I’m terrible for it. I am constantly wanting to change things in my house, be it the living room floor (which definitely needs sanding but I need to wait for the new sofas to come to see whether it ACTUALLY needs to go lighter or stay dark) or my kitchen, or my bathroom which definitely needs changing. Unfortunately I lack the skills and the budget for any major changes. Here’s a cheap kitchen update which really makes a big difference! Learn how to paint kitchen cupboards with this mini tutorial.
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When we moved into our house, we inherited a bog standard off-the-shelf kitchen which is laid out like a galley style, with units all down the back wall and an island in the middle. It feels quite big but is actually a really small kitchen – we have 8 cupboards and 3 drawers and they’re all full to bursting! Being open to the dining area makes the room seem large, especially with the two massive windows.
The kitchen itself has cheap melamine doors and for a while, I didn’t mind them. I was busy with work so didn’t think much about them. When work got a bit quieter, as it always does every winter, I started to thinking how much I disliked the cupboards until it got to the point where I was constantly showing Mr R pictures of kitchen units and kitchen catalogues, and making him come round kitchen showrooms with me – a bit like a crazy person.
We looked at changing the whole kitchen, but it would be too messy (we did this in our old house and I loathed the mess that came with it). Worth it in the end I’m sure, but still. Then we looked at replacing the doors, and got some quotes which were OK, but I saw an article online about painting the cupboard doors and I thought I may as well give that a try, and if it didn’t work or looked shit I could always get the doors replaced.
Turns out it’s pretty easy, and looks fabulous! The secret weapon is a magical substance called Owatrol ESP (available HERE) You simply paint it on, leave it to dry for around 2 hours then paint – it’s amazing stuff and a little goes a long way.
For our kitchen I used Farrow and Ball Estate Eggshell in Purbeck Stone, which is a lovely soft grey colour that works well with the wooden worktops we have. These were sanded back and had a couple of coats of Ronseal Anti Bacterial Surface Oil to seal and protect them. Then it was just a case of faffing, getting some new bits and bats to faff with, and trying to hunt for some new handles. I’ll pop another post on about cupboard handles at some point.
For more kitchen inspiration, why not check out my Pinterest board
So there you go, a quick and easy (and cheap) kitchen update – as simple as learning how to paint kitchen cupboard doors!
Thanks for reading! x
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