Quarantine with benefit: updating the kitchen for a penny and a few days (+ review after 2 years)

A blogger from Kazakhstan 2 years ago completely renewed her old kitchen for mere pennies and in just 9 days of work (plus a few days for the paint to dry). Here’s what she did:

Painted the headset and replaced the glass inserts;
I painted the apron and painted it with a stencil;
Plastered and painted the walls;
Repainted cast iron radiator;
Replaced dining table and chairs;
Replaced the old cornice.

Here’s how she did it, and how you can repeat a similar rework project during quarantine..

Day 1. Preparing the walls

Step 1. Empty the kitchen

First, Aisulu, along with her husband and friends, took the furniture out of the kitchen, removed the curtains, as well as all the sockets and switches..

Step 2. Remove the wallpaper

With the help of a spatula, the girl took off the wallpaper. Fortunately, they easily and quickly moved away in whole canvases..

Step 3. Priming the walls

Before proceeding with the priming of the walls, the blogger sealed all the ceiling plinths with masking tape and laid a film on the floor. Next, she took a roller with a long pile and a concrete-contact primer (coarse acrylic quartz-primer), poured some primer into the paint tray and got to work..

Day 2. We plaster the walls

Aisulu decided to plaster the walls with Leonardo’s decorative plaster, so that the surface of the wall would acquire a light relief with an antique effect. How to apply such material?

Next, the plastered walls were left to dry completely for 24 hours..

Depending on your idea, the relief can be active or, conversely, delicate, as in this project

Day 3. Painting the walls

To make the small kitchen visually more spacious and light, the hostess decided to paint the walls white. But not in plain white, but rather in a white shade of baked milk to avoid the effect of a hospital room. To do this, she mixed ordinary white acrylic enamel with a small amount of beige enamel (both washable paints with a semi-matt finish). According to Aisulu, the people who will be in the room will not even guess that the walls are not white, but a little beige. It just creates a feeling of coziness.

You need to add beige paint to white paint a little bit so as not to overdo it.
You need to tint the paint all at once and with a margin, because then, if it suddenly ends, it will not be possible to achieve an exact match of shades.
After painting, the walls should dry for 24 hours.

Day 4. Preparing the kitchen for transformation

While the walls are drying, you can start transforming the headset. Aisulu’s was the most ordinary one – with film facades in Walnut color and glass inserts with an old-fashioned pattern..

Step 1. Unscrew the handles and remove the doors from the hinges

At the preparatory stage, all the handles were unscrewed, and the doors were removed from the hinges.

Many people paint facades without removing them, but this is not very convenient.
If the kitchen set has glass facades, then the glass from them must also be removed or protected with foil and masking tape. Aisulu completely replaced outdated glass with a pattern with new matte glasses without any decor..

Step 2. Remove the film

It’s time to shoot the film. Here’s how the hostess did it: first, she ironed the end of the facade (a couple of seconds is enough) through a layer of baking paper, and then forged the film with a clerical knife and peeled it off. I had to tinker with some of the doors, but in general the process was simple..

The end of the headset could not be cleaned of the film, so Aisulu simply sanded it with sandpaper to remove the shiny layer, and then degreased it with a solvent.

Step 3. Choosing paint and priming the facades

At this stage, it is very important to choose the right paint, because the kitchen is a workspace with sharp temperature changes and frequent cleaning. For painting facades, the headset is suitable only for:

Acrylic enamels;
Chalk paints (by the way, they do not require removing the film from the facades);
Washable acrylate paints (this is the type of paint used in this modification).

Before starting painting, the facades must be primed, for example, with a universal primer. Since Aisulu chose acrylate paint, instead of a primer she used the same paint diluted with water in a 30:70 ratio. Drying time for such a primer was approximately 6 hours..

Day 5. We start painting the facades

Once the primer is dry, you can start painting. Aisulu painted the facades of her kitchen in 2 layers.

Keep in mind that each coat of paint must dry thoroughly before applying the next coat (see manufacturer’s instructions);
It is more convenient to start painting the facades from the ends;
Synthetic brushes with split ends are best suited for painting furniture;
Random stains on surfaces can be washed off with solvent.

Day 6. Apply the second coat of paint

On this day, we apply the second layer of acrylate paint and again leave the facades to dry..

When the doors were dry, Aisulu installed new glass inserts and hung them in place..

Hurray, the hardest part is left behind. This is what our creative hostess did..

Day 7. Paint the tiles in the apron

The apron plays a very important role in the perception of the interior, so it was decided to paint it too..

The main secret of successful tile painting lies in the choice of a primer with increased adhesion properties, designed specifically for tiles, glass and plastic.

Step 1. Mine and degrease

First, Aisulu washed the apron, and then degreased it with solvent.

Step 2. Primer

It’s time to cover the tiles with 1 layer of primer, and then let them dry according to the manufacturer’s instructions (most often in 6 hours).

Step 3. Paint

The apron was painted with the same white semi-matt washable enamel as for the walls..

Step 4. Paint the apron

As soon as the coating was dry, the blogger started painting the apron using a stencil, a sponge and acrylic paints (also washable). First she came up with a pattern, then transferred it to thick paper, cut out a stencil and laminated it.

Then the process went like clockwork: Aisulu placed the stencil so that the center of the ornament hit the intersection of the tiles, and then painted it over with a sponge with tamping movements. The central flower was painted over with a brush.

From this link you can download pattern from the project.

Day 8. Paint the battery

Aisulu used black nitro enamel for radiators and a special curved brush to transform an ordinary cast-iron radiator into a trendy one. It was not at all difficult to paint the battery, although all the windows had to be opened, as the smell of paint was very strong.

Day 9. Final touches

In addition to the blue facades, the blogger picked up minimalistic golden handles.

She went on to replace the old chairs and table with a new loft-style dining group..

Slab table 120×90 cm with black metal base and chairs with wooden seats were purchased from Loftdesigne.ru.

And finally, the boring cornice was replaced by a gold one – in pair with the gold handles of the headset. The hostess did not change the curtains from Ikea, as well as the laconic chandelier, as they fit perfectly into the new interior.

Review of the alteration after 2 years

Two years after the renovation, Aisulu answered the three most common questions to subscribers:

How the paint behaves on the kitchen set, did not peel off?

“All perfectly! I didn’t regret it! Not a single scratch during this time, although I beat chairs and dropped pans. The main thing is the correct selection of paint! “.

What would change?

“Still, it is better to remove the film on kitchen facades with a construction hairdryer, it would be more accurate and the surface would be perfectly smooth. I should have bought a hairdryer! But in the absence of such, and my way is not bad “.

Painted tiles? What became of him?!

Surprisingly, everything is fine too, I’m not lying &# 128578; I didn’t expect it myself! when I cook, I try to immediately wipe off the greasy drops, so I didn’t try to rub it with an iron washcloth. I would like to add more patterns on the tiles, sit for a week, paint … But I don’t have an extra week&# 128517; My personal conclusion: it was worth it! I remember we dragged on for a very long time with reworking the kitchen, since there was a lot of work to be done! But it was worth it) By the way, I didn’t get tired of the blue set, it looks harmonious in a bright kitchen ”.