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Reinventing your standard kitchen into a Shabby Chic Kitchen is much easier than you may think – and can cost considerably less money than you were planning on spending. We all remember the moment when 60 Minute Makeover showed us how to completely transform a kitchen just by changing the cupboard doors, and now it’s even easier than that with your favourite shade of paint.
Firstly you will need to remove your existing cupboard doors as it is easier to paint them in this way. Don’t forget to take off the handles too so that you are left with the bare door to work with. Next you have to sand down the doors with sandpaper as this will enable the primer to stick to the door properly. Once sanded, wipe down the doors with a dry cloth to remove traces of dust and apply a coat of primer with a clean paintbrush or roller. You must leave the primer to dry overnight for the best results. Once this is done you can apply a base coat of oil-based paint – it is best to choose one which is specifically recommended for kitchen cupboards and most DIY stores have these clearly labelled in their paint aisles.
You need to choose two different shades of paint – the base coat will be the colour which shows through so this will be your main colour. You should let the base coat dry well – preferably overnight – and then you can paint on your second coat of paint (usually a shade of white or cream works the best). When this second coat has dried thoroughly you can rough up the corners, edges and around the door knobs with some fine sandpaper and this will give it an aged look and allow the base colour to show through. Wipe off any excess dust and rub again with the sandpaper if necessary.
Your base colour should be gradually showing through your top coat. Repeat with sandpaper until you are happy with the result and after a final dust off you can re-attach the handles and put the doors back onto their original units to give yourself a shabby chic kitchen on a budget!
