Help me with my (mini) kitchen and bathroom reno

[I love to travel]

Ok so first up, I am not a DIY person nor do I want to learn. I am very good at many things, homey stuff ot so much. So I thought I would tap into the AFF community to get some help. Thanks in advance and I am sure some of you'll get a laugh from my basic questions. Have tagged a few people who I think have done so renos apologies if I have got this wrong. @Pushka @samh004 @Denali

The first job will be the kitchen and bathroom cupboard doors. Bones are excellent I just simply don't like the colour. House is 6 years old. So kitchen is the standard type of cupboard door in a chocolate brown colour. I want it to be grey or two pac white.

Questions:

1. Can you paint cupboard doors?
2. What type of tradie is best for this?
3. Kitchen is medium size approx cost to repaint?
4. Same issue in bathroom. Any special considerations required given moist environment?

There are lots of other little things but if I can solve this one that would be great as I need all new furniture in the dining and lounge room next to the kitchen so need to match it.

Also Brisbane based if any recommendation re trades.

Thanks again.

 

[Pushka]

Ok so first up, I am not a DIY person nor do I want to learn. I am very good at many things, homey stuff ot so much. So I thought I would tap into the AFF community to get some help. Thanks in advance and I am sure some of you'll get a laugh from my basic questions. Have tagged a few people who I think have done so renos apologies if I have got this wrong. @Pushka @samh004 @Denali

The first job will be the kitchen and bathroom cupboard doors. Bones are excellent I just simply don't like the colour. House is 6 years old. So kitchen is the standard type of cupboard door in a chocolate brown colour. I want it to be grey or two pac white.

Questions:

1. Can you paint cupboard doors?
2. What type of tradie is best for this?
3. Kitchen is medium size approx cost to repaint?
4. Same issue in bathroom. Any special considerations required given moist environment?

There are lots of other little things but if I can solve this one that would be great as I need all new furniture in the dining and lounge room next to the kitchen so need to match it.

Also Brisbane based if any recommendation re trades.

Thanks again.

Yes you can paint them. If you use a tradie they will know the special paint to use, and I've also found Bunnings helpful too if you go during quiet times if you want to DIY. You can also paint tiles, in kitchen and bathrooms! Laminate as well but I'd avoid that as I'd expect it will eventually scratch. There are some excellent YouTube sources available and also some FB reno groups as well.

 

[Denali]

Yes to painting (it can be done). Ive seen many people do it themselves or, from watching Selling Houses Aust, there are people that will do the prep and paint for you, even bathrooms and tiles. Not done it myself but I always thought if I was to do it, I would pay someone because the prep work seems tiring, taking off doors, sanding ect.

Is just buying new doors/replacing an option? I often look at houses (to buy) and think, I can live with that kitchen but replace the doors and bench.

 

[tgh]

Brisbane probably worst place in au for tradies atm.. there is miles more work available than they can hope to manage ….leads to…..

Paint is a very shallow and temp fix fraught with challenges for the unwary.
The trade cost to paint will probably exceed a remove and replace with new , quote.
If the doors (and the infills) are all standard, Bunnings and Ikea sell cheap stuff that will be better than attempting to paint.
You can learn to fit them easily enough.. but it is a skill and you will need to learn carefully and practice on something old first.

 

[Matt_01]

There are companies around that specialise in door and benchtop replacement, I have not used these type of services as the last 4 house renovations I have undertaken have been gut and start again jobs, I am a DIY person and have the tools and experience to do most things. Depending on the hardware you have (hinges, runners, draws within draws and other systems) most of this should be reusable and depending on the brand this can be a considerable cost component when undertaking a build new. In the past I have spoken with some of the 'light' renovation firms and from what I gathered they can provide real or man made stone and acrylic veneers to go over existing benchtops at a much lower cost than new slabs and the replacement doors costs were not that expensive. Also depending on your current door finishes timber, vinyl wrap ect. these can be striped and refinished in 2 PAC. In our current house I did consider getting the bathroom refinished as a temporary measure about 7 years ago, from memory the quotes came in around $6-7K, the bathroom is not large around 3.5m x 3.2m. In the end we did not go down this option as we would still have the original layout and underlying tile patterns that we did not like.

Also if you are looking to replace appliances and would use Miele search out the B stock stores there is normally one in most states. B stock are not 'seconds' it is just stock that has been runout or installed in a showroom be it Miele, Harvey Norman or any other appliance shop. It all comes with original warranties and the cost savings are significant. My experience when rebuilding our kitchen the new cost for the oven, a combi microwave/ convection oven and induction cooktop (all around 600mm size) was in the vicinity of $13-14K, I picked up the same items in the B stock store for around $6-7K.

All the best.

 

[samh004]

I'm not really a renovation sort of guy, but as luck would have it, my mother is having her kitchen re-done in her apartment with one builder and we are getting a dry bar with another (the same one who recently worked on our deck – yet to post completed photos as there's no landscaping). The builder I'll be using is based on the Gold Coast, but does good work, and I can pass on his details to you if you want to send him a message and try get a quote for after lockdown?

 

[RB]

We have quite a few kitchen places around here and 1 is well known for doing "partial renovations"- their web site "And if your budget doesn’t quite extend to a full renovation, we offer replacement bench tops, or just updates to your existing drawer and cabinet fronts. You’ll be surprised what an impact we can make with minimal outlay." They also organise all trades if you decide to go down that track. Being Brisbane I am sure there are similar setups up there.
It is good to know there is another non DIY person who wishes to stay that way

 

[QF WP]

We are alike with relation to abilities and living in Brisbane...but I leave the renos up to my wife and F-i-L, I supply the money . Agree with all the comments above from other posters. No help with the tradies (I know good sparky and air conditioning etc), so will follow the thread. Which side of town are you on?

 

[Hvr]

I did major renos a couple of years ago (bathroom and toilet) and got incredibly lucky finding an awesome plumber. She coordinated all of the other tradies, carpenter, plasterer, sparky, painter, tiler, etc.

By offering all of the renos in one hit she was able to develop a plan to do it in order and to move tradies about other jobs as required.

I was given a shopping list of things to buy beforehand and by having everything ready there were no delays waiting for stuff.

It was finished 30 minutes before the agreed time on the due date.

So, maybe consider looking at everything you want done and approaching a tradie who can organise all of the jobs.

Now if you were in Melbourne I could recommend an awesome person to do this but she doesn't want to move north.