Two weeks ago my husband and I embarked on a home renovation adventure that, as per Youtube, should have taken 4-5 days to complete. Here are our top tips on how to paint your kitchen cabinets!
1) Choose Your Colour Wisely – Over the past 10 years, our maple cabinets had yellowed, and we were looking for something fresh and clean. We were aiming for a creamy white, but what we achieved with our first try was as close to snow-white as we could get. Because we did a test door, we realized our mistake right away. We ended up taking the cream colour of our baseboards and pantry door and using 3/4 of that colour depth.
2) Stay Away From Oil – Our first primer was a hybrid oil-based primer; horrible! It was very hard to roll smoothly and it would not run easily through the sprayers (even though we were assured we could use it like a latex paint).
3) Use High-Quality Tape – The cheaper painter’s tape is cheap for a reason. Spend the extra few dollars and get a clean line with no paint chips! When preparing your drawers for spraying, insert the body of each drawer into a garbage bag. Then carefully tape the edge of the bag around the edge of the drawer for a clean line.
4) Sand the Sides First! – Claude and I are busy Realtors, so I will take any shortcut I can find. I chose to save a step and leave my dishes in the cabinets. If you aren’t going to empty all of your cabinets, sand the sides BEFORE you take the doors off. This will minimize the dust that gets into the cabinets. Because Claude was taking all of the doors out to the garage for sanding and painting, we just had to lightly scuff the faces of the cabinets.
5) Label Well – This really helped our project run smoothly. We used 2 pieces of tape and one plastic bag for each door and drawer. I wrote the door number on two pieces of tape; one was placed on the cabinet where the door came from and one was placed on the door itself. The door number was also written on the plastic bag containing the door hardware. This way we always knew where the door and hardware belonged.
6) Use Bins and Grocery Bags for Drawer Contents – Take all stuff in each drawer and place it into bags or bins (incidentally, this is a great time to organize and purge). We placed the bags in order, circling our living room so that if we needed an item, we could find it.
7) Lay a Good Foundation – It is so important to get a good system in place where you will be spraying. Claude put screws through 2x4s and lay them upside down so there would be 4 tiny points supporting each drying door. He then placed all of the doors in their spots and used the tape number on each to label the ground in front of them.
8) Pick Your Hardware Early – Claude and I chose new hardware which was larger than our previous handles. As a result, new holes had to be drilled. By making a template and drilling new holes right away, Claude could fill the old holes and sand the filler at the same time as sanding the doors. Drilling the holes early also prevented any chipping after the painting was done.
9) Sand Carefully and Wipe Well – Initially, Claude was sanding the doors by hand. He found that using an electric sander was not only quicker, it did a much better job. It was very important to wipe all of the dust off thoroughly.
10) Do NOT Use a Brush – Because we were not spraying inside the house, I had to paint the frames and sides of the cabinets by hand. I originally tried using a brush on the sides; I ended up having to sand down the streaks and start again. I used what was supposed to be a smooth roller, and it gave me a very pronounced orange peel look. I then used a foam roller, and we found it gave the smoothest finish.
11) Sprayers; You Get What You Pay For – One of the main reasons for any of our project delays (other than calls from clients and showings) was the sprayers. I use a plural form of the word because there were a number of them involved. We did not want to waste money renting a sprayer, so after watching many youtube videos, we purchased a sprayer from our local hardware store. The first thing that happened was the oil-hybrid paint (even thinned) was too thick and exploded the tubing on the sprayer. After picking up a replacement, that tube bubbled as well. We then borrowed a bigger sprayer, which did a great job with our new primer. When we got to the painting part, that too broke down. In the end, Claude rented an industrial sprayer for $125.00 which quickly and perfectly sprayed the doors.
12) Leave The Bugs Alone! – Painting Cabinets in the garage in July with the door open guarantees a few bugs landing on your freshly painted doors. You will be tempted to pick them off….DON’T DO IT!!! After the doors dry and you wipe them off, you can barely see a mark. One very determined bug decided to wallow about and make a few tracks, so Claude decided to remedy the situation. With much smudging and re-spraying, the door has a slightly different finish to it than the other doors. We learned our lesson; spray your doors in the fall, not in the summer!
13) Take Your Time Adjusting – Claude took longer to put the doors up than he did dismantling them. All of that adjustment was worth it. My OCD eye sees straight, perfect lines!
14) Order Out – Do NOT attempt to cook in your kitchen during the project. Even when we put our stove back, having to search various grocery bags for hot mitts, wooden spoons and can openers was frustrating at best. We were so used to running into the living room for a fork or spoon, it was hard to adjust when we finally got our drawers back. Ordering pizza and Chinese food was much less stressful.
15) Soft Close Doors – If you want to upgrade your cabinets one step further, you can swap one standard hinge per door and install a soft closing door hinge. We found them sold individually at our local hardware store for about $6.00 per hinge. We found that a bit pricey, so I went online and at that same store, the hinges were sold in a 6 pack for $27.00. After going back to the store with the SKU#, we discovered that the cheaper packages are kept back with cabinets, not in the hardware isle. That is our final tip, Always search online for a better deal, even at the same store!
Our Next Project – Now that we have taken all of the maple coloured wood out of our kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room, our maple mantle and handrails look very out-of-place. We WILL be painting them, but not until we have recovered from the cabinet painting!
