .... The good thing is that any attack I make on it I don't feel guilty about

The first thing I did was rip off the top and bottom coving ( which had joins in weird places) which made it look less overbearing. That left a couple of small holes in my beige tiles so I glued a sunflower fridge magnet over one hole, and hung a saucer over the other. I painted a little shelf white, and we got some shelves from bootfairs and added them in. The other day I chalk painted an end melamine panel
All day long I've been chalk painting other things and thinking about the top cupboard doors :rotfl:
The only thing that stopped me was I haven't enough paint left to do the whole run.

This is an idea I had ( partly due to a great wave of grubby fingers ...) I was thinking about painting the inside panels but not the outer frame of the top cupboards.

Anyone seen a pic anywhere of this or have any ideas if it would work or look silly?

chalkysoil

ps, the peacock above the hob is a poster in an Ikea glass clip frame, hubs drilled a hole in the boring tiles and it cheered the place up. It isn't there now as I got a posh new hob. So silicon heat mats are on the screw instead.

Here's a recent pic of a corner of my crap kitchen.

looks a bit Picasso as the photo upload went beserk!