subject: Revamp your kitchen for the price of a tin of paint [print this page] Revamp your kitchen for the price of a tin of paint
These days there is a paint for any surface so if your kitchen cupboard doors are made from non standard materials and you dont know which paint to use then simply contact a local decorator or a local decorators trade centre and most will be happy to advise you, as a painter and decorator in my home town of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, I have on my website www.dn3decorating.co.uk the message "even if you only require advice we are happy to help", but even those who don't say it will be pleased at anopportunityto show off there knowledge.
Preparing the site.
As the most popular materials the doors are made from are woods and laminates I will focus on these. First you will require an area where you can work besides the kitchen itself as you will need to remove the doors for preparing and painting, you will also require dust free dust sheets to paint your doors on and preferably some thin off cuts to stand your doors on to minimise the contact between the wet paint and the dust sheets. It is important at this point to stress that this area is not for any prepping work it is for painting only.
Preparing the doors.
Okay, so we have our painting area ready so now we need to remove the doors and then the door furniture, handles and hinges, then if the weather is fine take the doors outside and using a very fine sandpaper begin preparing the surface, remember to do both sides ( a 50cm door should take about 2-3 minutes per side of sanding) this time will vary depending on the condition of each individual door but it will serve as a rough guide. Sanding completed, using sugar soap thoroughly wash down the doors as they may and probably will have grease on them even though you can't see it and it could penetrate through the paint if not thoroughly dealt with. When dry go over them again with a tack cloth, these are cloths that will remove any dust that may remain on the door, you can buy them from any trade centre or large D.I.Y store.
Applyingthe paint.
The next stage is to take the doors to the dust free area and apply the primer coat and for this stage I would use Zinsser primer sealer stain killer, this will block the original colour of the doors, help the finishing paint to bond and seal it, and as it is an acrylic it will be dry in about 15 minutes and recoatable in 45.
Now the good bit, applying the two finishing coats. Sand down using a between coats paper and wipe with a tack cloth. first which paint ? this will depend on the finish you are looking for but i would reccomend an eggshell finish and Dulux Diamond eggshell in particular because as the name suggests it provides a diamond hard finish with excellent adhesion quality's. Apply the eggshell using 4" sponge gloss rollers after first using a brush on the "fiddly bits", mouldings etc; then simply roll the paint on to the suface of the door, it will be dry in less than an hour but leave for about 6 hours giving the first coat time to cure then sand with between coats paper clean off with a tack cloth and apply the final coat, leave overnight to cure and re fix the handles and hinges. job done.
