2016-07-27

Upgrading the kitchen budget friendly – part two

Today I’m sharing part two of my kitchen upgrade. I’m so happy with the outcome and the whole room just feels very different!

Here’s a before picture: you can see that the kitchen originally was very colorful. In my opinion the colors didn’t match to the wallpaper and they also didn’t really go well with each other. I just knew right away I had to somehow change this.

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I remembered I had heard something about adhesive furniture foil and after a quick google search I found what I needed: an adhesive furniture foil explicitly for kitchen cabinets. As I didn’t wanted to paint the walls I was looking for a color that would match the apricot walls and would also work with the glass elements. I decided on a light gray and the matt version of the foil – if you go for the shiny version keep in mind that you can see finger prints etc on it.

Besides getting the foil I also bought a spatula which was recommended for the installation process. I was super motivated and immediately started working: I measured a cabinet, added 2in (3cm) on each side to make sure I can cover the sides and have a little bit extra, I cut the foil, cleaned the surface and started installing it using the spatula to get rid of the excess air underneath the foil. And it was just a disaster! Small bubbles everywhere. I tried to get rid of the air bubbles by using more pressure but then the spatula scratched the foil :(

So after covering one cabinet I stopped and thought “what have I gotten myself into???”. Obviously giving up wasn’t an option as I really wanted to get rid of all those colors. Also I had set my mind on covering the cabinets and my mind doesn’t let go that fast ;)

So the next day I did what I should have done the first time: I looked on YouTube and guess what, there are so many videos explaining different techniques to install adhesive foil! I decided to try out the ‘water technique’. It worked so well!

Unfortunately I didn’t document the process step by step. To sum it up: you still do everything I explained before just before sticking the foil to the cabinet you spray the cabinet with water and you also spray some water on the sticky side of the foil. The water film helps to adjust the foil and when pressing all the water out using the spatula all the extra air is removed as well, so no more air bubbles!

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And this is what the ‘new’ kitchen looks like! It definitely was some work but also a lot of fun and I only spend around $40!

What do you think?