Browse Forums Kitchen Corner 1 Apr 24, 2012 9:11 pm My husband and I have just purchased our first house. It is a 30 year old solid brick house that has been mostly revovated/updated except for the kitchen. It is clean, and semi functional but VERY ugly - dark laminate cupboards, lacking in light. The only window is above the sink and the whole kitchen is walled in on all four sides (with a small doorway). We have plans for the future to knock out the wall, open it up, rip out the whole kitchen and start again. However, we won't be able to afford that for a couple of years. In the meantime we want to "refresh" it to make it look a little bit nicer without spending much given we plan to rip it out. We are thinking we would like to paint the laminate and replace the door handles. I would love some ideas on paint colours - at the moment we are thinking a cool toned white as it is very small and closed in. I am worried that might look a bit sterile but I am scared of going for much colour, pattern etc. because I don't want to close it in further. I have read up on white knight laminate primer and paint (can be tinted with taubmans colours) but any tips or ideas for our new kitchen would be much appreciated. We have NEVER done any DIY before. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Thanks Deb Kitchen HELP 2Apr 24, 2012 10:48 pm I would paint the doors white and if possible just replace the bench top (we got ours from ikea quite cheap) and some nice handles. Good luck! Jasmin Hickinbotham Belmont - modified Signed: February 2011 Slab should go down before 2012 My build thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52310&p=799483#p799483 Re: Kitchen HELP 3Apr 25, 2012 12:28 am It's not the worst kitchen I've ever seen! We've lived with a much uglier one for four years. I think I would just start with painting the overhead cabinets in white and changing the curtains for a more modern blind (or removing if not needed), then add accessories with colour if you like. Re: Kitchen HELP 4Apr 25, 2012 8:02 am The laminate primers are a big waste of money! The local hardware stores tell you that laminate cant be painted with out the special primer. THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG. To get the paint to stick all you need to do is sand the laminate properly. The reason paint doesnt stick is because the laminate is to smooth and shinny. Once sanded with 80grit paper it will take a normal undercoat and then paint. What most people dont realise is that a polyurethane door starts life out as a white satin MDF(same as melamine or laminate) and is they spray painted. You dont see the professionaly spray painters using these hardware store "special" undercoats. They just use a normal undercoat. The quality of a finished painted surface is all in the surface preperation. Give it a good sand and it will be fine! Cutting Edge Kitchens and Cabinet Making http://cuttingedgekitchens.net.au http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cutting-Edge-Kitchens/290484196676 Mobile : 0419 430 575 PH: 9452 4772 Fax :9452 4772 cuttingedgekitchens@outlook.com You never have a fridge against wall as you’ve drawn. The doors can’t open past 90 degrees and it’s difficult and maybe impossible to remove drawers 2 15610 No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 6636 2 4686 |