Painting Kitchen Cabinets

[SuperGabers]

I would LOVE to demolish my kitchen... put in new cabinets, a new counter top, and new appliances... But, alas, 'tis not a financial possibility right now. We are the second owners of our house, so we didn't get to pick anything out. We have the VERY BASIC and CHEAP/FUGLY cabinets in the kitchen. If you went to Lowes or HD, and looked at your cabinet choices, ours would be the first ones on the cheap end.

So... I have been contemplating painting them white, but I haven't a clue where to even begin. What kind of paint? Primer? How? etc...

Any of you know of a DIY website/blog you could point me to to get me started? Or even a book? TIA.

[wuapinmon]

My wife wants to do this. She's studied it out, and apparently marine paint, like for boats, is very durable, water resistant, and works well in kitchens. Other than that, it looks like a pain to do it yourself.

[FN Phat]

My wife wants to do this as well. She wants to paint our cabinets an antique white with a chocolate glaze. She has spent sometime studying and reading. I will have her give her opinion. Just last night she mentioned a new product that she saw in Lowes that is an all exclusive kit.

[pellegrino]

there are lots of ways to go about it, I'd suggest you go to a real paint store (like sherwin williams definitely not lowes or home depot) get some oil based primer and paint. From there you can decide whether or not to take them down and paint them or to paint them in place. You'll get more consistent results if you take them down, but that's a pain that may not be worth it if you're just trying to buy a few years before you replace them. If it were me I'd take the doors off, get some 220 grit paper and sand the doors, the rails and styles of the cabinets and any exterior side showing, then I'd paint them all in place with two coats, making sure to lightly sand in between coats.

One caveat, if you choose white and use an oil based paint, it will yellow over time. Depending on the brand and the application, it can look like that aged french country look.

[marsupial]

SuperGabers, come paint mine. They can be your practice round. We really need ours painted too.

[Babs]

Don't do it.

[falafel]

My wife wants to do this as well. She wants to paint our cabinets an antique white with a chocolate glaze. She has spent sometime studying and reading. I will have her give her opinion. Just last night she mentioned a new product that she saw in Lowes that is an all exclusive kit.

Sounds like a scan to me.

[FN Phat]

Sounds like a scan to me.

I left that hanging for you or your boy

[falafel]

I left that hanging for you or your boy

But you didn't pick up on my error.

[FN Phat]

But you didn't pick up on my error.

Us white-trash, redneck folks, don't do well with electronics.

[falafel]

Us white-trash, redneck folks, don't do well with electronics.

Your COD reputation says otherwise.

[FN Phat]

Your COD reputation says otherwise.

That there is killin'. We be good at killin' thangs.

[Chachi]

This is what I saw...I think it's like $150 or so. I wouldn't do this for my cabinets just because it would be a pita if I didn't like it, and expensive to replace them all.

This is the kit for the counter tops. We have some friends that did this to their counters and said that the end result is really nice and worth the money. They were $150 but I am pretty sure I saw the kit for $150 as well. I am willing to try anything on our counters because they are fugly and anything will look better than what they are now.

ETA: I want to do a subtle strie decorative finish because I think it will give the cabinets an elegant weathered appearance. From my research, these are the steps that I would take:

Prepare the surface with a mild chemical deglosser just to rough up the existing finish, and then prime the cabinets. I will use a brown paint in a satin finish as the base coat and then a gray also in a satin finish over the brown, using a chip brush to let some of the brown show through. Then use some sort of brownish glaze, and while that's still wet, use a cheesecloth to lightly remove some that should produce a weathered effect. When the surfaces are completely dry, I will sand around the edges to give the antique effect. I plan on finishing them with a dull sheen polyurethane.

I am hopeful this will keep FN from dropping $8k on some new cabinets.

[Gidget]

This is a good blog to go to for these kind of things. This chick was actually just on the Nate Berkus show.

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2010...-cabinets-etc/

[creekster]

Here is what I did when my wife asked me to do this:

went to a cabinet shop and bought new drawer frionts and doors in paint grade.

bought good paint like Pellegrino suggested (this is hard to do in califronia, but there are ways)

built a temporary paint booth in my garage with thick plastic sheeting and PVC. This included negative air pressure with a room fan and a furncae filter(s). SOUnds hokey but ti worked very, very well.

Primed and painted the doors and drawer fronts with an spray gun. sanded and rolled the cabinet boxes.

Reversed the drawer boxes and put the new fronts on the backs, and trimmed the old fronts. Put the new doors on. It looked good.

Beware though, some years on and my wife now says she wishes they were stained. Arggghhh.