Kitchens are often the central hub and meeting place in a home, where food is prepared, coffee is always ready to share with a friend and family discussions take place. Transforming the atmosphere of a kitchen into a warm and welcoming place really increases everyone’s appeal to spend time in this space. Go ahead, dream about your perfect kitchen and feel free to use any of the ideas that follow, to assist you in creating your perfect kitchen.
Kitchen Transformation Tips and Ideas
In selecting colors and shades of paint determine if you are replacing the flooring or matching the flooring. Measure all the surfaces you intend to paint, taking note of what the surface consists of. My kitchen revitalization budget did not include replacing the cabinets so the surfaces included plaster, wall paper, wood and paneling. The home is 98 years old, so the plaster was applied on wire mesh, luckily there were no large pieces of plaster missing.
Choosing your paint:
This kitchen had a number of surface types so we selected a fresh start primer for the plaster and wall paper surfaces, and stix primer for the wood and paneling surfaces.
Choosing a paint finish or sheen for interior walls depends on your desired amount of shine, look and durability. The most common interior paint finishes are flat, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, and high-gloss.
Flat finish: Available only in latex paint, a flat finish is opaque and sophisticated. It works great on interior walls and ceilings. As the least shiny finish available, it doesn’t clean well and isn’t suited for kitchens, baths, or children’s bedrooms.The only way to clean fingerprints or smudges off a flat finish is to repaint.
Eggshell finish: An eggshell finish is often used for decorative finishes because it provides a low luster. It cleans up better than a flat finish, but probably not as well as you would want in a kitchen or bathroom.
Satin finish: The most popular paint sheen is a satin finish. It has more sheen than eggshell or satin and cleans better too. This finish is a good choice for woodwork, walls, doors, and hallways. It’s also great for bedrooms and dining rooms. Satin is washable but it isn’t scrubbable, so you probably don’t want to use it around your toddler’s craft table or in your kitchen.
Semi-gloss finish: A semi-gloss paint will give your room a subtle shine. You can scrub it and it is good for moldings, doors, windows, kitchens, and baths.
High-gloss finish: A high-gloss finish has a shiny, polished look. It’s also stain resistant and very scrubbable, which makes it a good choice for the areas of a home that get the most wear and tear, such as kitchens and baths. Food splatter or even crayon marks will clean up easily on a high-gloss finish.
When you’re deciding on which sheen you want to use, remember the higher the sheen, the darker and more intense the color will be. Also, high-gloss paint reflects light – and makes imperfections in your walls more noticeable. So before you apply this paint finish, take the time to prep your walls and make them extra smooth.
Most paint finishes are available in latex or oil. In today’s world you most likely will chose latex, it is more environmentally friendly.
List of supplies needed:
Hand held Sander and sand paper
Painters tape
Roll of drip plastic
Paint brushes, rollers, paint trays and inserts
Primer and Paint, stir sticks
Moving boxes to store items from your cabinets and drawers
Putty and putty knife to repair any nail holes created for hanging pictures.
Paint can opener.
Ladder.
Paint remover.
How to organize the project:
Remove all baseboards, doors, and casings
Remove window covering, and wall hangings
Pack all items from your walls, cabinets and drawers. Note: It is a good idea to label the boxes by what they contain.
Remove all electrical plates covering electrical outlets and light switches.
Wash all surfaces with a solution of water and cleaner that will remove cooking grease. Note: Remember to wear gloves when using this solution, it will dry out your natural oils as well.
When the surfaces are dry, start taping the edges so you will have straight edges, also providing the added bonus of avoiding paint smudges on surfaces not meant to be painted.
Use plastic to cover cupboards, appliances and the floor.
Remember to tape the electrical outlets and light switches.
Note: We use an 3′ x 3′ table, covered in plastic as our work station while painting.
Painting:
Line a paint tray with a liner, open your primer, pour primer into the liner, being careful not to fill above the roll off incline.
Set up your ladder, put your pail of paint on the fold down utility tray, climb the ladder and with a paint brush or edging brush paint the edges and corners. Note: For best adhesion, brush up and down or back and forth quite a number of times along the corners, or edges.
Now that the edging is complete, take your paint roller and paint the larger surfaces, walls or ceilings. Again, for better adhesion, roll the roller up and down a number of times over the same area.
When you are finished wait for the paint to dry.
Repeat the same processes for applying the paint.
Note: Paint remover applied to a cleaning cloth quite easily helps clean up imperfections or paint drips.
The Cabinets:
Remove the doors and hardware. The cabinets were stained, varnished and finished, so to begin they were sanded lightly with a hand sander. primer and paint will adhere much better to a slightly rough surface. The cabinets were primed and painted.
The Counter Top:
My budget did not include new counter tops. This kitchen revitalizing project had involved quite a few hours of painting, making it quite logical to paint the counter tops. Here I purchased a counter refinishing kit to complete the transformation.