Painting a pine kitchen

[Fisharefriendsnotfood]

We are about to bid on a house with a hideous pine kitchen. We can't afford to change it for at least a couple of years. My sister suggested painting it, what do I need to know/ avoid/ do..

Is it varnished? If it isn't you have to sand all the knots, sand them again, prime the whole thing, then paint.

This why we are leaving our entirely wooden-walled vast living room just as it is. And we've finally decided that 80s designs should stay as they are.:o

I'm sure its varnished (almost ) those that mean I can just paint?

Thanks

You will still need to sand and prime if varnished.

If varnished, you can get liquid brush on sander to help with difficult areas hard to reach with sand paper and also use steel wool as it can be squished into small corners

Paint it. Well worth it. You may even get to like it with the right colour on. It's a solid wood kitchen after all.

Ooh, it will look lovely painted with some new knobs.

You need to rough up the surface of the varnish or the paint will just slide/chip off. Look out for surface grease on the cupboards as well, as you don't want to paint over that.

Thanks ladies. It's in the wrong place in the room as well so it will have to go at some stage, but would love to make it prettier...

Now to pick a colour

I did this with our 80s 'country pine' kitchen. New worktops and a can of farrow and ball and it looks amazing!

Was it very difficult?? Did you sand down and how many coats of paint did you do?

We did it with the kitchen we inherited. It was solid oak but more orange pine looking than lovely solid oak.

It depends how thorough you want to be / how much time you have / how long you're going to live with it. If you are very conscientious, you can remove the doors, sand as others have said, paint the carcasses, then the doors, leave to dry, do a couple more coats and put it all back together.

In our case, you leave the doors on, do a very quick sand and paint a couple of coats. Have to say it does look nice, and perfectly acceptable, although I do with hindsight wish we'd done it properly. It looks fine but once you open the cupboard doors (which are not painted), the illusion of lovely painted kitchen is shattered. It was only meant to be 12 months until we got our new kitchen, hence the quick job, but 2 years later and no sign of a spanking new kitchen yet!

We used French Gray by Farrow & Ball and its lovely.

Thanks Mandy

Am I the only person who likes pine kitchens?

My friend is a paint finisher who occasionally paints bespoke kitchens. They look amazing. I am sure you could get the same effect.

Another friend had hers painted by a bog standard painter and decorator. It looks lovely. You would never know.

If you do it yourself, prep properly and take your time. Painting isn't difficult. It just takes a while.

sereneswan whoever chose the kitchen must have liked it

I could maybe tolerate it if not varnished..'Tis very old fashioned

this thread has some helpful points. IME oil eggshell paint is worth using as it's very durable.

I'd agree, it's not difficult but you need to be patient and careful. IIRC we sanded enough to "key" the surface, not completely back to bare wood.