Before and After ~ Kitchen Cupboard Doors

We are updating our kitchen with a seriously small budget! We started by painting the kitchen tiles which was a success! Up to now I have painted the cupboard doors, fitted new handles and made a sink curtain to cover the washing machine but there is still a lot to do.

Here is a reminder of the before with the black tiles:

Here it is with the natural stone painted tiles:

 

 

First I removed the handles, filled in the holes and sanded down the doors.

 



I had read to use an all surface primer for the doors as they are laminate and not wood, but as we were keeping costs down, I decided to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint as my undercoat.

I then applied two coats of Farrow & Ball 'Strong White' Eggshell paint (which I had leftover from the hallway). Again rather than buying a varnish to finish it off, I rubbed the doors down with Annie Sloan clear wax which I already had. I chose wooden knob handles as a contrast which were 50p each from a market. You may notice from the before pictures that it was a bit of a hodgepodge kitchen - some handles were vertical and some horizontal, and the cupboards opened in odd ways! So, we have changed the hinges to the other sides on two of the doors and with the new handles it looks more like one kitchen!

I have removed the doors from one of the wall units and am hoping I will be able to paint this the same as the doors so we have some open shelving (fingers crossed).

Then we took down the other wall unit (eek!!) and we are currently living in this mess:

 



But as my Dad says you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs haha!! The next job is to remove the upper tiles (hopefully saving the row going under the wall unit), plastering the walls and putting up some rails to hang the pans from - could take us a while so watch this space! I have been posting lots of pictures on my Pinterest board to keep me motivated!

Fingers crossed we aren't going to regret taking down the wall unit gulp!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wishing you a happy and healthy 2014 xxx