I'm so excited!

What colour have you chosen?

Ooooh I do like a bit of transformation at home phoenix. Exciting! Yes, your kitchen will have a whole new look when it's finished.

Are you getting a company to come in and do the painting? A few years ago my friend had her old oak kitchen cupboards painted a sort of very pale sage green and treated her self to things like new tea and coffee canisters, an oil cloth for the table, and some ferny plants for the windowsill and the transformation was wonderful.

She too thought about having new doors and worktops, etc, but said she could have had a whole new IKEA kitchen for the price quoted!

Hope you're happy with the result!

That sounds a great idea phoenix. Am quite interested - are the cupboards wood and are they spray or brush painting?

Hello all!

We are doing this very much on a shoestring.

The existing kitchen layout is pretty much perfect, in that there is plenty of worktop and cupboard space.

The current one is budget beech effect melamine for the doors, cornice, pelmet etc. It came with the house, new build 2005.

We have a wonderful local handyman, who has recently undertaken a similar project with great results.

Have done bit of research, found a suitable paint that apparently does what it says on the tin

The worktop is black granite effect, the tiles are small squares in black, cream and a milky coffee colour. These will stay, partly because I like them (esp. the tiles) and partly want minimum expense or disruption.

The cupboards will be Ronseal White Lace, which is an off white colour. The total cost of the paint is just under £60.

A friend of mine has just done what you are planning, phoenix, and s.

Now that's a brilliant solution to the problem Phoenix! And think how chuffed you'll be with not only an efficient and well designed kitchen that suits you well, it will tone beautifully with your flooring and tiles and the whole lost cost £60! No upheaval, no having to clear cupboards and drawers out and no scrapping a perfectly good floor! Result!

Grrrr - hit 'post' by accident!

I was going to say that her 'new' kitchen looks fabulous ☺

We did it - went from very dark oak that was here when we moved in to a creamy off-white colour. Hang on to a pot of paint for touching up, as it does tend to wear a bit round the door handles.

It transformed our kitchen - I am sure you will love it.

DD has done it. Her cupboard doors are now slate grey and look great against the chalky white of the kitchen walls.

She did away with cornices and pelmets as they're no longer in fashion.

Have fun!

When we moved into this house a year ago we inherited a good quality but horrible kitchen. We have done the same. My husband painted it with Little Greene oil based eggshell paint. We also changed the handles and had it re-tiled. It probably cost £1000 but it is just like having a new kitchen.

I think you will be really pleased and, of course, highly delighted with all the money you have saved.

I think our kitchen units are some sort of laminate, or foil wrapped, so I will have to research paint. Lucky you have got someone who has done it before to do it for you phoenix, as I guess that is crucial. Can't see my OH wanting to undertake such a job. Any chance of before and after pics?

When I first moved into this house, the kitchen units were a dark pine coloured wood. I bought a pot of eggshell paint in a very pale off white/cream and painted them myself. I'm really pleased with the result, so much fresher and brighter. MButy next door neighbour loved it too and has done the same with hers. But once I'd caught the bug I didn't stop. All my old brown wood furniture throughout the house is now off-white and I love it. I often have to warn people not to sit still too long or they will be painted!

My neighbour ......

My last kitchen I transformed by painting all the cupboards myself and it looked lovely afterwards. Went from a wood colour to a pale blue. go for it.

A friend of mine did the same Phoenix, painted her beech cupboards grey and installed a new window blind. Looks a completely new kitchen, absolutely fabulous.

My husband did ours a few years ago - medium oak to pale green. New knobs on doors and drawers, new curtains and blinds. Thrilled with result at a fraction of the cost of new cupboards. The paint was especially for wood from National Paints.

I have an old sideboard which is a horrible orangey-brown colour. I have been trying to work up the energy to paint it. It's all the sanding-down which puts me off the idea, but this post may give me the incentive.

I am excited for you We had the same problem but with limited£££s to spend , so did the same as you , doors taken away for spraying, new handles, carcasses resprayed in situ , we painted the walls, de cluttered the units and it looks totally new.
We have wooden work surfaces which I rubbed down using a borrowed flat sander,( the internet gives step by step instructions how to do it - and it worked) . We tiled over the tiles. So no plasterer needed.....I wish you could see it ????

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201902/medium-574865-20160602-185423-resized.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201902/medium-369609-20190121-155323-resized.jpg

I did this years ago changing a mahogany kitchen to white with shiny hard lacquer paint - I loved it. Good luck!

I've just painted our oak dining room unit with grey chalk paint - we're wishing I'd done the whole suite now instead of giving the table and chairs away.

It's lovely to have things done, isn't it? A few months ago I got new cupboard fronts for the kitchen and a little row of extra wall units as there wasn't enough storage.
I sound ungrateful but the design the builder chose just wasn't my cup of tea - I didn't have any say in the matter as it's a very small development.
Now I've got what I like - country style wooden-look worktops with Shaker cupboards - very 1970s perhaps but I love it and it wasn't too expensive.

Painting is a good option, I painted mine a couple of years ago. Even better is a stick on vinyl covering, (I won't name it in case it's not allowed, its German and it's available on a popular selling site). The doors are grey wood effect and I did the counter tops as well, in a marble effect and had nothing but compliments. It looks as though I've had new doors and tops. It cost around £40 and is very hardwearing..

Our kitchen also had foil covered doors, Mr Pirate looked on YouTube and found that with a heat gun it would peel off easily. It leaves MDF underneath and takes paint beautifully. We now have cream doors and the side panels and kickboards are still wood effect for contrast.

Greengran ……. I have a feeling that if you use chalk paint you don't need to sand the wood down …….I hate sanding too, and painted wooden bar stools with chalk paint …. reasonably successfully. Good luck!

I'm sure you'll be delighted, Phoenix.

My dd and SiL painted some really horrible old dark brown melamine kitchen cupboards in their 'new' house - the difference (off white) was amazing.

And I painted a whole wall of perfectly functional but rather nasty melamine fitted wardrobes - and replaced all the equally nasty handles - after we'd been quoted over £4K to replace them
My total cost, paint and handles, was £65!