What Anlé did...
1 She first tackled the cabinets, painting the wall-mounted ones in Tjhoko Paint Cloud White and the lower ones in a rich blue. The blue that she finally decided on was a mixture of Tjhoko Paint colours left over from previous projects:
Bob’s Blue mixed with Dani’s Dare, a bit of
Matt Black and Cloud White to tone it down.
“Although it’s not necessary with
Tjhoko Paint, I prepared the cabinets by cleaning them with dishwashing liquid and water and then a cloth soaked in lacquer thinners to get rid of oil and dirt. I then sanded them lightly with 100-grit sandpaper and wiped them with a damp cloth to get rid of the dust. After applying two coats of paint with a small foam roller, I sealed the cabinets with
Tjhoko Paint’s Clear Glaze to protect them from wear and tear.”
2 What brings the kitchen to life is the spectacular splashback – a true work of art. “I wanted to create a patterned tile effect but because of the textured and uneven nature of the existing tiles, I couldn’t use a ready-made stencil,” Anlé explains. Drawing on her graphic design expertise, she researched designs on Pinterest and other websites and then came up with her own. “I printed it out on paper and stuck it to the tiles so that I could see the effect. I also experimented with different colours until I was totally happy with it. Then I used a Stanley knife to cut out a stencil from the transparent cover of an old calendar.”
3 As the design was quite complicated, and the tiles are textured rather than smooth, Anlé decided to transfer the design onto the tiles with pencil and then paint each element separately using tiny brushes. “This also created the unique hand-painted feel I was after,” she says. It was very labourintensive as the design is intricate. “To paint the tiles in the corner, I had to do a bit of a Michelangelo and crawl in between the top and bottom cabinets and lie on my side on the countertop,” she says with a laugh.