Decorating my kitchen - your best tips please.

[JingleJohnsJulie]

It's taken me 6 years a while to realise that DH is never going to do it. I've never decorated before so please give me your best tips. It doesn't have any door frame or window sills to paint so should be quite easy.

Also, it has a grey floor and the tiles on the walls are black and white, what colours do you think I should paint it? Its quite small and is north facing, so not much natural light.

Anyone? I'm totally clueless.

Hey JJJ,

Kitchen decorating can be a bit tricky but my single best tip would be to get yourself some paint that is stain resistant (especially due tot he fact that you will inevitably get splash back around the hob area). www.crownpaint.co.uk/help-and-advice/range/crown-kitchen-bathroom.htm there are some good paints in this range, most DIY stores will also have a range of kitchen and bathroom paints.

Are you looking to overhaul the whole kitchen? If you are then I'd also advise forking out a bit of money and installing some new worktops (this is something that a lot of people who I know have not invested in and it is not advisable, as your work surfaces are the singularly most used part of your kitchen) Granite is the best option, as they are hard-wearing and also look amazing. There is a blog post here that you might want to read www.discountgranitedirect.co.uk/blog/winter-is-coming/

You said that you have tiles on the walls? Are they in good condition or are you replacing these? (Definitely don't paint them, this goes wrong more often than it goes right, so it's better to either leave them well alone, or to get some new ones fitted) If you do end up sticking with them, then you are going to need to decorate in a complementary colour scheme to match. (You could look at going for a warm red colour? Just a suggestion, but I had a black and white tiled floor at my old flat and we did two walls in a deep red and two walls in a soft cream (buttermilk I think) and it looked great (plus it gave a feeling of warmth to the space).

With less natural light, you can also make use out of your Christmas lights (don't stick them in the loft - drape them around your units and switch them on at night time - gives everything a very cosy feel!)

I hope this is useful to you. Happy New Year!

I've been working on our North facing kitchen for years on and off.... the only things I have learnt are that central lights are hopeless, with energy saving bulbs you'll feel like your cooking in a dim cave for half the year, and also there is not a single shade of yellow paint that works - in the deluded hope of brightening it up yellow just highlights spag bol stains.

in summary - avoid yellow paint and have lots of spot-lights !

Thanks for all the suggestions, at the moment we are keeping the units and tiles, in fact the tiles are probably the only thing that is in good condition .

Will bear in mind the yellow paint too, its good to know that it just won't work.