Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Home decoration

Advice needed on paint colours for my poor delinquent kitchen

3 replies

Ketzele · 06/05/2018 23:37

When I moved to this house the kitchen was painted yellow on walls and ceiling ('to hide the nicotine', the vendor told me), with scarlet trim. The units were wood-effect melamine with curly ironmongery, the windows are chunky white uPVC, the worktops black, and there was an awful lot of blood red tiling. The worst thing is the floor, which is those cheap orangey terracotta tiles that aim to look rustic and just look like they came from Feltham B&Q (which they probably did).

The positives are: not a bad size, light and sunny, great view out to garden.

I fondly imagined I would rip it all out, but money has just got tighter and tighter and I can't imagine this happening in the short term. So I've done a lot of temporary patching up: I painted the units Hague Blue, and changed the handles. The tiles are cemented into the wall (who does that?!) so I have just painted them off white (took six coats). The walls and ceiling I painted a soft greige. The doors are painted in F&B Bone.

It's time to repaint (still no budget to rip it out) and I really need advice on how to counteract the impact of the orange floor. At the moment, it combines with the spotlights to give everything a peachy glow. My greige paint - which looks soft grey in the bathroom upstairs - looks kind of magnolia. Hague Blue comes up very green. I tried a tester pot of F&B Elephants Breath and it came out kind of pink.

What colours could I use to counteract this? I went for Hague Blue on the units because it cuts against the orange quite well. I'm vaguely wondering if F&B Hardwick White (greeny grey) might work well on the walls, but I'm worried that it's a bit dark for the (low) ceiling - but if I paint the ceiling white, it will just go peach. Do you think F&B Skimming Stone (pale grey) might work?

Also, any advice on cheap fixes for my floor would be great. I'd be happy to just put down some good quality vinyl, but can you put it straight on ceramic tiles? I'm worried that pulling up that floor will be a big job.

OP posts:
AjasLipstick · 06/05/2018 23:59

"Scarlet trim and curly ironmongery" Grin

"Look just like they came from Feltham B&Q" Grin

I love your turn of phrase OP.

You can lay vinyl flooring over ceramic tiles but you would need to level the floor first or the joints would show through.

That's a bit of a job as you have to pour self leveller over the entire floor.

Which isn't really difficult but definitely disruptive and not sure of cost.

You can paint over ceramic floor tiles....you have to sand them down with an electric sander....this is probably the easiest option.

Have a google of "Painting ceramic kitchen floor tiles" and there are lots of advice and tutorials available.

Ketzele · 07/05/2018 00:19

That. Is. Genius.

It never occurred to me I could paint the floor - lord knows why, considering I have painted everything else that doesn't move in the house, including the acres of blood red tile.

It sounds like a big job - one to do when I can send the family away for a few days, perhaps - but well worth it. The orange floor is in great condition (I think it would outlast a nuclear holocaust - just it and the cockroaches, to spite me) so hopefully quite straightforward - though I'm not looking forward to cleaning under the freestanding furniture when I pull it out; I dread to think what's lurking under there.

Thanks so much, Ajaslipstick.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page