15 Tips For Painting Kitchen Cabinets - Kitchen Master

Painting your kitchen cabinets is a process that requires patience, and you’ll have to be prepared to deal with a bit of chaos and disorder for a few weeks before all of the pieces can be put back together.

Before I share the finished kitchen, here are my top 25 tips from this experience.

1. Choose the right paint. Everyday wall paint consists of a formula not suited for surfaces like cabinetry. It’s known to chip and it won’t stand up well to repeated cleaning. It costs more, but choosing an alkyd enamel, like Benjamin Moore ADVANCE or Sherwin-Williams ProClassic will hold up better in the long run and since the formulas are self-leveling, will leave you with a smoother finish.
2. Choose a color that will flatter your appliances. Consider this: I had a lot of older, black appliances in the kitchen in my old house. They stood out like a sore thumb surrounded by oak cabinetry. When I stained all of the cabinets dark brown, the black appliances nearly disappeared. Magic! In this kitchen, we have an abundance of almond appliances that aren’t quite ready to kick the bucket, and almond isn’t my favorite finish for appliances, but miraculously, by painting the cabinets a similar light sand color, they suddenly seem to fit in perfectly. When we eventually update, we’ll probably go to stainless steel appliances, which will still fit in nicely.
3. Remove all of the hardware. All of the hinges. Every last screw. The knob. The magnets that help to keep the door shut. It takes time, but it’s worth it to have a clean slate when you begin refinishing the surfaces.
4. Take the time to organize the hardware. One of the best tips I came across was to label each door by number beneath where the hinge goes in the frame. Label a plastic baggie filled with that door’s hardware with the same number. Place a small piece of painter’s tape over the number on the door, so when the painting is complete, you can remove the painter’s tape and see the number. The small place where you had written the number should be inconspicuous enough not to be seen (ideally, it will be hidden behind the hinge hardware).
5. Pack up your kitchen cabinets neatly. Pack paper bags or plastic bins for each individual “pantry-like” cabinet, so that the contents can be easily returned to their home when the job is through. Stack small appliances out of the way. Keep the cookware you use most regularly (a fry pan, your big pasta pot) on your cooktop. Transfer your silverware into coffee mugs – one for each spoons, forks, knives, and serving utensils – and let them be the centerpiece on your dining room table. You’ll still need them throughout the duration of your project, so best to keep them handy.
6. Roll up the rugs, clear the countertops and remove the curtain.You’re going to make a mess.
7. Consider buying or renting a handheld electric sander. Regardless of the surface material you’re refinishing, sanding all of the surfaces is essential to creating the best area for primer and paint to adhere. You’re going to be covering a lot of ground, and an orbital detail sander will both speed up the process, evenly prep the surface, and take a lot of the effort off your own muscles. I was painting over solid wood, but if you’re painting over laminate consider the tips I gave in this post, where I refinished a laminated tabletop.
8. Buy a lot of sandpaper. Buy multiple packs of sandpaper to fit your palm sander (I used 15 sheets each of 80 grit and 120 grit to prep my 40+ doors and the base cabinetry surface before painting). I also bought a pack of 10 sheets of 180-grit sandpaper, which I used to lightly hand sand between coats while priming and painting.
9. Buy a lot of tack cloths too. Cleaning the surface is just as essential as sanding the surface, is. Remove all of the dust and debris after sanding by wiping the surface with a tack cloth. It will lift all of the dust while containing the mess (you might want to don rubber gloves for this part – the cloth will make your hands sticky, too). They’re sold in packs of 2-3 for only $2-$3, and if you’re like me, you’ll use 20+ during the course of the project to manage dust between coats.
10. Use oil-based primer. Kilz came recommended by several painting pros I conferred with – specifically the oil-based formula, not the water-based. With the oil-based formula, the hardwood is less likely to discolor painted white cabinets over time (wood is known to “bleed through” and give the paint a tinge of yellow, especially if it’s knotty wood). The oil-based also creates a very well-adhered surface on which to paint.
11. Have the primer tinted, if you’re painting a dark color, to lessen the chance of needing multiple coats. I went duo-toned in my kitchen (can’t wait to show you, but get a sneak peek right here). I started by priming the cabinets and doors that would be the lighter color with the plain white Kilz primer. When I finished and was ready to prime the darker color cabinets and doors, I took the half-used can of primer back to the store, and had them tint it close to the shade of my paint. They were happy to accommodate, and it saved me from having to buy a second gallon of primer.
12. Buy canvas drop cloths. Worth the $10 to buy one or two that you can move about as necessary. I found this process to be relatively “splatter-free” compared to painting walls with a higher-nap roller, but drips and missteps happen, just the same. (Plus, keep the cloths neat and you can make drop cloth curtains, the best tablecloth ever, and plenty of other rustic-inspired projects.)
13. Get disposable paint trays. Ten trays for $5, you can’t go wrong. Place the plastic disposable tray into your “real” tray so you can roll on a firm surface, and then throw it out when you’re done. Easy clean-up.
14. Buy extra brushes and paint rollers. The enamel paint is easy to clean with soap and water, and those brushes can be reused several times, but oil-based paint clean-up is nearly a deterrent for me. If you hate it too, just spend the extra $20 and buy a few extra brushes to alleviate the pain of clean-up. In any case, cleaning the brushes only works well a few times before the bristles start to go haywire, rendering your ability to do meticulous touch-ups harder and harder.
15. Use baggies or plastic wrap to seal your brushes and rollers overnight. This is a good tip if you’re going to work 2-3 days in a row, and an especially helpful tip if you’re going to be tossing your oil-based brushes instead of cleaning them. Seal them up and the paint will stay wet on the bristles, ready for the next day’s work.