Kitchens fail faster than any other room in a Nigerian house, and the cause is almost never the paint. It is cooking. Palm oil, groundnut oil and steam settle on every surface, and a paint film that cannot be washed will hold all of it.
A kitchen repaint that lasts is mostly preparation and product choice, in that order. Colour is the last decision, not the first.
Why kitchen paint fails
Two things happen at once. Grease coats the wall in a thin invisible film that paint cannot bond to, and steam carries that grease into the paint itself. A matt emulsion absorbs it, cannot be scrubbed, and goes shiny and patchy wherever someone has tried.
The failure moves across the room in a predictable order. The wall behind the cooker goes first. Then the wall above the counter, where steam and splashes reach. Then the ceiling, which discolours from steam. Then the wall around the door, from handling.
If a previous repaint failed within a year, the cause is almost always that the wall was painted without being degreased.
The right finish
Prestige Satin Finish on the walls. The film is hard enough to take a wet cloth and a mild detergent without breaking down, which is the difference between a kitchen that still looks painted after three years and one that does not.
For the ceiling, a dedicated ceiling product covers more evenly than wall emulsion and hides the discolouration steam leaves. Use Prestige Best for POP where the ceiling is POP, or a matt ceiling paint where it is plaster.
Doors, frames and cabinet fronts take Prestige Premium Plus Gloss. Gloss takes wiping and knocks far better than any emulsion, and kitchen doors get both.
Degreasing is the whole job
Painting over a greasy wall, even with the best product on the shelf, produces a coat that will not bond and eventually peels in sheets. The steps are not optional:
- Degrease with a heavy-duty cleaner or a strong sugar soap solution, working from the top down so the run-off does not streak clean areas. Do the wall above the cooker twice.
- Rinse with clean water and let it dry completely.
- Sand lightly to give the surface a key, then dust off.
- Fill cracks and old fixing holes with Prestige Super Filler and sand flush.
- Prime bare patches and any area that was repaired.
- Two coats of satin, allowing the first to dry fully before the second.
If the wall feels slightly tacky or slick after washing, it is still greasy. Wash it again.
Colour that survives a working kitchen
Kitchens are busy, hot and full of edges. Light warm neutrals and soft whites keep the room bright without showing every splash, and they do not fight the cabinets. A deep colour looks striking in a showroom and tired in a working kitchen within a year, because every mark shows against it.
If you want contrast, put it on the wall away from the cooking zone — the wall behind the table, not behind the hob.
Should the splashback be paint?
Behind a hob, tiles or a splashback panel are the sensible answer. Paint is fine above the counter, where the worst it meets is steam and the occasional splash. Where oil actually spits, no paint film wins long term, and repainting that one square metre every year is worse value than tiling it once.
How much paint a kitchen needs
A 3m by 2.5m kitchen with 2.7m ceilings:
- Perimeter is 11m, so 29.7 square metres of gross wall
- Deduct a door and two windows, roughly 4 square metres, leaving about 26 square metres
- At two coats and around 11 square metres per litre per coat, that is about 4.7 litres
- Budget one 4 litre tin plus a 1 litre for touching up
- The ceiling is a further 7.5 square metres, which needs about 1.5 litres at two coats
Confirm the coverage figure on the tin you buy, because it varies between products. Our paint quantity guide shows the full method room by room.
The common mistakes
- Painting over grease because the wall “looks clean”
- Using matt emulsion and then scrubbing it
- Ignoring the ceiling, which is usually the first thing to discolour
- Painting with the kitchen in use, so steam gets into the drying film
- Choosing a dark colour and then finding every splash shows
- Not priming patched areas, which then show through the satin
Questions people ask
Can I paint kitchen cabinets? Yes, with a gloss or a hard satin, and with proper preparation — degrease, sand, prime with a suitable primer. Cabinet fronts get more handling than walls and fail faster if the primer is skipped.
How long before I can cook again? Allow the film to cure fully, not just dry. Keep the room ventilated and avoid heavy steam for the first day or two.
Is there a paint that resists grease? A washable satin resists it far better than matt, but no paint is grease-proof. Regular wiping is what keeps a kitchen looking new.
Getting it priced
Send photographs of the walls and the ceiling and tell us whether the kitchen will be in use during the work. We will tell you the litres, the coats and the preparation the room needs. Call +234 802 562 5333, message WhatsApp, or send your project details.