Painting Kitchen Cabinets
So you have decided that your kitchen needs sprucing up. Painting your kitchen cabinets is often the best place to start. The build up of grease, soot, and food particles is a gradual process and you may not realize how much they need cleaning until you give them a long hard look. So lets look at how you go about it.
Painting kitchen cabinets is not rocket science, but that does not mean you can just buy paint and a brush and get started. There are a few simple rules to follow, but once you know how to paint kitchen cabinets, it will be a breeze. Lets look at the process step by step.
- Are your kitchen cabinets easily dismountable from the wall? If so, you may find it easier take them down and work on them on a newspaper covered floor.
- Whether you dismount them or not, you have to clean them. This is not just wiping them with a damp cloth. I mean really cleaning them to get rid of all the grease, food particles and grime that have collected over time.
- Use a good all purpose cleaner to remove all the accumulated grime. If need be do it twice.
- Once you have finished cleaning the cabinets, allow them to completely dry.
- Cleaning the cabinet doors is easier if the doors and hinges are removed from the cabinet body. Laying them on a flat surface will ensure they don’t move while you are scrubbing them. This also makes cleaning the slim facing pieces of the cabinet body easier to clean.
- Make sure that all the countertops, appliances and the floor are masked off before you start.
- Once they are clean, you come to the first step in painting kitchen cabinets - sanding them. Use a fine grit sandpaper to rub over the complete cabinet. Try and ensure that you sand the nooks and crannies as also. Don’t forget the facing areas from where you removed the doors. Sanding helps to roughen the surface of the wood and allows the layers of paint and primer you will be applying to grip better. This will reduce the chances of the paint peeling and flaking off and also strength the coat of paint to withstand the bumping for utensils being moved around in the cabinet. Remember you are only roughing up the surface and not removing the earlier coats of paint or varnish. Don’t overdo it. That’s why it is better to do this by hand rather than using a high powered sanding machine.
- Once you finish the sanding you need to apply a coat of primer to the surfaces. The primer helps the paint bond with the wood and makes for a long lasting finish. If you are repainting kitchen cabinets in the same color you can skip this. But if you are changing the color or painting a varnished surface, you need to use primer. Paint will not stick to a stained or varnished surface, even if it has been sanded and the primer will prevent the previous paint color from affecting the shade of your new paint.
- Check with your hardware store for the right combination of paint and primer to use. Some products have a strong odor so be prepared to ventilate the kitchen if you are doing the painting in there.
- By now your cabinets probably look awful. Don’t worry - you have just laid the foundation for a great paint job. So get started painting.
- The best way to paint kitchen cabinets is by using a pneumatic sprayer. If you can’t get hold of one, using a high quality brush of 2 ½” to 3″ will work fine.
- By now you may be feeling like finishing the job fast by applying a thick coat. Don’t! It will peel off. Multiple thin coats of paint are the best.
- Let the first coat of paint dry completely and using very fine grit sandpaper, lightly sand the fresh surface - not to remove the paint but so that the next coat has a smooth surface.
- Two coats of paint is normally enough but if your cabinets are made from heavy grain wood like oak, 3 coats will give you a better finish.
- Once everything is dry, remount the doors and replace the cabinets on the wall, if you have taken them off.
And that’s how to paint kitchen cabinets.
Painting kitchen cabinets video
Tags: how to paint kitchen cabinets, kitchen cabinet plans, kitchen cabinetry, kitchen cabinets, kitchen cupboards, kitchen renovation, painting kitchen cabinets
