Kitchen reno colour suggestions

[Shelby1]

 

Hi Workshop Community. Hoping you can help me out. We are getting our house ready to rent out but want to freshen up this small tired kitchen. As the cabinetry is still in good condition I will just clean and re oil but the splash back and bench top needs to go. I have timber floors and exposed timber beam ceiling so with a lot of timber it darkens the area. The kitchen is in the lower part of a split level home so the area is open with a wall seen behind in the top level. To brighten it up would you recommend a white glass splash back and a whitish stone bench top or similar. Open to any suggestions on how I can brighten/refresh keeping in mind it will be a rental. Looking at only putting approx $1.5-2k into it. So appreciate any advise :-). Cheers Shel

 

[Shelby1]

Sorry should’ve mentioned. Looking at using Kaboodle products and or Dulux renovator range. 🙌

[Jason]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Shelby1. We're so pleased to have you join us and look forward to seeing how you can transform your kitchen and also reading about other projects and plans for around the house and garden. We're sure you will get plenty of helpful information, advice and inspiration from our amazing community members.

Normally the wonderful @MitchellMc would be on hand to assist you but he is taking a well-earned break at the moment. Thanks for your patience in the meantime. 

I would encourage you to start by checking out what some other Workshop members have been able to achieve using the Dulux Renovator range, including:

• Painting kitchen cabinet doors by @stevem and @Ari and @newbie23

• Dulux Renovation Range kitchen paint before and after by @stelz

There is also a step-by-step tutorial on How to paint kitchen cabinets with the Dulux Renovator range. 

Helpful members like @ProjectPete, @Peggers, @JDE, @redracer01 and @2Belindas might also like to share their thoughts.

Thanks,

Jason

[Shelby1]

Thanks Jason. Will check out the links and look forward to hearing advice from others. 🙌⭐️ Just doing a Reno on our en-suite as well. Will share when I’m done. 

[redracer01]

Hello @Shelby1 

May I suggest instead of oiling the doors to paint them in an off white like "Lexicon" this will straight away brighten the room. Keep your tiles and paint them with renovator range in a very light "teal" perhaps 1/4 strength. Make sure to paint that door on the right white, but only that door to hide it when looking in the kitchen. You can use the benchtop paint to change the color of your benchtop to something brighter. Last tip to put LED running lights under the wall cabinets to add more light and dispell the darkness.

Red

[Peggers]

Hi there @Shelby1 

It looks a great project to work on as everything is in good condition. The floor looks really stylish and the cupboards look strong. (And I love the look of the barn door that I can just about see on the left in the first picture!)

I think @redracer01 has a really good point about painting the doors a light colour rather than oiling them. As the cupboards look in such good condition they would come up really nicely with a lightly coloured shade, and it would lighten the whole room. Adding some LED lighting under the cupboards would definitely also help with that and give a new look to everything. If you did those two things it might be worth considering a timber-style kitchen top to pull together the floor and the beams. Kaboodle do some really nice timber benchtops that would really shine under some LED lighting when varnished.

Love to see how this all comes together - look forward to seeing the progress. Best of luck!

[2Belindas]

Hi Shelby,
All the other suggestions are great.

However, if you wanted to save the most money and get it finished fast so you can get tenants in, don't be fearful of painting everything white, including your benchtops.
The tradeoff is that the finished product won't be as serviceable for the long haul, however, by then you might be in a position to do a whole new kitchen, redesign, open up the wall space etc.
Here are the before and after pics from client Jan so you can get a visual.  The purpose was to get the house on the market (Airbnb rental Mount Martha Vic) asap and upgrade the home on a small budget.  She painted everything, including the wooden door knobs.  That was about 3 years ago and it's still going strong.

You could remove the upper cupboard doors that contain the glass, bog the holes and paint the shelves too, leaving them open.
Sorry Jan's pictures aren't taken from the same angle.
Good luck and I love your barn door
BeforeAfter

[Shelby1]

Hi Rob,

Great suggestion and thank you for your time in replying. Actually really leaning towards the cupboard paint now. Just need to talk the other half into it 😂 Will let you know how I go. 
Cheers Shel

[Shelby1]

Oh wow @2Belindas what a transformation. So bright! Love it. Thanks so much. Great to see a similar style kitchen to get a good visual on what we can achieve. Thanks re the barn door. Amazing what you can do with old pallets. 

Cheers Shel

[2Belindas]

Hi Shel

Just an afterthought...

If you are going to rent it out furnished, you could easily update your stools by painting them black, which would tie in nicely with your barn door track, your kitchen tap and black knobs (you can buy them in packs of 10 at Bunnings, or buy the black Rust-oleum spray and revamp the knobs you already have)