shape
carat
color
clarity

Painting kitchen cabinets?

Dee*Jay

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
15,104
I am buying a place that has dark brown cabinets in a small enclosed kitchen. The cabinets are in great shape so I hate to get rid of them, not to mention the hassle of that (!), so I'm trying to come up with alternatives. Depending on the brand I may be able to just get new doors, but that doesn't solve the color issue. I'm thinking maybe white to freshen things up.

Has anyone had their cabinets painted, and if so, how are they holding up? What do you wish you had thought of before going down this path? Is your advice to just NOT do it and replace entirely? Any and all other thoughts are welcome!
 

lyra

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
5,249
Had ours "professionally" painted white. Problems: too stark, paint peeled with usage. So we started repainting with a coloured oil based paint instead, and this worked much better. Huge waste of money having them sprayed the first time. But YMMV. I feel that part of our problem was the horrendous humidity here, and they were done during the summer. I don't think the paint cured properly. We chose a much more durable and stinky paint for doing it ourselves. The previous paint job was about $2000 for a small kitchen.
 

Arcadian

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
Messages
9,086
In the old house, yes. Painted them dark tan (they were painted white before) the paint held up really well actually. Selling the house I painted all the cabinets antique white (suited the kitchen very well) You do have to be prepared for the wear and tear on the paint.

Being it was just the 2 of us, the wear and tear was pretty noticeable after about 10 years. If I had kids I wouldn't do it unless there was just no budget because well...kids.

Another option is to head to ikea and get some doors in the color you want and call it a day as long as they're standard sized cabinets.
 

redwood66

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
7,329
I am doing my own but it is a slow process (because I am lazy and only do a bit at a time) and I am by no means doing it perfectly. I bought expensive milk paint and not sparingly using it either. The General Finishes Milk Paint is a very hard finish and it was not necessary to take the stain down to bare wood. It looks ugly after the first coat but you have to power through.

I love them!

I painted this bank of cabinets over a year ago and am very happy with how it is holding up. I did not put a top coat on it either because I read too many online posts about yellowing. Touch ups should be pretty easy if I get a nick somewhere. My cabinets were an ugly burgundy dark cherry stain before. The uppers will be antique white.
cabinets done.jpg



This small bank I finished this winter. As you can see I am in no hurry. :lol:

I can't put knobs on these because the idiot who designed this kitchen didn't think of that when putting in the dishwasher, it won't open if I have knobs. You can see the original color of my cabinets. UGLY. I even spray painted the hinges an oil rubbed bronze to match the other hardware. I am glad my kitchen is small.

20190208_094138 (2).jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20190208_094138.jpg
    20190208_094138.jpg
    230.6 KB · Views: 44

PintoBean

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jul 27, 2011
Messages
6,589
Yup mine were painted. He sanded them down then sprayed them. They look good. It's been 4 years.
 

njblinger

Rough_Rock
Joined
Oct 23, 2012
Messages
93
Hi, I'm literally in the process of getting my kitchen cabinets painted. They are stained oak cabinets that will be painted a high-gloss blue. The painter started last week and used oil-based tinted primer (close to the color of the blue). He wanted the primer to have several days to dry. He will be putting the first top coat on tomorrow. What takes very long is the drying time. He expects about a week and a half for two coats. We decided to go with the brush coating as opposed to the spray (which we had always assumed was the only way to paint the cabinets). The painter told us it is easier to do touch ups when a brush was used as it would be less obvious then if the cabinets were sprayed. The key is giving every coat an extremely long drying period. Super excited to see the finished work and will share pictures when done. Good luck with your kitchen.
 

MaisOuiMadame

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jan 9, 2015
Messages
3,451
We wanted the modern /sleek look of white piano varnish on dark cherry doors in our first appt., so we went for a professional foil coating. It looked extremely good and held up well ( moved after 5years,no dings or scratches, 2kids at the time) it was about 2 x the price of a paint job, though. But we had a high end a brand name base and it was worth it.
 

redwood66

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
7,329
I want to add that the best thing about the milk paint is no smell and you can paint the next coat within 1-2 hours. It is a water base paint and can be thinned easily if needed. Super easy clean up. I have no chips on the bank that was painted over a year ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AV_

CHRISTY-DANIELLE

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 10, 2017
Messages
2,547
I took on that project in my kitchen 2 years ago. It took me many weeks! I did all the prep steps, from removing years of previous owner grime to hand sanding each and every bit. Primer, followed by two coats of good paint (I used Sherwin Williams, went on beautifully). I had my garage all set up with painting / drying stations. Best advice I read was to label every door you remove!! The hardware I removed and placed in a labeled baggy where it's door was removed. I have a large kitchen, so this was a labor of love. But the pride of doing it myself was worth it.
I would have possibly bought different knobs that stick out more. The ones I used are kind of low profile and the knob area in the most frequently used cabinets has some wear. I'm just now planning on some touch up work this summer.
Just plan on it taking longer than you imagine! Weekends filled with cabinet painting!
Before and after of the coffee bar area.
20190507_155841.png Screenshot_20190507-153150.png
 

Gussie

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 20, 2017
Messages
3,700
I had mine painted about 5 years ago. They did a terrible job and paint is now peeling. I am having them redone this summer.
 

KaeKae

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
2,390
I painted cabinets in my kitchen about 15 years ago. We have moved, so I can't say how they look now, but they held up well for us for the 4-5 years we were there after. I never had a single scratch to touch up. From what I remember I:

Sanded
cleaned with denatured alcohol
primed and painted with oil based paint

I'm considering painting the island in my current kitchen. I like the cherry cabinets, but there are lot of them and think maybe a creamy white would be good to break up all of that wood. Who knows, after I do that, I may prefer the white against the dark granite. Maybe, we'll see.
 
Last edited:

madelise

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Messages
5,362
Following bc same. We're also doing a DIY adhesive vinyl on the counter & changing out the hardware. I'm starting the project next month or so.
 

Miss Marple

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jan 19, 2018
Messages
253
We Painted our outdated solid wood cabinets that were otherwise in good shape. It was a ton of work. Like @CHRISTY-DANIELLE, we did it in steps with a painting station.

Lightly sanded, cleaned with TSP, primer coat, light sand (so paint adheres well), clean with TSP, good quality oil-based paint, repeat steps with one more coat of paint.

Took forever to properly cure with 2 coats of paint (like a month or more). But it looked so good that people thought we got brand new cabinets.

A little over 10 years (with a small child) and other than a few chips in some high wear areas that we touched up, they still looked really good. Good enough that when we sold, our RE agent thought they were fine.

But be prepared if you DIY. It’s much more time consuming and tedious to do it right than those home improvement shows would have you believe.
 

anne_h

Brilliant_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
1,046
I have wood cabinets and had them painted white when I bought this place. My designer removed all the doors and sent them to a professional refinishing shop that she works with. A different professional with some type of spray painting equipment came in and painted all the bases.

They did several coats. It's holding up pretty well. Although I've only been here two years. Most people who know the building and see the work think they are new cabinets. I was told the painting cost ~1/3 of getting new cabinets.

One thing to note... my designer did tell me in advance and she was right... I had them painted in summer and in the winter the wood shrank a little so sometimes I can see small slivers of the old wood color in some places. But it's probably only me who notices, and it does not bother me at all.

I do not regret going this route, I think it was a good choice and I'm still happy with it.

Anne
 

Dee*Jay

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
15,104
Thanks for all the info gals, and your cabinets look GREAT Red and Christy!

I should have been more specific in that *I* would not be doing the painting. Princess ain't handy like that, LOL.

There is a wine rack cabinet that could be problematic in terms of both the process and that the wine bottles going in and out might nick up the paint. Assuming it is a standard size maybe I could just put some doors on that one too... ?

Today I'll be there taking detailed measurements and pictures and also finding out what brand the cabinets are. As much as I like to think I'm going to do an economical update I fear there is a whole new kitchen in my future... :eek-2:
 

Austina

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Messages
7,554
We had our kitchen painted when we moved here. They sugar soaped everything to get rid of the years of accumulated gunk, primed, then used eggshell paint. I would think a matt finish varnish would be a good idea on top of the paint. We changed all the handles, and they used car body filler to fill in the holes from the old handles, they said it was really hard and could be sanded smoother than normal decorator’s filler.
 

Karl_K

Super_Ideal_Rock
Trade
Joined
Aug 4, 2008
Messages
14,632
Done right it can last a long time, done wrong it will quickly get very ugly.
The same is true with prepainted cabinets.
Some are good and some are junk.
At a min. they need to sanded, 1-2 coats sealer/primer, 2 coats of strong paint with sanding as needed between coats.
Wall paint in general is not strong enough.
 
Last edited:

prs

Brilliant_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Messages
1,883
The peeling paint issue is likely because the painter used a water based paint on cabinets that were originally painted with oil based paint. It's expensive, but there is a special primer that allows the use of water based paint without having to strip off all the old paint.
 

msop04

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
10,051
We had our cabinets professionally painted about 18 months ago. The painter told us to treat them like thin glass for 30 days after he was finished to ensure they’d cured. We’ve had zero problems and love them.

E3C92ABC-2BEB-43E6-A550-3F94D92F1D72.jpeg
812E7E3A-AD92-41B1-B5F9-2C75E12ED898.jpeg
 
Be a part of the community Get 3 HCA Results
Top