The office kitchen was looking dull and rather unloved. As we do congregate here, it's the place where most of our real life catch ups take place, it was due a refurbish and some painted cupboard love.
The builders basic custardy cream coloured melamine doors are simple 18mm thick with the typical plastic-wrapped MDF seen in many kitchens. The cupboard doors are serviceable but bland. With just a double door sink cupboard set between two standard white appliances, this was an easy makeover that took a couple of hours and no great amount of skill, or cost.
The feel of the melamine doors is very smooth so to be sure that the Kitchen Cupboard Paint would affix durably, I did a quick patch test on the reverse of the one door. This was simply:
1. Sugar soap to clean the kitchen dirt away
2. Slight sanding of the surface
3. Wipe down to remove sanding dust
4. Apply one coat of primer, let it dry for an hour
5. Firmly press a piece of masking tape over the primer
6. Pull off tape, like you would a plaster - quickly!
The primer stayed on with no flaking or lifting, which meant I could crack on and refinish all the cupboard doors rightway before the chaps came in for their lunch break.
Due to my need for speed, I left the doors attached to the cupboards – the fake drawers below the worktop against the sink were fixed in place, so there was no point removing those, and by leaving the doors on the cupboard, they can dry without me having to make a drying space.
The door knobs were black wooden painted and fixed through the door, again for speed (they like their lunch on time in this office) I did not remove either but sanded them in situ.
Repeating the preparation of;
1. Sugar soap to clean the kitchen dirt away
2. Slight sanding of all the surfaces
3. Wipe down to remove any sanding dust
With a brush, I painted the Kitchen Cupboard Paint White high build Primer base coat on all door edges first, then the knobs making sure there were no drips, then the joints of the shaker style doors. Using a micro roller, I applied the Primer to the rest of the door surfaces outside and alos on the reverse of each door. This took about ten minutes to complete.
Leaving the two doors ajar, I painted the single side panel against the dishwasher with high build primer whilst waiting for the doors to dry. I also had a coffee and a stroll round to the house plant and flower shop Aladdin's cave that is Pink & Rose to check out their succulents and plant pots for the styling of my soon to be refreshed office kitchen.
An hour later, when the primer was entirely dry, I very lightly wiped the surfaces and knobs with sandpaper and dusted them off before repeating the same paint application process with Kitchen Cupboard Paint Topcoat in strong white Roundway. This first topcoat was then left to dry overnight before I applied the second topcoat of Roundway Kitchen Cupboard Paint to finish the job.
The colour chosen was simply to to match the appliance colours and look neat against the detailed old barn features in the room.
You can see from the door edge and knob photo that the finish is very smooth and even with superb coverage over the door edges, which means excellent durability.
Total amount of Primer and Topcoat
100ml of each
I just used a Sample Tin Set for £10 to do this small project and applied the topcoat with these superb micro rollers.