Nigel’s DIY Adventures in Thamesmead Part 1 – A Kitchen

This is the first in a series of blog posts about DIY by our guardian DIY expert, Nigel. Nigel has been a guardian in the Abbey Wood/Thamesmead area since January, and also happens to be a DIY superstar!

He transformed his flat from blank canvas into a gorgeous DIY temple. This inspired us to turn to him for this blog series: Nigel’s DIY Adventures in Thamesmead. Follow this series for top-notch tips to spruce up kitchens, living rooms, hallways, bathrooms and more at low cost.

Nigel tackled his kitchen first, so that’s where we’ll begin. Over to you Nigel!

A Kitchen Ledge DIY Challenge

After receiving the keys to Hibernia Point on Tuesday 17th January, I didn’t actually step foot in the flat until 8am on the Thursday. This was after my night shift, when I dropped off a mattress I had acquired. Only then did I realise how spacious the flat was and how much work was required to make it homely, clean and fresh. I thought to myself “what have I done”!

After walking around weighing up, sizing up and taking pics of the rooms, I returned to where I was staying to make arrangements for utilities and bills. Then on Friday 20th January I returned to the flat armed with paint, rollers, brushes, a bag of tools and most importantly of all – a stereo for company.

The first area I wanted to tackle was the kitchen windows (below); they really didn’t look the best. They were rough and didn’t do the view from the window any justice. Especially the morning sunrise and evening sunsets on a clear day: they’re amazing.

I scraped off the worse of the flaking old, yellowy black paint. With legs of jelly I climbed onto the kitchen work top and made a start by cutting in using a smaller brush and a 2.5ltr tin of Dulux Once Pure Brilliant White Gloss.

Affordable Housing | Dot Dot Dot | DIY

After a couple of hours and forgetting the fact I was 12 stories high on the window ledge I had completed the window frame and the above panels that have been previously painted out, as you can see from the picture below.

Affordable Housing | Dot Dot Dot | DIY

Floors and Walls, Walls and Floors

For the larger areas, using a small roller and tray gives an even cover and speeds up the process. For the walls I used Lidl’s kitchen and Bathroom mould resistant paint that was on offer: 2 x 2.5ltr tubs for £10. This paint I found to be thin and took 3 coats in total to cover and the finish was not as good as I would have liked. But it gave a fresh clean crisp white finish instead of the grey and blue colour scheme, which was welcome. You can see the contrast below – excuse the blurry photos!

Affordable Housing | Dot Dot Dot | DIYAffordable Housing | Dot Dot Dot | DIY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lino floor was in reasonable condition so I left it in place and just gave it a good scrub. However, this needed to be done anyway due to the amount of paint drips from the watery paint used.

In total I spent 14 hours over 2 days redoing my kitchen. This included the glossing of the doors, frames, windows and skirting boards, 3 coats of paint on walls and ceiling.

Next Time – A Living Room

Hopefully this first post has given you a few ideas for Kitchen DIY! Next time Nigel will be running us through how to redo a living room.

If this post has inspired you to want to live near Nigel in Thamesmead/Abbey Wood, check out our availability and apply now!