This Week: Painting Fitted Kitchen Doors

Dec 9 2007 Donny

Diy Donny

Kitchens tend to be busy and well-used and can look past their best in a few short years.

So if you fancy giving your kitchen a new lease of life, here's an alternative to shelling out a fortune on a replacement.

This is also a handy option for over-stretched first-time buyers who may be stuck with an old kitchen for some time.

Painting the old doors and surfaces with specalised paint can transform that dowdy old look very quickly and at a fraction of the cost of buying new units. Special primers provide superior adhesion to non-porous melamine surfaces and once they have been applied, you can paint on a gloss or topcoat of your choice over the surface.

Check out www.internationalpaints.co.uk who manufacture melamine primer and one-coat furniture and cupboard paints which don't require a primer.

These paints are extra durable and scratch resistant which makes them ideal for the rough and tumble of everyday kitchen use.

TOOLS YOU'LL NEED

Sandpaper

Drill

Drill bits

Screwdriver

50mm paintbrush

Pencil

Measuring tape

Try square

MATERIALS

Melamine all-in-one paint

Melamine primer

Wood filler

Door handles

Here's how it's done..

1 Remove the kitchen doors from their hinges. Number them with a pencil making sure you match each door with its carcass.

2 Remove the door handles and sand the door surface using medium grade sandpaper, anything around grade P120.

3 Fill the holes left by the existing door handles, using quality woodfiller such as Ronseal's Two-part woodfiller.

4 If you can't find a melamine topcoat in the colour you want, use a melamine primer that will allow you to use any colour.

5 All-in-one melamine paint will eliminate the need for a primer. You may need a second coat. Keep brush strokes in one direction.

6 To fix new handles, level and centre the position of the handles using a try or combination square and mark with a pencil.

7 Drill clearance holes the thickness of the handle screw, so the screw fits snugly through the hole and into the handle.

8 Fix the handles by passing the screws through the clearance holes and tighten the handle on to the screw. Re-hang the door.

9 Job done.

TOP TIP - use a good quality 50mm paintbrush as the bristles won't come loose and stick to surface.