To ask for success stories of painting kitchens

[Orangelight23]

So we bought a house a few months ago and once we stripped the wallpaper and took out some awful gas fires we realised all the walls were in a terrible state and most of the floor joists and boards needed replacing. We had planned on a new kitchen but once we had replastered the place and sorted the floors plus what feels like a million other jobs our money was basically gone.

The kitchen must be 30 years old and just looks grim. The cupboards are solid wood. Am I crazy to think I can just paint the cupboards, paint the tiles and get some vinyl for the floor and it will look ok? Just to last a couple of years whilst we build up savings again.

If you are prepared to do the preparation and spend the time, painting a wooden kitchen is perfectly feasible. I think vinyl can look really good if it is properly laid.

Unfortunately, I've never seen painted tiles look good. I had unwanted tiles in a bathroom that were going to be a pain to strip. We put marine ply (because it's OK in wet places) over them, then wallpapered. I know you won't want to wallpaper your splashbacks but it is a good starting point for other finishes. It is also perfectly feasible to tile over tiles if they are nice and straight. You could look for some cheap plain white tiles to brighten the place up.

Painted my kitchen 7 years ago. It looks ok, but was hard work with all the prep.

It isn't perfect but has tided us over.

Painted tiles never look good imo. Ours wasn't tiled at all so we added some white metro tiles.

Rustoleum have a really good kitchen cupboard paint range now. You don’t have to build up the coats like you do with Frenchic, two coats should be enough especially on wood.

Consider using vinyl wrap ( sticky back plastic)
I wasn't sure about painting the cupboard doors as I didn't think it would last.

Have done a few kitchen tarting ups, and it can be transformational. New kitchens are very expensive and disruptive. The quality of new kitchens also varies hugely and your existing carcasses and solid wood doors may be superior quality.
If the doors are oak (dark) or pine (orange) your kitchen will be transformed by painting the unit doors. If you can remove the doors it's easier to paint, but works ok in situ.

1. Clean the doors with hot soapy water (washing up liquid is great for fat removal), make sure there is nothing left encrusted).
2. Once dry, wipe down with methylated spirit, get in the nooks and crannies.
3. Using Zinsser 123 primer with shellac paint the doors with a continuous thin first coat.

No need for sanding before this first coat but the wood must be clean. The Zinsser will dry very quickly, I find it best to use 50:50 primer:meths mix then it drags less. It doesn't matter if it looks stripey as long as the wood is all covered. (For the top coat I use acrylic paint from a trade paint range mixed to my choice of colour. There are lots of trendy expensive options if you want to splash out.)

1. Using a paint brush apply the first coat of acrylic paint to the primed doors. Give it a good thickish coat but prevent runs or blobs. The acrylic dries more slowly than the primer so use the brush to smooth over and blobs/runs and check as that coat dries.
2. After at least 24 hours, check the first coat is hard dry, apply a final coat of acrylic paint, use a small foam roller to give a smooth finish without brush stroke lines. I put it on with a brush, then immediately go over it with a small clean foam roller.

Any visible frames/edges can be done using the same method.

Painting tiles rarely gives a good result, so splash out on a good tiler with the saving from reusing the units. There is great cushion vinyl available and some places do offcuts often from commercial jobs, but get it properly laid and it will look great.

If you use light colours you kitchen will look bigger and more modern on a small budget.

I’ve painted mine was a solid wood pine type door. You need to prep! Sugar soap and prime, used Dulux satinwood I think and changed the handles. But it’s been like it for 3 years and looks fine. Did revamp other bits as could fudge the doors but not the tiles or worktop, but did that for a few £100

I recently painted my kitchen cabinets. It was a job DH didn’t want me to do as he thought it might look naff. Our house is around 15 years old and it’s the original kitchen. We moved in almost 2 years ago but couldn’t afford to replace it but was looking tired and dated. I used Frenchic paint which was brilliant. I’ve gone from oak coloured cabinets (not solid wood) to a greige type colour.

I sugar soaped and lightly sanded and then did 2 coats of paint building it up slowly.
it can take 3 weeks to fully cure and harden but it looks brilliant and it’s lifted the kitchen from quite a dark space to a much lighter room

The painted units will be fine however it would be best to change the tiles.

I painted our kitchen 4 years ago and I'm very happy I did, no plans to have a new one put in. It's solid wood, and looked late 80s/early 90s

However it took bloody ages to do. Took the doors of, sugar soaped, sanded, dusted, 3 coats of paint. I used frenchic, I painted both sides of each door. It needs touching up every year or so around the door handles on the cupboards we use everyday. That's a quick enough job, takes about an hour to do the sanding, cleaning and painting.

We painted the tiles too. Painted them white (also frenchic) so I didn't need to think about coloring in the grout lines after painting. You honestly couldn't tell they've been painted. They just look like bog standard white tiles. Again it was sugar soap, light sand, wipe over, then 2 coats of paint and a finishing coat. Used a foam roller. For the cost of a tin of paint, you may as well have a go and if you hate the painted tiles you can replace after

I painted mine in 2020, used Frenchic which I wouldn't recommend as it took 6 coats! But it still looks perfect now, apart from the random splashes of other paint from me painting pots. Even with a dog in the house putting his paws up on the doors.

I'm planning to redo it later but with Rustoleum kitchen paint as i went for a dark teal and the kitchen is naturally dark so think a lighter colour would be better. I also put dc fix over the worktops two years ago and that still looks good, even with my habit of painting and cutting on the worktops.

Yes I'm thinking just give the tiles a go and if they're rubbiah then it's no loss.

Friend got their old kitchen doors wrapped

I think solid wood cabinets will look great painted and you'd be hard pressed to find a new solid wood kitchen for under £10k. It will look great!! Send us pics when you've started !

I painted mine as it was British racing green, I used silver hammerite and it looked great.

If you're going to replace it in a couple of years I'd save your time and money and live with it. Good quality wood units can be sold on to help fund the new kitchen.

I bought these cabinets off facebook for £400 and painted them. The only bummer is non soft close hinges, otherwise i'm pretty happy. This is after 1 coat

@GreengrassofW the soft closer is something you fit to the hinges so you may be able to make the current hinges soft closing.

If the kitchen is in good nick and you can work with it, consider having it painted professionally and keep it?

We bought a holiday home and couldn't afford a new kitchen. We liked the layout of the current one except we wanted to make a couple of changes by the hob. We bought some one off kitchen cupboards from b&q and amended the sort we didn't like, we changed the hob and sink and worktops. We used tongue and groove panelling and removed existing tiles. Then we had a spray paint company come in and professionally paint it all. It cost us less than £1k for the painting and it honestly looks like a brand new kitchen. We covered the existing flooring with vinyl too and we intend to keep it that way for years to come.

Here is the before and after of the section we reconfigured (only needed two cupboards to do this and removed the top ones).