She felt the kitchen would benefit from a change, but a replacement was out of the question.

I went round to discuss what could be done regarding painting, installing worktops or handles. We have plenty of ideas to turn your kitchen into a new space without breaking the bank or turning the house upside down. I put together a quote, and within a couple of days, the job was confirmed and booked in.

The brief

Helen had decided to change the worktops & handles. Not all hand painted kitchen refurbishments need to cost a fortune, and they sourced their worktop and handles from Homebase.

Clean, prime and paint

From the painting point of view, it was a straight forward project. We gave it a good clean and Krud Kutter, followed by a further sand, then a wipe over with meths to ensure there was no grease on the surface.

When it was ready for priming, as the door had no mouldings, I used Otex oil primer, which is a high adhesion primer, well liked for its ability to lie flat and flawless. Some decorators will say that it is no different to Zinsser Coverstain. Fair enough, but that doesn’t gel with my findings.

Once dry, Otex only needs the lightest sand and it’s ready for the Feelings water-borne paint system.

New handles

With the handles, I repositioned them and filled the old holes using car body fillers. The holes were invisible, once smoothed out with different grade abrasive grits, starting from rough through to fine.

Finishing touch

With the painting finished, I ran round the kick boards with silicone. I do this to tidy the gap at the floor line. Plus it prevents any water spills from running under the units. (A good indication of a decently fitted kitchen is how well the kick boards have been scribed to the floor. If they look like they were trimmed with the joiner’s teeth, you might want to start checking the doors and drawers, to see if they are in the right way up.)

This project turned out to be a fabulous, uncomplicated and inexpensive refurbishment for less than £2000.00. Going this route, Helen was able to get the rest of the downstairs decorated too.

We understand that buying a new kitchen is not always an option. This is a very viable solution, especially if you have a decent kitchen to start with.

Upgrade your kitchen before putting your house up for sale

On the same lines of “time for a change”, I have noticed a bit of movement in the housing market. We are expecting a rise in enquiries from sellers at a loss to know what to do with a deal-breaker kitchen.

Otherwise, if you have a kitchen painting project you’d like to discuss, please get in touch. In tandem with my Cabinet maker, Michael Yates, we are also in a great position to take an upgrade a little bit (or a lot) further than painting.

Thanks for reading.