Spruce up your kitchen

With autumn on its way, it is a great time for landlords to give any property’s they have enduring void periods a fresh new look. Tenants probably spend more time in the kitchen than you think and if money is tight you can still give the kitchen cabinets a makeover without it costing the earth. Very little skill is required for this job; all you will need is a screwdriver, some sandpaper, paint and some creativity. You do not even have to replace the door furniture, and it could easily secure you a new tenant.

Painting your kitchen cabinets is the least expensive way of giving old cabinets a fresher new look. Empty everything out of the cabinets and store away safely. The cabinets will most likely have a build up of grease, grime and dust particles so they will all need a clean with a warm water and soap solution, depending on how often you clean your cabinets, you may want to do this twice to ensure it is thoroughly clean. Use the screwdriver to remove the doors and the door furniture, when you do be sure to make a note of which one goes where.

Use sandpaper on each cabinet door, medium grit sandpaper is best to use for this job as it will get rid of any varnish on the wood. Then re-sand all of the cabinets with fine grain sandpaper, this will leave a surface that is ready to be painted, also a smooth surface will allow the new paint to stick to the cabinet surface much better. Clean up all the dust created by the sandpaper immediately, if it gets blown onto the paint you will just be making more work for yourself.

Now you are ready to start painting, and with the money saved by taking the job on personally you can afford to buy paint that will give your kitchen that fresh look. Make sure you have used sheets or newspaper to protect objects close by from being splashed with paint, it would be a shame to have to claim on your landlord insurance policy for a needless accident. Each of the kitchen cabinets will need two coats of paint on each side of the door, as will the cabinet frame. Allow this to dry for at least a full day to get the best results.

It is always better to use a top-quality paint brush to apply your paint as less bristles will come off and leave their tell tale marks on your work, and always apply in multiple thin coats. After 24 hours when the paint is dry, sand very lightly with fine grit sandpaper. If you apply two thin coats of paint it should look great, just using one coat could see the paint peel off quickly.

Like any other job if you are patient and take your time to do it correctly, the results will be so much better. While the second coat is drying you can soak the door furniture in a soapy mixture to bring them out sparkling clean. Along with the freshly painted cabinets your kitchen will have a great fresh new look. It is so much cheaper than buying brand new cabinets. All that remains now is to screw the doors and the handles back on and a money saving DIY job is finished.

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