Refinishing your previously painted kitchen cabinets, without a doubt, will bring your kitchen back to life. It will improve your mood and give you bragging rights. With this easy to follow How-To guide, you will be on your way to having a new Kitchen.
- Set up a date and time to start the painting project.
- Purchase your paint and supplies.
- Protect floors and countertops.
- Inspect the cabinets.
- Repair any doors or drawers.
- Clean the cabinets.
- Remove the doors and drawers.
- Mark the doors.
- Lightly sand the surfaces.
- Apply a high-quality primer.
- Apply a high-quality cabinet paint.
- Rehang doors and drawers.
- Clean up.
As you can see, the steps you need to follow to repaint your kitchen cabinets are not as hard as you might have thought. With a little cleaning, sanding, and painting you will be on your way of having a like-new kitchen again.
The one important thing I will recommend before you begin your painting project is to verify the condition of the previous painting job. I have seen many kitchen cabinets been painted with latex paint, the same paint you would use on trim.
Unfortunately, this type of paint is far from ideal to apply to kitchen cabinets. I recommend you using an Alkyd Urethane paint, this will give you the durability you need for a long-lasting finish.
Set up a date and time
Your set of skills and size of the kitchen will determine how long it will take you to refinish your kitchen cabinets. For most people one week should be enough time to complete this home project. If you are the kind of family who uses their kitchen all the time, good for you, keep in mind this will disrupt your daily cooking routine.
Purchase your paint and supplies
If you get anything out of this blog please be this, stay away from latex paint. Latex paint reacts to the oils in your hands and “melts” away from where there is too much friction. When I see cabinets that have been painted with latex paint I can tell which doors they use the most.
I recommend using the Benjamin Moore “ADVANCE” paint and primer. This paint is a water-born Alkyd that dries like oil paint but can be clean with soap and water. It’s the easiest product to use for homeowners and easy to apply with a brush and roller.
Supplies
- 2″ High-quality brush
- 4″ Blue knit mini roller 3/16 thickness.
- Painting pan.
- Builders paper.
- Plastic sheet.
- Painters tape
- Rags
- Wood filler (optional)
- Caulk (optional)
- Painter’s pyramid stands
Protect floors and surfaces.
I do not care how careful you are, painting is messy. Be sure to use the builder’s paper, plastic or old sheets that you might have laying around the house, to cover your floor and countertops. Use the plastic to cover the appliances.
Inspect the Cabinets
The purpose of inspecting your cabinets is to identify any doors or drawers that might be in bad shape and need replacing. If you are a handy person you might be able to fix them yourself. Make sure all of your hinges are working properly.
Repair any doors and drawers
We use our cabinets every day, they get dinged, scratch and some times we hang things from them. This would be the right time to fill any holes, fix any dings or minor imperfections. Use a high-quality wood filler for this step.
If you are moving from a doorknob to a handle pull, make sure to fill the previous holes. You might need to apply a couple of coats of the wood filler.
Clean the cabinets
There are many recommendations about what to use to clean your cabinets. Let’s skip all the noise, you do not need to buy anything for this step. Get out your liquid dish detergent, fill up a small bucket with hot water and this is all you need to clean your cabinets.
Dilute a 1 teaspoon of dish detergent in a gallon of water, use more if you need to. Clean all of your cabinets as you normally would. For tougher grease mix a 50/50 solution of water+ baking soda and lemon juice. Use the paste directly on the grease stain.
Other products out there leave a film residue that you need to rinse before you can paint. This is an unnecessary step not to mention it could prevent the primer from bonding properly to the cabinets’ surface.
Make sure the clean all of your doors, drawers, and panels thoroughly before we can apply any paint.
Remove the doors
To remove the doors and drawers I recommend getting help from a friend. You have the option to tape the hinges to protect them from paint. I personally recommend removing all the hinges from the doors and panels.
Continue by removing all the doorknobs, handles, and all the hardware. Separate the hinges from handles and screws for faster and easier re-installation, and place them in ziplock bags for later use. This will also prevent us from losing any of the hardware.
Mark all the doors.
I have tried so many times to play the memory game, and I always end up forgetting the order in which I need to reinstall the doors. An easy way to prevent this is by marking every single door.
Use a sharpie to write inside the “hinge-hole” to number every single door. You can use any method that might work for you. I personally number my doors starting from left to right, starting at the top, and continue with the bottom. This method will make reinstallation so much easier. You could also do the same with your drawers.
Lightly sand the surfaces
How much sanding you are willing to do really depends on your final goal. If the previews painting job it’s terrible and you want to see a smoother surface you might need to sand the kitchen doors, panel, and drawers all the way down to the bare wood and start from scratch.
Keep in mind these will take more time, however, your kitchen will look so much better. If you are more concerned about additional durability and maybe changing to a different color you can get away with light sanding to scuff the surfaces enough to promote better bonding between coats.
Apply a high-quality primer
Now it’s time to apply primer. I recommend using the Benjamin Moore product called “Advance” primer. I have used this primer several times and it works great. This product it’s easy to use for the homeowner and you can use it with a brush and roller.
The secret for a great finish when you are painting a cabinet with a brush and roller and to prevent runs and sagging paint it’s very simple.
Paint the doors with your brush as you normally would, go back over with a technique called “dry roll” to remove the excess paint. This method will create a smoother finish.
If the roller cover becomes saturated with paint, use a paper towel to roll-out the excess paint. I recommend using a 4″ blue knit mini roller 3/16 thickness. You can purchase these covers from any paint supply store or Home Depot.
Apply a high-quality topcoat paint
Now the fun begins. The time you have spent during the preparation face will help you get the job done in no time, plus, you will have an excellent finish.
As I said before, stay away from latex paint. The product that I highly recommend for homeowners to use in their kitchen cabinets it’s Benjamin Moore “Advance”. You can choose between the satin or semi-gloss shines. It really depends on how shiny you want your cabinets to look like.
The great benefit of this product and I will not get into details, is that it is a hybrid meaning, it has properties of oil paint, it dries like oil paint but you can clean all of your brushes with just soap and water.
You can choose to match any color under the sun not just from Benjamin Moore, but other companies as well. It dries very smooth and levels really well to give you an almost factory finish look. Remember to paint the top coat using the same technique I mentioned before.
Rehang doors and drawers
For this step make sure you have somebody to help you hang the doors, otherwise, you might drop and damage the doors or your countertops. If you’re planning on using new hinges and cabinet pulls, this is the time to replace them.
Thanks to the new system of marking each individual door with a number, it will make re-installation a lot easier. After you have installed all of your doors and drawers, the last step its to make sure they all lined up.
Clean up
Since you are working in your kitchen, why not do a thorough cleaning of the interior of the cabinets. I have seen clients using this time to de-clutter the contents of their cabinets.
Since you did an awesome job protecting all the surfaces, countertops, stove and floors, there will be not much cleaning to do. Save the remaining paint for future touch-ups.
Conclusion
You have done it. Be proud of yourself, sit back and enjoy your newly painted kitchen. I hope this guide has helped you to make the job a little easier and more enjoyable. When you stick to easy to follow step by step instruction any task becomes more manageable. Enjoy!
