With a few crafty ideas up her sleeve, Tara works with Our House magazine's features editor Julia Richardson, the owner.
Working with $6000 for the entire kitchen makeover Julia has set herself a difficult task considering the most important thing on her list is an oven worth almost 90% of the budget. With only a few hundred dollars left, Tara and Julia had to be creative.
Julia had prepared the floor for the makeover by removing its vinyl covering. The concrete had to be acid etched before it could be painted with a base coat of White Knight 'Panhandle Grey'.
Cupboards, splashbacks and benchtops
Although the laminated cupboards were in perfectly good order, Julia couldn't bear to live with their pale apricot colour and big brown knobs any longer. To give them an expensive stainless steel look Tara and Julia re-clad them with aluminium sheeting. Julia had carefully measured each panel of the kitchen cupboards and had the sheets cut to size.
Step By Step
1 Remove old door knobs
2 Using a multi grip glue, attach aluminium panels to cupboards. The glue needs to be applied to the outer edges and centre of the panels and also to the laminate surface. As the glue begins to take within a couple of minutes, it is important to work quickly, making sure the panels line up with the cupboards. The panels can be held in place with masking tape.
3 Make holes for the new door handles by feeding a drill bit through the existing hole on the inside of the door, through to the outside.
4 Attach new handles.
The next job was to prepare benchtops and splashbacks for enamelling. NB: Even with good ventilation, protective masks should be worn. Fumes from the paint are extremely powerful.
1 Clean all surfaces with sugar soap and sand lightly.
2 Apply masking tape to edges of sink and taps.
3 Using a two pack epoxy enamel paint the tiles and benchtops. (Tara and Julia used Tub and Tile, a product that dries to a very hard surface.) Wait at least 12 hours before applying a second coat. NB: The first coat can look streaky but brush marks will disappear with a couple more coats.
The floor
Using a 300mm square of foam backed with cardboard, Tara and Julia created a floor treatment which is cheap and effective.
Step by Step
1 Make big paint trays by lining shallow sided cardboard boxes with plastic.
2 Fill the tray with Off White paving paint. Dip the foam stamp into the tray and then spoon swirls of White Knight 'Beige' and 'Sandstock' paint onto the surface of the stamp.
3 Once the stamp is prepared press firmly onto the floor surface to ensure even distribution of the paint. Leave a 2cm gap between each 'tile'. About 12 tiles can be stamped with each dipping. The Panhandle Grey base coat will look like grout. Corner tiles can be done by hand.
4 Leave the paint to dry overnight and apply a coat of White Knight Clear Finish to protect the painted floor surface. Around eight hours later, lightly sand the floor and apply a second coat.
The kitchen walls were painted using Antique White from Bristol.
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