Kids Kitchen Makeover - Process

Finally, after a visit from family, a weekend music festival, a week of the dreaded cold all round and a spasm in my shoulder and neck, I bring you the process post for our gorgeous kids kitchen makeover!

As mentioned in the reveal post, our kitchen has been well used and loved and it certainly showed so giving it a makeover was high on our priority list. Our kids toy/ play area is a part of our open living room so I constantly stared at it when sitting on the lounge.

I received quite a few emails following the reveal post (thank you to everyone who took the time to drop me a line, I am always humbled when I receive them) and a lot of people had asked me about the process and how I went about the makeover.

Firstly, I dragged the kitchen to an area that I knew would be convenient and comfortable for painting, with good ventilation and where I could leave it for a few days (out of the way) in between steps. 

I then used a small hand sander to buff all the areas that I wanted to paint. 

I then gave it a good clean and wipe over with some cleaning spray and a dust cloth to ensure the surface would be smooth and dust free to begin the painting and priming process.

I used a water based primer in a plain white and covered all the areas well , that needed to be painted with the feature colour. I left to dry for a day , just to make sure.

Choosing the feature colour would have had to have been the hardest decision of them all!! I ended up going for a gorgeous Taubmans colour called BERYLINE,  and was instructed by the gentleman at the paint shop to use a gloss acrylic paint as you see less brush strokes and the finish would be more durable . Of course this is all up to you. Ideally, if this was a new kitchen and it hadn't been put together yet, I would have preferred to use spray paint. I just prefer the finish!

Then the gorgeous colour coats were applied. I was instructed to wait 5-6 hours in between coats but seeing as though my husband was working and I was going solo with supervising 4 kids as well as undertaking this project, I just did one coat a day. 

It wasn't all smooth sailing with this makeover , and I knew it wouldn't be. Its one of the first bigger projects I have undertaken by myself but I was more than determined to do it solo!! Hmm I think they call that stubborn! 

After painting the second coat, I started to notice the paint taking on a 'crackled' effect. It looked like I had used that old school crackle paint, only I hadn't!! I made the decision (after a phone call to my hubby and darling Dad) that I would let the coat dry, lightly sand the effected areas then paint them again. Thankfully this worked and after the third coat of paint, you couldn't tell it even happened. 

Reasons why we think this happened? Seeing as though the paint is oil based, I left the brushes to soak in between coats in a jar of Turps. I think there may have been residue on the brush (even though I had cleaned it well) and this effected the coat of paint as it was being applied. 

Lesson learnt the hard way! 

Once all the painting was complete, I bought the kitchen inside (as its lighter when separated) and then re-attached the top section to the base unit. 

We then added some cute knobs above the oven area (there was never any there) and these have made a great addition for the kids role play activities. 

I really wanted to add a splash back to the kitchen, so my husband just cut a thin sheet of particle board to fit the area, I sprayed the area with Spray Adhesive and rolled and secured some gorgeous wrapping paper from Love Mae called Confetti to the area. I trimmed the excess then we secured it to the back of the kitchen with small nails. 

There are so so many lovely choices out there (especially on the Love Mae site) for wrapping paper and splash back options but I wanted to keep to something fairly neutral, seeing as though the colour was quite vibrant. 

Once Mum had had her turn sprucing up the kitchen and adding a few 'style' touches, the kids couldn't play with it fast enough! They had really missed it while it was out of action , it would have to be the most played with piece in our home! 

All in all , this project was quite easy to under take ( I managed to do it by myself so I am sure you can too!) and really didn't cost a lot. 

Cost Breakdown ;

Primer Paint $40 

(I used about a 1/4 of a tin but have used it for many many projects since!)

Teal paint $34

Paint brush $8

Glass Knob $0 

( I already had these knobs from a previous project but you can pick them up quite cheap on eBay)

Particle Board $14 

(we have excess we have used for another project also)

Wrapping Paper $4.95

I hope I covered most of the questions 

TOTAL - $100.95 

(however most purchases have been used in other projects and still have surplus!)

I hope I have covered most of the questions asked and been able to give you a quick run down of how we completed our Kitchen makeover, please don't hesitate to email me if you have any more further questions!!

And good luck to anyone thinking of making over their own kids kitchen! I would love to see the finished products!