Kitchen Makeover

[Sue2]

Hi,

I joined today in desperation!!! At a rather late stage in life I have decided to decorate my kitchen - I am concerned at my lack of knowledge on how to tackle surfaces that have been painted over probably many times and want this to be the last time I do it!

The cupboards (of which there are many and varied) do not need their doors changing - they are wood and good BUT someone has painted them with white Gloss paint over Brown gloss paint - the white is chipping off and showing the brown - there may be something else under the brown - who knows! Do I take a blowtorch to this or can I use a special undercoat and then use a kitchen paint? (a kitchen white that won't yellow with the heat).

I seem to remember hearing, many years ago, my father talking about washing surfaces down with "sugar soap" - would this be appropriate (if it still exists) in this case?

Optimistically, Sue

 

[Burnerman]

Sue, it sounds like your cupboard doors have a real thick layer of paint on them, and its probably best to get rid of most of it if you can.
If you can remove the doors, so much the better then you can lay them flat, and work on them in the garage on a bench.
To remove the old paint, consider a heat gun (electric, with no naked flame) and a scraper or one of the various chemical paint stripping products that are available (Nitromors etc). You could of course sand them down using a detail sander - it all depends on how far you want to go.
Its going to take you a wee while, I reckon!
Sugar soap is still available and still good - most hardware stores stock it.
John