If you've got a DIY kitchen

[AstroPete]

How are you finding the paint quality? Just interested to hear people's experiences particularly with painted timber doors. Thanks

Our DIY kitchen is now two years old and looks awful due to the paint quailty, it is a dark blue we are not heavy handed the children are 14 and 10 so know to be careful and yet there are chips in the paint everywhere a minor knock with a plate or glass and the paint comes off , I have ordered new touch up paint to touch up but this is the fourth lot I have ordered and am seriously toying with having the whole kitchen re painted. By point of reference my friend had a dark blue wren kichen at the same time and by her own admission she is heavy handed and not a knock or chip to be seen.

We've had a painted timber DIY Kitchen's install for 5 years now. No problem with the paint and seems to wipe off fine.

If you do get a mark then they give you a little touch-up pot you can use which is taken from the same paint batch they use to spray your doors. Only used it once so far on a large kitchen.

Agh @toasty1 I am sorry to hear that. Is yours a bespoke colour? I wonder how easy it would be to sand the units back to repaint? What have DIY kitchens said about it?

That's reassuring @TobyHouseMan do you have to request the touch up paint or do they provide it as standard?

For us it came as standard but you can ask them. They were very very helpful when we were planning.

Mine's grand and the dc have banged the shit out of it 🤔I has a standard colour, alabaster.

We've had ours in for a year and a half now. It's also dark blue. There are a couple of very noticeable chips, mostly along the floor where panels were trimmed during installation. They were mostly caused when the floor was installed (we had engineered wood fitted after the kitchen was already in), so if you have the floor down first you would probably see fewer issues.

We touched the chips up at the time, using the touch up paint that came as standard, and it seems to be standing up well to daily use since.

Any chips are much more likely to be noticeable with a darker colour kitchen, especially as the primer under the top paint is white and glares through where it's chipped. If you have a lighter colour you would probably notice fewer issues.

Thanks @Champooforyou how long have you had yours?

That's good to know @CasperGutman I am really hoping not to have to pull up any of the floor!

How strange! I’ve had my cashmere units for 6 years, heavy use, I’m a slattern and they are subject to sticky fingers, dog snot, more mud than you can imagine, grease, tomato splashes, being rammed into with childrens toys, doors slammed and they are as perfect as the day I bought them.

We have a duck egg blue shaker style in for 6 years and no signs of any damage. Looks as good as when we installed it!
Installed the utility a year before (as a tester) and it still looks great too.

Poor! Had a kitchen from then in 2019 and it was good enough, couple of small issues but acceptable due to the good price point. Second kitchen in 2021 is terrible, half the units had paintwork issues / chips/ construction issues and I had a fight with customer service to get any kind of refund.

if you must use them (and I accept their prices are good) if you can factor in extra time to have the units delivered 2/3 weeks before you need them and go over them carefully. I won’t however be using them again.

That's brilliant @CupEmpty my kitchen is going to have to stand up to similar (3 DCs, big dog and an infuriating amount of mud)!

When I've read about paint issues, it does seem to affect kitchens manufactured in the last couple of years @Grimbleton and from what you're saying that might be case. But it's good to hear your utility is doing well @CakeIsMyFavouriteAndBest that's reassuring. I might bring the delivery date forward and store the units for an extra few weeks. What did they do about the paint issues?

I am on a big Facebook group and going by the posts on there it looks like they had a period with paint quality issues but they seem to have calmed down recently.

It's also worth noting the paint takes time to fully harden (2-3 weeks) so if you have space getting it delivered early so it has time to harden before fitting isn't a bad idea.

thanks @StatisticallyChallenged I think I will do that if they'll let me, it's a good incentive to get DH to clear some of his hoarding out of the garage as well

Ours is on order and a dark bespoke colour so we wait with baited breath. Our fitter has fitted several recently and said he hasn't noticed any issues and that you have to go up a fair price bracket to get better quality - he also fits Tom Howley so I'm assuming he knows his shit!

I’m member of the DIY kitchen design Facebook group and someone posted pictures of their kitchen doors all chipped after 4months!

Similar to others, I had a linwood fitted in 2019 and no chips at all. I had another new kitchen (new house) in 2021 and I do have some small chips, i think they changed some supplier inbetween. Overall, I do rate them and would buy again if I needed a new kitchen.

It seems to be random rather than all the kitchens chip - but the large flurry of them has massively calmed down (I just went and searched, there are very few recently and the group seems to be full of people with Nortons!)

Guess I'll have to wait and see - dark and bespoke makes me a prime candidate. We have deliberately gone with waterfall ends on our island (rather than end panels) as we figured it was the most likely place to get damaged due to our layout. But I'm also pragmatic, and painted surfaces do chip. I'm going to make a point of ordering touch up kits actually, that has reminded me to do that

Had mine 2 years now, just one tiny chip that it had practically from fitting but nothing else.

About 5 years now.

Ours was fitted December 2021.

Couple of chips that annoy me, but nothing too bad. I keep meaning to find the paint they supplied and touch them up. It’s a pale blue colour so they aren’t very noticeable.

I’d say we are fairly heavy handed as a family, although I am the main user and I’m fairly paranoid about it. It’s only been a year though so waiting to see how it holds up!

Thanks everyone, I’m feeling quite reassured now! Good luck with your new kitchen @StatisticallyChallenged do you get the touch up kits from DIY or elsewhere?

On the FB page this was discussed and the consensus is that DIY might have had an issue with the paint about 1-2 years ago which is when most complaints about paint faults came up.

We got a cheap range and it’s 3 years old. Looks good as new but we are quite gentle people with no dog etc.

Ours was installed in Nov 2021. No chips at all. We have a dark bespoke colour, F&B Railings.