Have you decided that you would enjoy painting your kitchen cabinets to enhance the atmosphere of your surroundings?
Frank and Melissa learned that before you begin to paint your old kitchen cabinets, you would need to remove the drawers, the doors and their decorative hardware pieces, such as the knobs, hinges and handles. Make sure you place all these hardware items in a zip lock bag, so they stay together and are available to you, when needed. While you are doing this, you should also mark or number your cabinet door and drawers so you will have more ease in putting them all in the right places after you finish painting them. These identifying marks should be somewhere where only you will see them, such as under the bottom edge of a door or the inside edge of a drawer. If the present finish is some type of clear coat, this will need stripping down to the bare wood, in order for the paint you now apply to go and stay on. However, if your cabinets have a plastic finish, paint will not adhere to them, because of this special finish.
Once you have the stripping of done to wooden cabinets, you should give them a light sanding using fine grit sandpaper. When you are finished sanding, simply remove any dust and debris with a soft damp cloth of mineral spirits or even a little clean water and then be left to dry completely before continuing. If you find that, there is grime that needs an extra boost for clean up, any good quality kitchen cleaner should do the job or you may choose to use TSP or trisodium phosphate, which is available at any local paint or hardware store. Keep in mind while working, you really should wear the proper protective safety gear, such goggles and gloves. After using such chemicals, you should rinse the area with clean water and then let dry.
To continue, you should fill any scratches or nicks in with non-shrinking putty, removing any excess as you work, and then let that dry. Once dry, you must sand these areas down smooth with fine grit sandpaper.
After everything is dry and you find that your cabinet surfaces still show stains, you may use a stain blocking primer or an underbody primer to seal the areas that may bleed through your new paint. This will provide a smoother surface to work with. You can sand this once more if you need to after it dries and attend to the clean up.
After preparing your kitchen cabinets for painting, you can begin the actually painting. Keep in mind, just like anything else, you do get what you pay for, so do not even consider the use of cheap paint. You should use either an oil base paint or a latex paint for the best coverage while painting kitchen cabinets. You can paint them with either, brushes, rollers or spray guns, however always be sure to mask and cover any area you do not want paint to get on. Remember to wear safety gear while painting. Begin by painting the face frames and then move onto the drawers and both sides of the doors. Let them dry completely and then add an additional coat, after you have gently sanded cleaned any all the surfaces. Let this coat dry.
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