Revamping a tired kitchen

[reliablemillipede]

My kitchen is looking tired and a bit dated, looking for ideas to revamp - has anyone gone for the replacement doors ? and it so, how much did you spend? all ideas welcome looking for something that I can do myself, have no idea how much I want to spend either obviously as little as possible !!

Watching with interest (and a crafty bump for you) a I've been wondering the same.
Been tempted to just paint my cupboard doors to cut down on cost, but not sure how that would turn out

we might get a new work surface from ikea, on the grounds that our laminate is a)horrible and b) trying to look like marble, which it doesn't and i don't like marble anyway!

I painted all of my kitchen doors last November. We already had lovely granite work tops and an under mounted sink. I did them all including new plinths and end panels to match in farrow and ball cornforth white. It was the most boring and laborious task I have ever undertaken, but it looks fantastic!! We also ended up re-plastering and adding new tiles. It looks like a new kitchen though and 9 months on has worn really well

any chance of some pictures of that flossiechops? our cabinets aren't great either - in the wrong place and just kind of beige. and a non-standard size, so i don't think we could change the doors even if we were inclined to, which we're not because i don't think the carcasses are worth it.

Don't think I'll be able to paint the doors on mine as they are not wood, more like a melamine ( is that even a word !) -I need to do something but don't know where to start looking, can you buy just the doors form B&q etc, the cupboards are all standard sizes I think, also thinking of a splashback sort of thing rather than tiles, anyone done this themselves ? again just fishing for ideas !

Reliable. If your carcasses are a standard size you can look at anything from b&q to home base to ikea to howdens for doors.

There are a number of companies on line who specialise in replacement doors too.

You will need to compare to see
What you like and best price etc.

If you are thinking of a glass splash back you may need it professionally done if it is a long section. You can buy acrylic ones too and I would look online so you could have it delivered.

If you just want a very small section of splash back say just over sink and a seperate one over a hob then there are lots of options. Have a look at the website below. They do splash cakes from £300 and the look really nice.
www.devolkitchens.co.uk/accessories/splashbacks/

Before you go ahead think about whether your units are in the right place and whether your appliances are where you really want them. If there are fundamental issues with layout etc then you would perhaps be better waiting and saving for a new kitchen entirely. However if layout is great etc then this is an excellent option.

We are in the middle of redoing our kitchen, we're painting all the cupboards white, they were orange pine

are you preparing them in some way? sanding them? primer? i looked up doing that on the t'internet and it suggested doing all sorts of things i have never even heard of (including using latex paint, whatever that is).

we have melamine cupboards (i think). i'm half tempted to paint them, but i'm scared to mention it to dp in case he insists we do it and we make a mess of it...

We gave the orange pine circa 1982 kitchen in our new house a revamp-new wooden laminate surfaces from homebase on a discount day, painted all the cupboards cream with Crown (İ think) cupboard paint and replaced all the door knobs with mismatched green ceramic and glass ones from pushka. We were really pleased with the result although the paint scratches quite easily so needs an occasional touch up. Really boring job but much cheaper than replacing the kitchen at the mo!

Weve lightly sanded the doors (after giving them a good scrub with sugar soap) 2 coats of crown white primer, and 3 coats of crown white cupboard makeover paint, all the trims have had 2 coats of primer and 3 topcoats, we've only finished 2 doors so far as we havent got much space to lie all the doors flat for painting, its a long boring job but the ones that are finished look good. Ive bought a couple of grout pens to freshen up the tile grout.

crown white cupboard makeover paint i never knew such a thing existed! off to google now...

If you add plaster of Paris to emulsion, it will make a 'chalk paint', that you can use to paint over anything, melamine included.

lurking

OP what's the kitchen like at the moment and what don't you like about it? Are the existing doors wood-effect, light or dark? What sort of worktop? Do you want a modern style?

Not all kitchens suit painting but the thing with replacing doors is you may have to replace plinth boards/end trims etc. if you want everything matching. This is not impossible, after all cupboards are just screwed to the wall and can be unscrewed and put back again, it just makes the list of things to buy longer and 1 or 2 days of a carpenter. Or you could go for doors in the same wood effect but plain with modern handles.

good fact, queenmaeve.

Have a look at Annie Sloan chalk paints, she says you can use them over any surface, including laminates (was reminded by the plaster of Paris suggestion!)

Sorry to hijack the thread, but on a similar note does anyone know how difficult it is to remove/replace tiled splashbacks? I'm worried that if I chip them off with a chisel, what's left underneath will be so horrendously uneven I won't be able to smooth it out to re-tile... and I've never tiled anything! Although, I would like to use those tiny tiles that come in sheets as they're apparently quite easy to apply. And you can literally cut them to size.

i'd say it depends on the tiles you're removing and what the wall is like behind - i removed the tiles in our bathroom, with a wallpaper scraper i seem to recall, although it was years ago. the tiles were quite large (plain white ones, 20cm by 20cm?) and they came off relatively easily so didn't cause much damage.

isn't mosaic hard to keep clean in a kitchen? i think tiles are easy to wipe, grout less so. i don't know for sure though...

True...hadn't thought of that. I suppose I won't know what the wall is like underneath until I try to remove them. They've been on for about 7 years as I think the kitchen was badly revamped the year before we bought the house. I'd really like to do it myself but as I know nothing about DIY I'm terrified it will all go tits up!