I’ve been dreaming of a white kitchen since the day we moved in.  If there was nothing else we would do, we were going to paint the cupboard doors.  Oh yes, yes we were.

The reason I was so sure of this was because my lovely boyfriend, W, sprays cars for a living.  And what better way to have something professionally spray painted than in a car body shop?  Sounds a bit mad, yes, but the paint used is fantastically durable, easily cleaned and will never yellow.

If you are new here (and if you are, why hello there you sexy thang! Thank you for joining me!), you can read about my kitchen design influences here, discovering the hidden ceiling here, tearing it down here, putting up the plasterboard and pendants here, plastering here, putting in the cooker hood, the backsplash and tiling here and putting up the open shelving here and finally, installing the crown molding and the risers here.)  

A reminder of what the kitchen looked like before we started work.

So when W realised he had a spare Saturday when the workshop would be available for him to take the doors, we started our prep work.  The first thing we did was remove the existing hardware and drilled holes for the new hardware.  We also filled the old holes – first on Wednesday night to allow it to ‘set’ (sink in) for a few days (as it will do) and then again on Friday night.

On Saturday morning, we took all the doors off the cupboards and off to work W went.

The cupboard doors were prepped with a bit of sanding prior to be taken into the booth.
 

They were then given a coat of ‘adhesion promoter’ which is basically like a clear primer and allows the paint to ‘stick’.

Once 2 coats of paint were applied (just one coat to the backs), they were allowed to ‘slow bake’ at 60 degrees Celsius for about an hour to set the paint.  

Once they come out of the booth, they remain tacky until they cool.  We gave them around a half hour before they were put into the back of our cars and driven (carefully) home.

When we got home and reinstalled the cupboards with the new hardware installed, they simply transformed the space… the kitchen looks lighter, brighter, cleaner and more cohesive.

Oh I’ll just stop rambling and show you some pictures, shall I?

I love that the paint is fine enough that you still have the grain of the wood showing through.

What is that I hear you ask?  You want a before and after?  Oh of course you do…

Here we go then.  Before…

And after…

What do you think??  Better, no?  I am aware the space has ‘cooled’ slightly because the warmth of the wood has been removed but please bear in mind, this will be restored with the addition of gorgeous richly stained butcherblock countertops.  Oh no, I do not want a clinical box, not at all – I want a lovely, bright, inviting space that people will want to hang out in!  I do feel as though I’m starting to get it as well… *beams*

Best part?  We only paid for the cost of the paint which was around Β£50.  Bargain!  I do realise that many people will not have a car paint sprayer handy for jobs like this but then, we haven’t had any tradesmen help on this project whatsoever so I suppose it was time to play our ‘ace’ card… and if you’ve got it, you might as well use it, right?

Next up?  We were going to tackle the kitchen counter tops next but it’s looking like we’ll be doing the floors instead.  So soon you will see beautiful slate tiles with underfloor heating.  We are so close to completing this project now, I can practically taste it!

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