Learn How To Create A Kitchen You Love by Painting Your Cabinets
(No paint sprayer needed)
So you hate your kitchen cabinets and don’t want to spend the money for new ones.
I get it.
Painting is a great way to change the whole look of a kitchen without spending a ton of money. It takes some time and effort, but you can do it well…even WITHOUT a paint sprayer.
I painted the lower cabinets in the kitchen above for the fall 2020 One Room Challenge and they turned out really well. (Scroll to bottom to see what they looked like before, and some more after pics).
I’ve sprayed kitchen cabinets before & I’ve rolled them. They both have pros & cons, but this time around I didn’t want to deal with all the spray prep, and I also didn’t have a warm place to do the painting if we were to spray them.
The thing that makes it possible to roll these is the most amazing paint product to ever hit the market….Benjamin Moore’s Advance line.
No, they’re not paying me (unfortunately). This paint is a latex paint, but levels like an oil. Which means it takes 16 hours to dry (boo!), but gives you the best finish you could ask for as a non-professional (yay!).
Supplies You Need To Paint Your Cabinets
ziplock bags (for door hardware
Screwdriver
Orbital Sander
100 Grit, 200-300 grit sandpaper
Fine grit sanding block
4” roller with short nap
1-2” Angled paint brush
Benjamin Moore Advance Primer
Benjamin Moore Advance Paint (Matte/Satin/Semigloss/High Gloss options)
I have used all of these sheens for painting cabinets or furniture, and the only one I don’t like is the satin. For some reason I never like the way it comes out.
Step One: You gotta take the cabinet doors off.
No. Don’t try to do this with the doors on. It’s gonna look bad. Real Bad. Pro tip is put hardware from each door into a ziplock bag and label it with door number. Write the door number in the notch where hardware goes, so you know it won’t be painted over (if you’re spraying cabinets, cover the number with a small piece of painters tape so you know what doors go where)
Step Two: Sand, Sand Sand
This step is the hardest and the worst. It takes the most time, and if you don’t put the time and effort in, your whole project is gonna look real crappy real soon.
You have to sand those suckers down and get rid of all the gloss on the cabinets so the paint will stick. And when I say sand, you need to sand em’ good. You also have to remember that you want the finish to stay smooth, so don’t sand with 60 grit, or it’s going to gouge out the fronts. You should start sanding with 100 grit to get all of the initial finish off, and then go to 180-200grit to smooth everything up.
Use a sanding sponge in the corners and the places that are hard to reach with your sander.
Plan for the sanding to take you a few hours at the VERY LEAST, if not longer. Do not skimp on this step.
Step Three: Clean Cabinets
I first vacuum the fronts with my dyson, and then I wipe them down with a soft, damp cloth, and then I vacuum them AGAIN. Then I run my hands all over them to make sure that A) they’re consistently smooth and B) there is not any dust on them. (you can also use tack cloth for this, but I prefer a damp rag)
Step Four: Prime Kitchen Cabinets
If you’re fancy, you will drill holes in the bottom of your cabinets door fronts so you can have the sticking up and paint both front and back and same time. I’m not fancy.
I used bins in my basement to set the fronts on.
Remember to start painting the BACK of the cabinet FIRST. You do this because then you will need to flip them over, and there is always a chance paint is dinged slightly from laying on a new paint job (which is why people suspend them in the air).
Prime both sides and then let them dry. We use Benjamin Moore Advanced line to paint, and use the Ben Moore Advanced primer. If this is the only project you’re doing, then tint the primer to match your final color. We bought a gallon of the primer in white, because we have a lot of projects we are using it for.
Step Five: More Sanding
Oh yay! Use a really smooth grit (200-300grit) to sand the primer.
Try to get a really really smooth finish, because this will dictate how smooth your final finish is.
Step Six: Painting Cabinets For Real
Finally the fun part! Remember to start with the back of the cabinets (also will give you some time to practice how to get a smooth finish with the roller).
I used a 4” roller with a really smooth roller nap that is meant for cabinets and smooth surfaces (ask your local paint store to recommend the best kind).
The trick to this paint is to try to get the most even surface (ie, don’t do one section of cabinet with a ton of paint, and the other just using what ever is left on the roller). The paint will do an amazing job of leveling (smooth out), but try to put the same amount of paint with no huge blobs.
Do not try to suck as much paint out of that roller as you can- on a wall with eggshell, you can roll and roll and use all the paint prior to getting more paint. If you do that, you will not have a great finish.
For these cabinets, I used a combination of a 4” roller and a small angled brush to get into the corners and crevices.
You will need 2-3 coats of your final color.
Step Seven: More Sanding
If you want to do an extra nice job, you will sand the cabinets between each coat of paint. I was sort of lazy, so I only sanded them after the primer, and then prior to the 3rd and final coat of paint. (don’t be lazy like me).
Step Eight: WAIT FOR 2-3 Weeks
Now the trick is to let the door fronts sit for 2 weeks AT LEAST. The Benjamin moore paint takes up to 21 days to cure completely, so if you start using them right away, the paint with ding…and chip. If you wait until it completely hardens, you are much more likely to have a durable finish.
I had to put the fronts on earlier than I wanted so I could get pictures to finish the One Room Challenge, and they got dinged up pretty bad in that first week. After another week or so, they’ve been pretty hardy and are still looking good a few months later.
Let me know if you have any questions and/or how your project goes!
What the kitchen looked like before:
And After:
