Painted Kitchen Cabinets

With painted kitchen cabinets, the entire look and functionality of the kitchen can change. You would be amazed what a face-life can do and best of all, painted kitchen cabinets makes a great do-it-yourself project. Therefore, in addition to showing off your beautiful new cabinets to family and friends, you can also stand back and admire your own creative work.

The one thing you want to keep in mind when deciding to go with painted kitchen cabinets is that the process can take anywhere from two to four days. Therefore, you want to plan your time accordingly. Of course, make sure you add in the number and size of cabinets as well. Obviously, other factors would be involved such as the size of the kitchen, the overall theme or décor, whether you want plain painted kitchen cabinets or ones with a wire or glass front, and so on.

As you get ready, you want to determine the color of the cabinets. For color, consider the color of the countertops, the flooring, wall paint, which can of course be changed, furnishings, and decorum. Once this has been decided, you would start to prepare the surface. For this, the cabinet and drawer hardware would need to be removed so the doors and drawers can be removed.

Then, start by cleaning the cabinets, using something like Murphy’s Oil, or simply warm water and mild dish soap to help remove grease, built-up dirt, food particles, etc.  From there, you can paint inside and outside, or just the outside depending on personal preference. When the cabinets and drawers are completely dry, you want to use coarse sandpaper. This will help soften out any gouges or scratches. Now, if you have damage that is deep into the wood, you may need to us a little bit of wood filler, which would then be sanded down.

After the coarse sandpaper, use fine sandpaper to smooth the surface. Although not everyone uses primer, we recommend it. First, it will provide the paint a better surface and second, it will keep the painted kitchen cabinets in tact longer. The best option is to go with an oil primer although water base is acceptable too. Just was you would regular paint, cover all surfaces of the cabinets with primer, allowing it to dry completely.

From that point, you can begin the process to complete your painted kitchen cabinets by adding on color. For this, we recommend you use a small roller to avoid any brushstrokes. In fact, some people will paper other areas off and actually spray paint but this can be a difficult task and is usually only recommended if the cabinets are sitting outside. Depending on the color of cabinets and paint chosen, your painted kitchen cabinets may require several coats after which time the old or new hardware is added back on.