Paint inside kitchen cupboards

[alamaison]

Hi guys,

I'm after some advice about what paint to use inside our kitchen cupboards.

They date back to the 1950s and are bare wood inside. This seems to attract mould and they smell permanently of mildew so don't really get used. My plan is to plane the doors down a bit so the cupboards aren't so airtight but also to paint them to make the surface less attractive to mould in the first place.

I'm not sure what kind of paint to use. I was thinking something like a satin or eggshell paint as it needs to be hard wearing enough to cope with things being piled in and out of the cupboards. Does this make sense? Or would an emulsion be strong enough?

Also, how best to kill the mildew before painting? I'd considered dilute bleach (actually that detol anti-mould stuff) but I'm worried it will be absorbed into the bare wood and attach the paint i put on top of it.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Alex

[NT]

You need something that will soak into the wood and kill mould for the next 50 years. It would seem very ungood to omit that. Screwfix do a clear antimould stuff, but by god it stinks while its drying. Emulsion doesnt wear well when cleaned repeatedly, and gets dirty easily. I'd use alkyd/oil paint. Gloss alkyd cleans easier than eggshell, but looks lousy, I'd pick eggshell.

NT

[alamaison]

Thanks NT. I've heard mixed things about Dulux eggshells. Does anyone have a current favourite or, perhaps more importantly, know which ones I should avoid?

Alex

[NT]

I dont use eggshell often enough to know all the brands, but dulux and leyland both do good alkyd paints last time I used them, which wasnt long ago.

NT

[stuart noble]

Mould grows where it's damp and there's insufficient ventilation. End of story really.

[Martin Brown]

I would be more inclined to worry about where the mildew is coming from. Sounds like they are damp from behind the wood or something.

I would probably consider oiling the wood rather than painting it. Assuming here that it is nice looking stuff.

Experiment to see if the antimould you apply to the wood will severely compromise painting. You could also perhaps consider oiling the wood or fixing the root cause of the dampness leading to the mildew instead.

It seems to me if you just paint over the surface with an impervious surface layer to hide the problem you are potentially going to have some nasty mushrooms coming up from it in 4-5 years time.

Regards, Martin Brown

[Nightjar]

I would replace the cupboards with something more modern. However, assuming you prefer not to do that and have the necessary skill to do it without setting everything on fire, going over the bare wood lightly with a blowtorch should kill off all the mould. After that, I would use water based gloss paint for the most durable and easiest to clean of any of the paints that won't leave a smell inside.

Colin Bignell

[polygonum]

Absolutely agreed. Get the ventilation/damp sorted before you pick up a brush. And then leave plenty of time for the wood to dry out thoroughly.

But I am not sure that oiling is much better.

[Nightjar]

Thinking back, ISTR that kitchen cupboards from that era usually had round metal air vents, with insect screens, in the doors.

Colin Bignell

[alamaison]

Had a feeling someone might suggest that :P My take on it is that if no one would replace a victorian kitchen, what's different about a 50s one. It's solidly built and looks better than chipboard any day.

You're right, a few of them do and these also have aluminium shelves. The idea seems to be that you store perishables in the ones with vents and everything else in the ones without. The vented ones have no issues with 'mustyness' though they have problems of their own (the aluminium is looking decidely un-shiny in places - any aluminium cleaning tips would be great too :-P ).

Alex

[alamaison]

Ok, I've been costing this up and I'm wondering how Dulux Trade and Glidden trade paints compare. They are manufactured by the same company, both can be made up in custom colours but 2.5L of Dulux is nearing =A350 vs Glidden at =A330. Is Glidden vastly inferior?

Thanks.

Alex

[Nightjar]

I would. Victorian furniture tends to be over-engineered copies of earlier styles with no redeeming value IMO. Anything earlier and authentic I would donate to a museum. Some might even be interested in later stuff. A kitchen is a workshop and needs to be designed around how we work in them today.

That's not my recollection of post-war economy furniture, although I suppose if you compare it to cheap flat-pack, it might seem that way.

Nor is that and, of course, you don't have to use chipboard, especially on a DIY group.

My recollection is of wood, covered with oiled cloth (later replaced with Fablon).

I don't recall any without vents, although I do remember a galvanised perforated metal meat safe.

My only experience of that involved corrosive chemicals bought in 210 litre drums.

Colin Bignell

[alamaison]

That's a good point. I wouldn't want to sacrify utility but this kitchen seems to do the job. I hope it'll do it even better one I make some modern tweaks like magnetic cupboard catches and drawer rails.

Shudder. No, nothing like that here. I think the man who comissioned the house was wealthy and the owner of a building company so he probably got the, then, top-notch stuff. These are solid cabinets like any good carpenter might make today (with the exception of one that seems to have a flimsy hardboard front).

Haha. That just sounds so wrong :D

Alex

[Nightjar]

On 20/12/2011 10:47, alamaison wrote: ...

Probably had his own carpenter make them. My house was built in 1931 by a carpenter and has lots of carefully made woodwork. Pity someone, probably in the 1960s, decided to replace the upstairs doors with cheap flush doors.

Colin Bignell

[Andy Champ]

You have checked carefully? There used to be a trend to cover panelled doors with hardboard to make them look flush...

Andy

[Nightjar]

Only one door was done that way - a cupboard door in the kitchen, which is now restored to fully panelled. I suspect it was just too unusual a size. The rest are honeycomb core hardboard.

Colin Bignell

[grimly4]

Rot in hell, Barry Bucknell!