Kitchen Makeover

[saintfranksdisco]

We're planning on trying to give our kitchen an update without spending too much £££'s but we're neither of us really that great at DIY and not sure of the best way to do it.

At the moment the cabinets are sound but knotty pine and the tiles are plain white. It's a small kitchen but opens out into the extension where we have dining table, dresser and toys and french doors to the garden facing west so very sunny from the afternoon on. In the old part of the kitchen there is horrible pine cladding on the ceiling. I'd like to paint the cabinets and cladding but dh thinks it will look worse. Has anyone done this and if so could they give some advice? Is it best to prime the cabinets with ESP primer (they are quite glossy) also the end shelves I think are melamin. I've been looking at some Farrow & Ball eggshell paint but it says not suitable for kitchens however I'm sure I've read of people using eggshell on walls and kitchen cupboards. I'm keen on a grey shade for the cabinets and an off white/grey for the walls. Do you think the existing white square tiles would look ok with these colours?

As you can probably gather I'm not that great interior decorating!

I think how good the doors will look when painted depends on the detailing on them and how good you are at painting. The fact that they are knotty pine suggests that they are 80s style with a recessed bit around a few cms in from the edge - "farmhouse style"? - and, imo, they will still look old-fashioned even with paint on them and even if you are really good at painting. You might be better just replacing the doors (there are lots of companies that do this or you can unscrew one and take it to a few shops that sell doors only to see if they match in size and positioning holes for the hinges).

I'd get rid of the cladding on the ceiling if you possibly can, otherwise a plain, matt white to detract attention - lots of primer to make sure the paint takes.

I painted pine kitchen doors in the last house. They were an oldfashioned raised panel style but not with any arched bits, it looked OK (IMHO) given the budget. It did take ages to do all the coats.

IIRC correctly I gave them a bit of a rub down,used ESP, F&B undercoat and two coats of F&B oil eggshell. I think with the VOC regulations that oil eggshell paint has basically disappeared though, or been replaced with something that takes a fortnight to dry. But the F&B Estate Eggshell is OK for woodwork and washable, according to the website. You can't open a magazine without finding some kitchen in a F&B shade so it must be OK.

There is a kind of primer professionals use called Zinsser B.I.N. which might be good for (well de-greased) melamine.

Thank you both for the info (and reality check!). It does sound like a lot of effort and with our combined diy skills (lack of) I fear the end result will not be quite what I am expecting. Maybe we'll look at just doing the cladding and then look at some replacement doors.