Painting my HMKOC (Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch) Kitchen

[loobyloz]

Those of you who have got HMKOC I wondered if you could give me some advice about painting it: namely did you varnish or oil the inside of the units and what type of paint did you use on the outside? I’m thinking of Little Greene Paint Intelligent Satinwood but keen to hear experiences! Many thanks in advance.

We're getting one of these next year - can I ask how you found it, @loobyloz? Were there any issues with anything?

Also be interested to know how you get on with oiling etc!

I have one ordered too - delivered this year - so following with interest.

Hello! So I spoke to Little Greene about it and they said to use their Intelligent ASP (2 coats), then denib and use 2 coats of the top coat - Intelligent Satinwood. So far so good. Brewers advised me not to use Osmo to varnish it as it’s very expensive and of an unnecessary high quality for the inside of units. So I’m using a coat of decorator’s varnish instead.

It’s a great kitchen, real quality. The units are heavy to move so if delivery can’t be into your actual kitchen then make sure there are people on hand to get them to their final place. My husband installed it fairly easily. Would definitely buy from them again!

Oh brilliant, thank you! I loved them in the showroom and in their half price sale the price was the same as DIY or Howdens (because I chose a handful of very wide units, rather than having to juggle the sizes and fill spaces with mini pull-outs etc) but obviously it's still a huge investment, and the painting costs are on top. I just loved them though.

Can I ask why you decided to varnish and not oil? I was planning to oil - were you advised against it?

We installed our HMKOC kitchen four years ago (we actually purchased it from HMKOC for our previous house in 2016 but sold the property before we'd got round to installing 🙄).

I painted it myself with F&B Oval Room Blue eggshell (after priming) and it's still looking fab.

We've not oiled or varnished the insides of the drawers/cabs (mostly drawers in our case) as I'd not even considered doing that, although we did paint the inside of our one enclosed wall cabinet with Little Greene eggshell as it matches what we did with our island. The island was constructed by DH using a mix of HMKOC cabs and his own shelving 😉

I had mine painted by an amazing kitchen painter, but he didn’t want to do the insides. I used Neptune Osmo oil. Took absolutely forever and cost a fortune. I gave up part way through. It also stained the outside paint on one unit where I was a bit careless 🤦🏼‍♀️ I wouldn’t recommend.

Both those responses are my favourite kind.

You're basically saying that extra effort and cost isn't necessary, and can even be harmful? I think I love you.

@perfectstorm it was advice from Brewers to use the varnish. They said that unless you plan to rollerskate inside your drawers, Osmo isn’t worth it - it is for floors and worktops that see heavy usage. The varnish is super easy to apply and dries in minutes so not too much work at all. Painting the kitchen on the other hand is a lot more work but worth it in the end. I say that but I’m only half way through 😂

What do you mean by 'decorators varnish' - can I be a massive pain and ask you to link me? We were told to use oil on wooden worktops years ago, and it was such a massive faff I'd never have wood surfaces again (had to sand and re-oil regularly) but varnish sounds more sensible. A friend used yacht varnish on their worktops, against all advice, and it looked amazing for years.

@perfectstorm It is something like this one: www.brewers.co.uk/product/HC4112N

But this isn’t for our worktops, just the drawers and cupboards. If we had wooden worktops I would use Osmo or Danish Oil as it’s stronger stuff

That's great, thank you. And yeah, it was Danish oil we used on the worktops.

We were advised to use Mann's extra tough interior varnish. It was easy to apply but oh my goodness did it take a long time. HMK say to varnish (or oil) though and I can see why.

@loobyloz inwould love to see some pics. Did you do it yourself? My quote was for £3.5k 😬

We (my carpenter with the oiling skills and me with my coffee making skills) OSMO'd the insides of our HMCOK kitchen and it cost roughly the same as buying the F&B paint for the outsides.

However I was adamant I didn't want a glossy finish, which to be fair I don't have, and is great for the few seconds at a time I open a cupboard. I wouldn't bother again though mainly because it still marks if I put anything not 100% dry from the dishwasher!

@nomoneytreehere I have attached a photo, which shows you some of it. We are still waiting for the worktop to be installed (very long story about access to our property!). I did two coats of primer and between 3-4 coats of topcoat. It took me a long time but also have a baby and toddler so everything takes a long time 😂 £3.5k is a lot of money but painting a kitchen is a lot of work. I hadn’t appreciated the scale of the task when I started

Oh @loobyloz it is beautiful!!

I used little greene intelligent satinwood and osmo oil on the insides

And I've lined all drawers and shelves.

Osmo goes a long way and is very easy to apply, impossible to get runners. As it's an oil it also lets the wood breath (dry out), so prevents musty smells. For saving 20 pounds on a 20 thousand pounds project you might better do it properly 😉

Lovely paint job, though!!!!

@NellyBarney It wasn’t to save money that I didn’t use Osmo but advice from Brewers who I figure know what they’re doing. The saving was more like a couple of hundred pounds given the size of our kitchen but again, I would have paid that if Brewers had said it was the right thing to use

@loobyloz that looks lovely! What primer did you use please?

@JackyinaTracky It was the Little Greene Dark Brunswick ASP

@loobyloz thank you!

I put the same knobs and handles on my HKOC, also used same paint, but went for olive colour !