How to update old kitchen furniture with your own hands (38 photos): instructions, photos and video tutorials

Any, even the highest quality and most reliable kitchen furniture wears out and loses its attractiveness over time.

And in order to cut costs for a new kitchen set, the owners have to think about how to update the furniture in the kitchen with their own hands.

In fact, this task is not at all as difficult as it might seem at first glance. If you have really high-quality kitchen furniture installed, then you can extend its "life" almost indefinitely.

And you can cope with modern furniture models that are not designed for a long service - the main thing is not to give up and be creative.

Kitchen furniture renovation

Approaches to headset upgrade

Restoring a kitchen unit is a rather multifaceted task.

The approaches to its implementation depend on many parameters:

• What is the condition of the furniture?
• What damage is there?
• What do we want to get as a result?
• What means, materials, and most importantly - what skills do we have?

Without answers to these questions, it is not worth starting repairs.

And yet, there are several general recommendations that will help us decide on the initial stages of repair:

• The easiest way to restore is kitchen furniture made of natural wood. In general, the better the kitchen set was initially, the easier it is to restore it.
• The more damaged the furniture, the more money will have to be invested in its restoration. In some cases - especially when it comes to inexpensive headsets based on MDF or chipboard - it is more rational to simply replace the furniture, since repairs at their cost will approach the price of a new kitchen.
• It is often easier to drastically change the look of kitchen furniture than to restore it to its original state. Therefore, even if it seems to you that the kitchen cabinet or countertop is irretrievably damaged, do not despair - show your imagination and make yourself a completely new kitchen.

Repair of kitchen furniture - see here.

Decor instead of renovation

Before you start repairing kitchen furniture that has lost its original beauty, we advise you to think about whether the repair will wait for now?

Indeed, today there are several ways to decorate kitchen furniture without drastic alteration, while simply hiding the damage.

Therefore, if your kitchen set has lost its presentable appearance not as a result of wear and tear from old age, but simply due to point damage (scratches, chips, stains, etc.) - masking methods can be used defects.

• Method one - use of vinyl stickers. Modern industry offers a fairly wide selection of adhesive-based PVC stickers, resistant to any impact. Such a sticker is simply applied to the damaged area on the kitchen facade or the back of a chair - and serves not only as a disguise, but also as an interior decoration.

Advice! Decals should be carefully selected in terms of appearance and color scheme so that they look a natural addition to the kitchen design.

• Method two - decoupage (pasting furniture with decorative napkins). A special decoupage glue is applied to the damaged area, a thin napkin is laid on top of it, and on top - after the glue has dried - a layer of transparent acrylic varnish is applied. Decoupage is one of the most popular ways of decorating furniture, and allows you to create a unique, unlike anything else interior.

You can see examples of kitchen furniture updated using decoupage technology in the photo in this article.

Both of these methods will allow not only to hide minor damage, but also save time and money spent on repairs.

Well, if the damage to the furniture is serious enough - well, you will have to start a full-fledged repair.

Repair of kitchen furniture

Restoration of kitchen furniture with self-adhesive film

The easiest way to renovate kitchen furniture is to cover it with self-adhesive vinyl.

Most often, kitchen facades are updated this way, but other pieces of furniture can also be pasted over with foil - the main thing is that they do not experience a serious operational load.

Advice! To renew furniture, choose a high-quality film, since cheap varieties of this material peel off very quickly from the base.

Below are instructions on how to renovate kitchen facades using foil:

• Remove handles, decorative linings and other fittings from kitchen furniture that can interfere with gluing. We measure the surfaces to be covered with foil - facade, sidewalls, shelves, etc.
• According to the obtained dimensions, we cut out the film - to facilitate the work, you can focus on the centimeter grid applied on the back surface of the roll. Leave an allowance of about 20 mm in places where the film is folded.
• Before gluing the film, prepare the surfaces by thoroughly washing them with a damp sponge and a degreasing agent. The better we clean the surface, the more reliably the decorative film will be glued.

• Then we proceed to the pasting itself. After peeling off a few centimeters of the protective film, we apply the decorative film to the surface and begin to smooth it, gradually removing the protective layer. For smoothing, you can use a special plastic squeegee, or you can simply use the palm of your hand - as it suits you.
• If there is a small bubble under the film, you can try to "drive" it to the edge, or you can pierce it or carefully cut it.

Note! If the film is glued unevenly, it must be peeled off immediately (with a sharp movement), since after a few hours it will be much more difficult to do it.

You cannot re-stick the unsticked film - it will still not hold firmly enough.

This method is one of the simplest and most affordable, since the price of the used film is low.

But the appearance of a kitchen updated in this way will not be the most attractive - therefore, other methods of updating are more often used.

Read also the article “Kitchen furniture restoration without calling specialists”.

Painting of kitchen facades

A more radical way is painting facades and other elements of kitchen furniture.

This restoration method makes it possible to completely transform the kitchen - therefore, it can be recommended not only when renovating furniture, but also when changing the style of the room as a whole.

Painting is carried out quite simply:

• We remove the facades from the hinges, dismantle the fittings. We disassemble the rest of the pieces of furniture intended for painting to facilitate painting.
• We thoroughly wipe all painted parts with a damp sponge, removing dust and dirt, and then degrease them.
• We lay the prepared parts on the work surface, previously covered with plastic wrap.

Advice! All work related to painting and varnishing of kitchen furniture should be carried out outdoors or in a well-ventilated area.

• Using a spray gun, apply a layer of primer to the furniture. Leave the primer to dry completely - it will take about an hour and a half.

• When the primer has dried, we proceed to applying the paint of the selected shade (the painting procedure is shown in detail in the video). For painting, you can use a fairly wide brush, but it will be much easier and faster if we use a spray gun. We apply the paint in several thin layers, after each application, allowing time to dry.

In this way, you can literally get a completely new kitchen in just a few hours - while perfectly fitting into your new design!

Read also the article on the restoration of kitchen facades.

Varnishing of kitchen fronts and countertops

Kitchen fronts and natural wood countertops can be restored by reopening with varnish.

This method of updating is the best solution possible - both in terms of labor intensity and complexity of implementation, and in terms of the final result.

Kitchen furniture is varnished as follows:

• We dismantle the facades, remove all the accessories from them. If possible, we also dismantle the countertop, since it is better to varnish it in a non-residential area.
• We prepare all the elements for varnishing using the same technology that was used in preparation for painting.
• Using a sandpaper, we carefully grind wooden surfaces, removing damaged fragments of old varnish.
• After sanding, remove dust from the treated surfaces, wipe them with a damp sponge and dry thoroughly.
• We apply a primer to the surface, after which we leave it to dry on one and a half to two hours.
• We begin to apply furniture varnish on the primed facades or countertops. For varnishing the countertops, we use varnishes with high wear resistance - this way we will protect the surface from damage during operation.
• If we use a varnish with a pigment, then each subsequent layer is made more transparent than the previous one - so, our kitchen will have a more attractive look.

The varnish should be allowed enough time to dry, after which the fronts and countertops can be put back in place.

Of course, we have not given all the answers to the question "How to update kitchen furniture?" - yes it would not work even in a full-fledged book.

But guided by the recommendations from this article, you yourself can restore your kitchen, and do it quickly and with minimal financial costs.

How to make kitchen furniture at home - see here.

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