Painting kitchen cupboards - is it possible?

dizziblonde

About to complete on a house which has several, well, I'd call them period features - except the period in question appears to be the 1980s.

The kitchen - cupboards are fine structurally, nowt much can be done with the layout - but they're that horrid beige and wooden along the bottom handles much beloved of the 1980s. Long term the beige is going - but I'm wondering if there's a short term fix to drag it a bit nearer the current decade? It's also got those lovely beige tiles interspersed with ones with pictures of fruit on much beloved of the era as well - who ever thought they looked good?!

Is there something on the market that can paint/cover the fronts of the units in the interim till we can get the funds together for a new kitchen? Heck - part of me is even considering using fablon to do it - except I can never do that stuff without tonnes of airbubbles. Can't quite run to new cupboard doors yet even since the deposit's (and car's MOT) eaten our savings until we get our rental deposit back and rebuild financially so I'm wondering if anyone has any genius ideas (apart from dark glasses and takeaways). It's liveable - but if I can make it look a little less... well.. beige I'd like to be able to give it a go.

Utter DIY novices btw with an accident prone husband who's banned from powertools after drilling through electic cables in the past!

Gloomendoom

I've painted cupboards before. You can get a special melamine primer that helps the paint stick to the laminate commonly used on 80's kitchen units. If they are pine then your job is easier, just sand, prime and paint.

You also need to make sure you get all the grease off first.

dizziblonde

Thanks - was sure I'd seen some product on one of the endless DIY shows on daytime telly that did the job - just couldn't find one in B+Q or wherever so thought I was going insane.

Thinking of just going over the beige with something in the short term so we can defer Operation New Kitchen for 6 months or so.

Gloomendoom

Wickes do it...



Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure that you can get coloured paint specifically intended for sprucing up kitchen units.

Waterlily24

We did this to some kitchen cabinets recently, used the melamine primer and then used Satin paint. They look good but mine have been used in a craft room and have been painted in shades of blue and pink.

startingtosave

Hello, I did this last year but instead of painting them myself I washed them all down and took them to a joinery company who charged me about £220 to respray all the doors magnolia and also made me a couple of new end pieces just to finish it all off - it looks like a new kitchen and most people can't believe the before pictures! I'd post them here if I knew how!

dizziblonde

Thanks - plan is to paint them cream or something similar, then just yellow or green on the walls as a short-term fix while we get things organized to get a new kitchen fitted. Can't stand the miserable look of the current ones - it'll depress me every morning as it currently is!

Glad Wickes do it - can now dispatch hubby down the road with a photo of the can - and watch as he comes home with baked beans or something.

A.Penny.Saved

Gloomendoom wrote: »

You also need to make sure you get all the grease off first.

Grease didn't stop the bank, who repossessed from my homes previous owner. They painted almost everywhere in the house brown, over most of the wallpaper in the house and including the kitchen cabinets with a matt brown paint and that stuck and didn't come off.

Bank spruce up jobs are not exactly high class or well done, paint dripped everywhere, down radiators and on tiles and tile edging.

I removed some of the paint on the kitchen cupboards to see what was under it and it's an off white colour with a very faint brown in tiny indentations in the surface where I didn't get all the paint off. It was probably white if the paint had been cleaned off fully. You would have to like white to like it and I don't. They have to be all replaced with something I like and I'm not into modern styles, I think they look dreadful with all the square lines and appalling colours. Give me angled lines and natural wood looks any day.

There was grease so thick that you could scrape it up, the previous occupant must of lived off fried food with grease plastered everywhere.

Gloomendoom

^^^^^

OK, point taken

OP don't get your bank to to the painting.

staffie1

this is what I used very successfully

staffie1

How do I insert a picture???

Anyway its called Paint & Grain!