Giving the kitchen a quick makeover with Lick Home paint

**Disclaimer – I was sent the items from Lick Home within this post for the purpose of this post**

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home and in this house, it is well and truly correct. When I have friends over we always sit in my kitchen around the breakfast bar/island chatting, drinking and eating. Whether I am cooking or not, we always end up in the kitchen, which is the second-largest room in the house.

I’m not sure why we always end up in the kitchen, but it’s a habit I’m not going to break as I really like it and it means the kids can play in the front room/playroom and not disturb our conversations. In the evenings, once Paul comes home from work we also sit in the kitchen until it’s time to go up to bed – we don’t often watch TV so instead, sit in on the kitchen stools reading our Kindles etc.

Currently, we are waiting for a bathroom refurb and refit to start downstairs. In November, we came home to a puddle of water on the kitchen floor after a holiday. The shower had been leaking behind a wall and into our meter/larder cupboard – it had done SO much damage that I put in an insurance claim, which was approved and paid out in March, just in time for the start of lockdown. I paid out the company who would be doing the work (knowing that there was a good chance work wouldn’t be started for a long time but also that if the money stayed in my account it would be used throughout lockdown).

The whole downstairs bathroom is being pulled out and replaced, with a new shower, toilet and basin being added – there are also three doors and frames which need replacing and 2 walls need repairing due to the damage the damp and water have done. This will also mean repainting the kitchen as 2 of those doors/frames are in the kitchen and one of the walls is in the kitchen.

Lick Home have very kindly given me the paint and brushes needed to repaint the kitchen, and while I can’t paint all of the kitchen until the building work is completed I have painted the walls which won’t be touched during these works.

Our walls were a yellow colour, however, over time I soon realised that this colour shows all the marks and fingerprints, so when browsing the Lick Home colour choices I knew I wanted a darker colour. Blue was my first choice and with a few variations of this colour, it took me a little time to make a final decision. Thankfully Lick offers a consultation with their interior stylist so you can talk through what you want/like and they can help to advise on what would work best.

I chose the number 05 Blue and was also sent their painting starter kit which contains a paint tray, brush, roller and tape to mask off the wall/skirting etc.

This paint really does have amazing coverage, Painting over the yellow I thought it would take a couple of coats at least but actually one was enough to cover over it easily. A 2.5L tin of paint costs £38 and with just one big wall left to paint I will even have some left over.

It glides over the walls with ease and using the provided brush and roller really makes painting even large walls super easy. I had a few fiddly parts to paint so had to stand up on the worktops but as the brush holds quite a lot of paint, it meant I didn’t have to keep bending down to refill it as often as I have done in the past and this paint didn’t splatter/splash even when working above head level. Keeping my countertops clear while painting also reminded me how important it is to protect your kitchen surfaces from everyday wear – whether that’s from spills, heat, or constant use.

These paints could also be used to paint the cupboard doors, which is an easy job really as I have done this previously. It is just a case of removing the cabinet hinges and then giving the doors a good wash down with sugar soap. It is then advisable to give them a light sanding down and another wash before painting to ensure the paint sticks to the doors.

I am very impressed with this paint range and can’t wait for my kitchen to be completely finished. We are hoping the bathroom refit will be starting in a few weeks now.

In the meantime, I’ve turned one corner of my kitchen which was a dumping ground into a pretty bar unit and my next job is to sand down the kitchen cabinets and repaint those – then it will look like an entirely new kitchen.