Rather than rip out a perfectly good kitchen, Dilly Orme had the cupboards resprayed in a mix of ice-cream shades for a fresh and fun look
Feature and styling Dilly Orme
COLOURFUL BEACH HUTS INSPIRED MY
About me
I’m Dilly Orme, 54, and I’m an interior stylist and writer. I’m on Instagram @dillyorme. I live with my two daughters, Rosie, 23, and Ruby, 21. Our home is a three-bedroom Victorian terrace in Hampton, which we bought in June 2002.
My problem kitchen
When we moved in, the kitchen was brand new and very blue. But as the kitchen had just been installed, it didn’t seem justified to change it, so we lived with it as it was for almost 20 years, but I had always really wanted to put my stamp on it.
How I made it work
The layout was good, and the existing kitchen was robust so there was no point in replacing the units. So, I investigated getting them sprayed, and created a whole new kitchen look based around painting the cupboard doors in different colours.
My favourite part
I just love how joyous it is! People often say it reminds them of the colours of beach huts. Keeping the other elements of the room white really makes the cupboard fronts pop.
We bought our house from a developer, who had unusually painted every room in the house a different bright colour, and the kitchen was primarily blue. If we’d changed one thing, we would’ve had to change everything, so we lived with it as it was.
I had often thought about spraying the cupboard doors but wasn‘t sure what to do about the surrounding casing. When I spoke to Paul at ProSpray London, a kitchen and furniture respraying company, he explained how he could remove the doors and take them away to be sprayed in his workshop. On the same day he collected the doors, he could cover and protect any areas to be left unsprayed and then spray the surrounds on-site.
Once I knew it could be done, I started to think about the colour scheme and I decided it would be fun to spray the cupboard doors different colours. I love the look of beach huts in sorbet shades, so I carefully chose colours that could work together. Paul was able to colour match my paint choices using a specialist kitchen paint called Sayerlack.
I worked with Paul and my builder, Daljeed, to time thin
