Renewing an Old Kitchen with a Blank Vinyl

Introduction:

In the following post I will demonstrate how I tried making an old and ugly kitchen be, well, less old and ugly. 

Materials:

For this project I used one roll of black vinyl that is usually used for inner doors. Its size was found adequate enough for the size of the kitchen doors. Moreover, I used regular general glue to finish off the edges and glue remaining parts of the vinyl to the door's thinner parts.

Tools:

• Philips screw driver for the door knobs
• Cleaning products and tools
• Small and clean hand wiper
• A file kit
• Beer :)

Preparation:

1. Getting the Door Knobs out:

The first and obvious part is to get the door knobs out. This is also the easiest part. All that needs to be done is to screw 2 screws out of the back side of each knob, in the inner side of the doors.

2. Cleaning the doors

Next step would be cleaning the doors in order to prepare their surfaces to be as clean as possible, making sure dust, debree and other foreign objects wouldn't get stuck between the vinyl and the doors' surfaces.

3. Measuring the Doors and the Vinyl

In general it seems I have had enough raw materials and more in order to finish this project without driving to the home depot store again. Just to be on the safe side I took a few extra centimeters each measurement, measuring twice before marking the vinyl gently with a simple pencil.

4. Cutting the Vinyl

Both the measuring and cutting were done door by door due to the very real possibility of measuring and/or cutting a piece of vinyl in the wrong way, or simply applying it to the door in the wrong way.

Peeling off the Vinyl:

 his action is as crucial as it is simple. Doing the wrong way, too fast and too violantly could distornt the cropped piece of vinyl and unless you are ok with a dictorted final look on your surface, it is advised to be very gentle and careful and performing this action. Prior to exposing the adhesive part of the vinyl, make sure that:

• The entire cropped piece of vinyl is visible and is not enangled somewhere along the way
• The room you are about to work in is not dusty. Dust and other airborne particles can easily find themselves glued into the adhesive part of the vinyl, making its ability attach to other surfaces less effective. 
• No fans are on and Windows are closed - for the same reason as mentioned in the latter section (A/C is ok though on low fan)
• your hands are clean
• The about to be covered surface is clean and ready

Application of The Vinyl:

In general, there are two ways to apply a vinyl onto a given surface. The first way wouldn't be the one I would recommend, yet, it is possible to use when attempting to apply vinyls of certain lengths, shorten ones than is, which are more easily handled by a single person. This way involves removing all of the the none-sticky back side of the vinyl entirely prior to sticking the vinyl onto a surface. This method was used in this project a few times when small pieces of vinyls were applied onto relatively smaller surfaces, like drawers for example. 

The second way is the more “responsible” one and is basically applying the vinyl onto a given surface by stages, while removing the underlying, none-sticky back side of the vinyl slowly and gradually. This way is recommended when applying big pieces of vinyl parts onto big surfaces. In both cases of the drawres and the doors, i used the "responsible" way to attach the vinyls. Besides the vinyl kit i got online, a small and clean hand wiper helped a lot to get the job done.

Starting With the Doors:

The decision to start with the doors rather than starting with the drawers was due to the fact that any leftover vinyls could be used for the drawers. It was more likely that i would have had more material leftover for the drawers if i had started with the doors instead of the drawers since their smaller size would've made it easier to improvise an aestetic acceptible shape with leftovers: 

Moving On To the Drawers: 

In order to have a better access to the drawers, i had removed the closet ajacent door that borders with them:

Making use of leftover pieces of vinyl:

Sleaing the Edges:

Since the surface areas of the sides of the doors and drawers are very small relatively to the overall size of the front surfaces they are attached to and given the effectiveness of the vinyl adhesive, it seemed obsious that an additional adhesive power was needed. I used a pack of general glue to permanently attach the vinyl onto surfaces it covers in order to prevent future peeling off due to adhesive loss of effectiveness:

Drawers:

Doors: 

Putting Back the Knobs:

• For this task i used a file kit to make holes within the vinyl from thje back side of the doors and drawers in order to clear a way for the knob's screws:

• After the holes were made, i installed the knobs back:

The Final Result:

Cons:

• Though a high quality vinyl, the work done was not professional and imperfections can be easily spotted
• Very time consuming

Pros:

• Gives an applied furniure an immidiate change of looks
• Application if the vinyl was relatively easy
• an easy solution for those who want to rejuvinate their old and ugly furniture for a minimum amount of money

Summary:

There are a few steps that should have been taken such as to cover the botton panel as well and the left side part of the kitchen, or at the very least painting it black. In addition, covering the applied vinyl with a protective transparent layer would've been the next step. Such a transparent tough layer would be a great protection against accidental physical tactile damage and against wear and tear of the vinyl itself which is very gentle. Also, a transparent layer would've made the entire kitchen look more shiny, clean and new and would've made it easier cleaning it when needed to.

I must say, it turned out quite nicely eventually. Though it definately doesn't look like a new Ikea kitchen, it does look better than before, which is a start. For the given amount of work put in, the reward is definaately worth it. It is a great way to renew an old kitchen or a a piece of furniture without tearing it apart and repalcing it entirely, saving money, time and effort. It is a great solution for rented apartments, that is of course, if the land lord agrees.