Refreshing a kitchen (cosmetic)

kdotdotdotdot

Penguin_ said:

kdotdotdotdot said:

Yes, you can paint your own kitchen cabinets.  Be very, very careful in this however.  Make sure you've got the exact right type of paint depending on what the surface is (real wood? laminate?).  Ignore any paint claims that you can just start painting: you DO need to prep the surface first (no matter what the tin says).  

You also have to be very good at painting otherwise it can look a little home-made.  

It's not for the faint-hearted and may not last more than a couple of years.

Am I right in saying that laminates need an primer on before the paint goes on?

Haven't done it myself, so can't give any personal advice.  Uncle google seems to think there's quite a lot of work needed to get this right, eg: https://www.bhg.com/kitchen/cabinets/styles/painting-laminate-cabinets-qa/  Note: they state that even if you follow every step carefully and do a damn fine job of it, "If you consider the paint job a temporary solution until you can invest in new cabinetry altogether, you'll probably be more satisfied with the results".

Also: I can't find the link now, but I recently saw a report (House Beautiful? Apartment Therapy?) about how long one can expect the results to last.  All said between two to five years, but ONLY if you've left the paint around 15 days to cure properly.  It'll dry within hours, but won't fully harden for about two weeks.  That's their secret to painting kitchen cabinets and still only expect it to look good for about five years or so.

Penguin_

kdotdotdotdot said:

Penguin_ said:

kdotdotdotdot said:

Yes, you can paint your own kitchen cabinets.  Be very, very careful in this however.  Make sure you've got the exact right type of paint depending on what the surface is (real wood? laminate?).  Ignore any paint claims that you can just start painting: you DO need to prep the surface first (no matter what the tin says).  

You also have to be very good at painting otherwise it can look a little home-made.  

It's not for the faint-hearted and may not last more than a couple of years.

Am I right in saying that laminates need an primer on before the paint goes on?

Haven't done it myself, so can't give any personal advice.  Uncle google seems to think there's quite a lot of work needed to get this right, eg: https://www.bhg.com/kitchen/cabinets/styles/painting-laminate-cabinets-qa/  Note: they state that even if you follow every step carefully and do a damn fine job of it, "If you consider the paint job a temporary solution until you can invest in new cabinetry altogether, you'll probably be more satisfied with the results".

Thank you, will have a look now. TBH I don't see us being in the house after 3 years so thinking it will brighten it for a wee while.

twopenny

If you're only planning on 3yrs I wouldn't begin to start painting the cupboards unless you have endless time and patience. You need to get the doors off and somewhere to paint them that's dust free and they can dry, be skilled with a fine brush and the prep is the biggest part.

Have a look and see if worktop, floor and handles, changing the colour of the walls etc can make a big difference. I had a brown and grey kitchen. The cupboards were fine and light oak but with the grey tiles floor and worktops it sucked all the light out. Cream walls, cream worktop and a darker cream floor and the whole thing will look bright, clean and welcoming. You don't notice the grey tiles with kitchen coloured bits and bobs stacked in front of them.

"I have heard of of worktop layers you can fit over your existing one etc" - look up Kitchen Worktop Overlay. My friends had this done. It looks ok and achieves the end but to me there was something not quite right when I saw it. But I'm short and could see it didn't follow under.

I like the sound of the dcfix stuff. Having trouble getting worktops at the mo so that could be my answer

Ungnome

Thanks everyone for the replies. Some really good comments I hadn't thought of, will look into some of the ideas mentioned but think I need to do a bit more research into my options and decide what the best move is