There are so many different ways of painting kitchen cabinets and depending on the type of cabinet/wood you have, your process will be different. Our last home at laminate cabinets, and it literally took us months to have it painted for all the time we had to wait during coats to make sure they were cured before we painted another coat. This time around was different in that we have solid oak cabinets and I wasn't afraid of moving a bit faster. This project took me 3 days of pretty much from morning until late night to finish.
Let's get started!
STEP ONE: I removed all the hardware/knobs from drawers and cabinets and filled the holes on the drawers with bondo because I was changing out the type of pull for the drawer.
Here is a great Bondo Tutorial
STEP TWO: I cleaned my cabinets and lightly sanded them. After talking to a few different people I realized I should have used a deglosser to just clean and take away that shiny coat, it would have been way easier.
You can learn more about deglosser's here
STEP THREE: I removed all the doors and drawers from the cabinet body and started to prime with Kilz Premium Primer (here) The better the primer, the easier the job. I sprung for the premium and I feel like it seriously made a difference. I only did one coat of primer because it went on so thick.
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| You can see, I couldn't reach that door up top until my hubby came home to help me. |
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| All primed and the drawers are in their place because I lacked counter space to place them after I primed them. |
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| I did all upper doors FIRST and then the lower doors. I didn't want to mix them up. |
STEP FOUR: I wet sanded lightly after priming. This is a very important step and will be repeated after coats of paint. Here is what I used. The purpose of wet sanding is to give you a glassy smooth finish after each coat of paint. The paint and cabinets do have some imperfections and this step removes and smooths out a lot of imperfections when painting. You wrap the 600 grit sandpaper to a sanding block and then spray the surface and spray the 600 grit sand paper and gently rub on the surface then wipe away water with a clean cloth. When you rub your hands over the surface you will realize how much smoother it truly makes it.
**UPDATE: My dad is a wood worker by hobby and he has some incredible work. He has studied and learned by practicing that wet sanding truly is a very important step. I have talked to some other people/professionals and they had never heard of this step. So make sure that you take the time to do it. You will be happier with your results!
STEP FIVE: I took all the old hinges and spray painted the gross brass to a more shiny chrome with spray paint.
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| ALL doors have been primed and the lower cabinets have been painted with 2 coats |
STEP SIX: I decided to roll on the paint with a roller instead of brush or spraying. I feel like I picked a great roller and it made all the difference. I chose a mini Purdy Roller with an Ultra Finish and spending a little extra on the roller and handle made the paint go on so smoothly that I wasn't upset with the finish. It may not be entirely perfect but it doesn't bother me one bit.
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| UPPER cabinets are Behr Mirage White (up top) LOWER cabinets are Mountain Haze (on bottom) Paint is a SATIN Finish. Not too shiny! |
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| Both upper and lower have 2 coats. Lower requires 1 more coat and the Uppers require 2 more coats to give a really nice finish.
***DISCLAIMER***:
I chose Behr paint. I did and a lot of people really dislike it because they say the finish isn't even or it doesn't coat well, or that the primer and paint in one doesn't work with one coat. DUH!!! Sometimes I'm not sure people truly use their brain when doing projects. Just because it says paint and primer in one, does NOT mean that you will be done in one coat.
**UPDATE: I also wanted to share that the paint has been quite durable and that I am happy with the finish and product.
STEP SEVEN: After doing my paint with the first and second coat I REPEAT the wet sanding process.
**UPDATE: DO NOT Wet Sand after your final coat. Very important to realize. You will see sand marks, so just paint your final coat and it'll be smooth from all of the previous wet sanding. 
STEP EIGHT: I measured out where I wanted all my new drawer pulls to go with this cool guide kit (here) and drilled all my holes and attached hardware after 3rd coat of paint on drawers.
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STEP NINE: FINISH all coats of paint on doors and add hardware to doors once paint was dry to the touch.
STEP TEN: Hang all doors and add new knobs to the doors
Once I finished the cabinets, I did not want to lose any momentum and I painted out our media cabinet as well. I still want to add some sort of intrigue or charcoal color to the very back wall of the cabinet to help add depth and showcase a few of the items a bit better. I also think the charcoal color would help disguise the media equipment as well.
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| Doors off! |
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| Primed, except for the media shelf. Had to wait until hubby could dismantle it all. |
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| NOW we are all primed |
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| Doors are primed and no I was not careful with the paint on the glass. I have a special razor that is specially made to get pain off glass. Much less of a headache than worrying about NOT getting paint on the glass. Highly recommend. |
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| EVERYONE should own one of these. I LOVE it and you can purchase replacement razors for when yours starts to dull. |
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| DONE! |
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| Everything flows so much better and it blends in nicely. I'm very happy with how it turned out. |
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| I totally need to add a contrasting color to help my items pop. I'm debating between a charcoal paint I already have, that removeable wallpaper Target now offers or even fabric covered pieces of foam board. Ideas are always welcome!
So that's it! That's how I painted my kitchen cabinets in 10 simple steps. It takes time and if you do your prep work properly you will be able to make a HUGE difference with minimal impact to your wallet. Over all this project including all supplies, and hardware was $250 and it took me three days to complete. Much better than paying someone and you get the satisfaction of knowing you DID IT YOURSELF! Don't be afraid of doing this, you can do it!
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