Painting Kitchen Cabinets

Painting cabinets can be a fast, inexpensive way to renew your kitchen. Just about any material used to make cabinets, including metal and simulated wood, can be painted as long as the surface is clean and prepared well. This means washing with a degreaser if necessary before sanding, priming and painting.

For priming, alkyd undercoat is a good general purpose primer that will provide a good base for finish enamels and help to insure your new paint lasts a long time. If you're painting simulated wood, which is usually some type of plastic, use a shellac-based primer/sealer instead of alkyd. If you're painting your cabinets a color other than white, tinting the primer to closely match the finish paint will make coverage easier and may make it possible to get away with just one finish coat.

Preping the Cabinets

Finish coat your cabinets with an alkyd-based enamel. Don't use latex for this project, it will not be durable enough and will scratch off in no time. If you are only doing the outside of your kitchen cabinets and you don't mind paint on the hinges, you can do the sanding and painting with the doors in place. Remove the handles to keep them clean and use a small screw driver in the handle holes to move the doors while painting. If you're painting the insides of the cabinets or you don't want paint on the hinges, you will want to remove the doors and the hardware before priming and painting.

Sanding the Cabinets

Determine if your cabinet finish is real wood, simulated wood or some other material such as painted MDF. Lightly sand natural wood, metal and MDF cabinets with 120 sandpaper. Wipe all dust from the surface with either a rag dampened with mineral spirits or a tack cloth. Prime with alkyd primer and let it dry for at least 12 hours before sanding lightly with 220 sandpaper. Wipe off all dust before finish coating.

Don't sand simulated wood cabinets, instead wipe them thoroughly with denatured alcohol, let it dry and then prime with the sealer. Let the sealer dry for an hour or more before finish coating. Don't sand the sealer between coats.

Painting the Cabinets

With the hardware removed, lay the doors out on a drop cloth or newspaper with strips of wood or dowels underneath to elevate them slightly. It's easier to work on one side of the doors at a time, priming, then finish painting, before doing the other side. Paint the outside of the doors last to help minimize the need to touch the finish.

Apply the paint using a small sausage roller with a ½in nap and a sash brush. Paint corners and edges first with the brush and then roll the wide spaces with the roller. Don't overfill and roll repeatedly to get a smooth coat and avoid roller marks. It's better to do two thin coats if coverage is a problem, rather than trying to cover with one thick paint coat. Brush the paint into the corners inside the cabinet cases and roll the rest letting the roller overlap and bump at the corners to blend and smooth the paint coat. Before leaving each coat to dry, check for runs under the edges and at the corners and brush them out if necessary.

Let the finish paint dry for at least 12 hours. Apply a second top coat if necessary before flipping the doors over to paint the outside. Lightly sand between coats and let the final coat dry 12 to 24 hours. Install the hardware and hang the doors.