hand-painted kitchen
Professional tips on how to hand-paint kitchens
(First posted on my Posterous blog) The basic challenge for professional kitchen painters is to achieve a flawless hand-painted finish. You can do this by paying a lot of attention to cleanliness, employing a careful and logical painting technique and drawing on a mindset that pulls you through hours and hours of concentrated effort. It [...]
MoreRefurbish kitchens : alternative approaches
When considering a kitchen refurbishment or kitchen makeover, there is a lot to think about. Even with clearly defined aims, there are several alternative ways to get there. At some stage, we have all been inspired by (or envious of) glossy scenes of designer kitchens. (Here is a drooling set of pictures of hand-painted kitchen [...]
MorePictures of hand-painted kitchen ideas
If you are searching for ideas and pictures of hand-painted kitchens, here is a brilliant resource from Channel 4homes. 66 real world hand-painted kitchen ideas What are you drawn towards? Reference material for your next kitchen refurbishment project The style possibilities are endless for new tiles, worktops, handles, flooring, new units, sinks… let alone paint [...]
MoreRefurbish a kitchen, the options.
The kitchen is the hub of the home for many, and secretly, could always do with more storage, a smarter layout, or be a different colour… But looking at it financially, practically, and environmentally, throwing out a pretty decent kitchen and fitting a brand new custom kitchen is rightly the last thing on many people’s [...]
MoreHow do I paint a laminate kitchen?
I received this email from a keen DIY homeowner who wants to upgrade their laminate kitchen with a hand-painted finish. It raises some issues and concerns that turn up regularly in my Inbox, so I thought the conversation would be worth posting – with the questioner’s agreement of course. I am about to redecorate my [...]
MorePictures of hand-painted kitchens refurbished and new
Over the years I have painted a lot of kitchens. These are some examples to give an idea of the possibilities. Lacquered limed oak painted kitchen …. Neville & Johnson made top quality wooden kitchens before specialising in exclusive fitted furniture. This lacquered limed oak kitchen had been going strong for 15 years, but visually, [...]
MoreSpecialist kitchen painters v good general painters
I just completed a refurbishment of a big 15 year old dark oak Poggenpohl kitchen. The brief was to bring it up to date, and breathe new life into it by hand-painting the solid oak cabinets. I also had to replace the existing wooden handles with something more uplifting; to fill & repaint the walls [...]
MorePainting kitchen cupboards Farrow and Ball
Here are answers to two perennial questions: 1 – Is Farrow and Ball paint suitable for kitchen cupboards? Basically this is a link to a very interesting thread that has a lot of input from folks who don’t know much about paint but demonstrate a lot about the marketing power of paint companies. ie home [...]
MorePoggenpohl kitchen refurbishment – Masking tape
I am currently refurbishing a Poggenpohl oak kitchen. It is 15 years old, very practical and built like the Bismarck, but it needs a facelift. The owners did not want to pay out a large 5-figure sum on a new kitchen which would essentially be a different colour but performed exactly the same job as [...]
MoreKitchen painters and decorators online
Most painters and decorators go through the motions of their job and when 5 o’clock comes, they switch off and that’s it till tomorrow. No interest in what’s going on in different areas of the trade, no clue what is happening in the US world of painting, or on sites in Scandinavia. Not everyone in [...]
MoreHow to wax furniture and buff wax over Annie Sloan chalk paint – for boys
Annie Sloan chalk paint is mainly for girls – but boys can use it too! In general terms, you apply paint to any surface with minimal preparation, sand (or not), wax a few times and buff. Here’s how a painter boy tackled that. Applying chalk paint There is plenty of online instruction from lady decorators [...]
MoreDifference between specialist kitchen painters and the rest
I went to look at a job recently and was asked by the homeowner whether I could do a better job at painting cabinets than the last guy, a “regular” painter and decorator. It was a fair question, and it was fairly easy to answer. It’s all in the details. The fitted furniture had been [...]
MoreHow to paint fitted furniture
This is all you need to know to prepare and paint fitted furniture laminate doors This is how to prepare clear lacquered wood for painting (oak pine etc) and here too. Once prepped you can choose any of the processes described here (Please note Dulux Supergrip requires an oil paint on top. Most other high [...]
MoreColour advice online
In my experience, colour choice is one of the biggest sources of angst for most home decorators, and a lot of painters too. What if I get the colour wrong? What if so-and-so hates it? What if this green makes the curtains look too blue? OK let’s stick with magnolia, that’s safe. What if you [...]
MoreAnnie Sloan chalk paint really works
Just a quick update on a really interesting unfitted pine kitchen I am refurbishing using Annie Sloan chalk paint. 16 years ago a mega pine dresser, plus sink unit, and island unit were hand-built and waxed by a carpenter who, incidentally ended up doing film sets in Cornwall. Anyway, 16 years on, the lady of [...]
MoreMaterials for hand-painting a kitchen
Compared to most aspects of decorating, there isn’t a lot of bulky kit and equipment needed for this very labour intensive task. For preparing the workspace, I use masking tape and lining paper. To keep it quick, a tape dispenser is essential, preferably one for each type of tape used. For cleaning down the grubbiest [...]
MoreHow to avoid brushmarks in oil paint
You are always told to lay off along the grain. That is only part of the story for a really nice oil paint finish. Firstly, add some Owatrol or Penetrol to your paint to ease the flow and extend the working time. Secondly, use a really soft bristle brush. The flat Wooster Alpha is pretty [...]
MoreTraditional wet sanding and Festools dry sanding
The old ways are the best when you need to clean back grease AND sand down a surface to ensure a good key for primers. This rubber block has served me well since I was an apprentice. And used in tandem with a bucket of water and a sponge plus automotive wet n dry paper [...]
MoreHand-painted kitchen day 3
The third day of this kitchen repaint was pretty much like Day 2! Full-on clean and rubbing down, to remove all traces of 16 years of regular use. These are the tools and sundries required to do five star prep work. And this is how some of it ended up being used. So I lined [...]
MoreHand-painted kitchen preparation – day 2
This is where I left off yesterday on the first day of a hand-painted kitchen project All the floor and worktops protected, doors and drawers removed and labelled, inside of cabinet frames masked off. Today was cleaning down the doors and drawers day, mission to make sure there was no grease or chemical residue left [...]
MoreHand-painted kitchen Day one
Here is a little insight into how I am tackling a kitchen painting project in the North West. I had an email enquiry, to paint a 16 year old Neville and Johnson limed oak kitchen. It is very functional, very well made, but aesthetically tired. This is a perfect candidate for my services. My standard [...]
MoreCordless drill for hand-painting kitchens
Just so you are under no illusions – I might be able to sound half intelligent about hand-painting kitchens and re-decorating big old houses, but my knowledge of the merits of various cordless drills could be written on the back of a door hinge. However I am confident that this little beauty, the Makita 14.4 [...]
MoreDakota Painters pyramids
I have not used this product yet on a hand-painted kitchen, but, if you paint your doors lying flat, then these painters pyramids look quite handy. And they are on sale at the moment from Rutlands, £20 for 30. Each pyramid is 2″ tall and made from a polymer that does not react to paint, [...]
MoreChecklist when buying a hand-made kitchen for painting
If you are shopping online for a hand-made timber kitchen to be painted by someone like me, you probably think that the photos show exactly what will be delivered. Even going into a showroom and looking at a finished painted kitchen, you probably have certain expectations of the bare timber kitchen that will be delivered [...]
MoreBuying a hand-painted kitchen – tips on attention to detail
I specialise in hand-painting kitchens and furniture, quite a picky pastime, by anyone’s standards. When I am out and about and come across a kitchen showroom, I tend to look out for the hand-painted display. A sad geeky affliction, I know. A painted kitchen should look good when you walk in the room. Then look [...]
MoreKitchen painting tip – How to keep screws safe
When I paint a kitchen, one of the first things I do is take all doors off. This means screws come out of hinges. If you leave screws chucked loose on a shelf, they can get lost easily, especially when you vacuum out dust. On the other hand, a bad idea is to drop all [...]
MoreHow to hand-painted kitchen
The basic challenge when hand-painting a kitchen is to achieve a flawless paint finish. You do this by paying a lot of attention to cleanliness, employing a careful and logical painting technique and drawing on a mindset that pulls you through hours and hours of concentrated effort. It isn’t easy. A bit like a wrestling [...]
MoreHow to prepare laminate for painting
I have had a few emails asking – how do I paint a kitchen with laminate doors? – how do I paint a kitchen with highly lacquered natural timber doors? The answer is the same for both, and as usual – it is all in the preparation. Tools of the trade to prepare super shiny [...]
MoreQuestions about painting kitchens, Shaker colours, knotting…
These are some of my answers to regular questions from the general public. Paint hand painted kitchen doors and drawer fronts There are a couple of scenarios where I would not advise employing a painter like me, to paint your kitchen units. 1- If the kitchen has to bear the brunt of boisterous teens or [...]
MoreHand-painted kitchen
This kitchen was the focal point of a 5-bedroom farmhouse in mid Wales. I project managed the full renovation works in 1996-97. David Collier designed and built the kitchen, I painted and decorated it. The timber kitchen units were hand-painted and dragged in a “purple” scheme, which fitted in well with the classic green Rayburn [...]
More