Kitchen: Cabinets

After reading what seemed like thousands of online articles about painting kitchen cabinets, I’d built the process up in my mind into something akin to climbing Mt. Everest. But we’d decided that rather than investing in all new cabinets for our kitchen, we could live with what we had (for now). This meant tackling cabinet-painting.

The cabinets in our house were cheap builder-grade oak-toned wood (some) and laminate (others). When you look closely, they are also all mismatched slightly, in terms of trim. Finally, we had this really cool ancient stainless sink and counter top that we wanted to preserve, and painting the cabinets was much easier than finding something to fit the original sink top. Below is a not-great shot of the stainless sink and the original cabinets (with everything that was in the cabinets now sitting on the countertops and causing me massive anxiety).

So, feeling brave, I tackled the cabinets! In case you’re out there Googling articles about kitchen-cabinet painting and feeling totally overwhelmed, let me reassure you that it really wasn’t all that bad, though it’s certainly a process. Here are the steps we took.

1.) I washed everything down with an industrial grade cleaner to get rid of any gunk/grease built-up on the surface of the cabinets.

2.) I removed the doors, drawer fronts hinges, and hardware. This really only took an extra hour or so and ended up being a helpful step for getting a more professional looking job. We were able to set up sawhorses in the basement, lay scrap wood across them, and set the doors and drawer-fronts up down there so they could all be painted as one batch.

3.) Back to the orbital sander, my favorite tool! We ran the sander over all of the cabinet boxes, doors, and drawers just to create a more even, non-shiny surface on which to paint. This took about an hour.

4.) I also returned to my trusty Zinsser primer, and put a thin coat all over everything. After trying a couple of different foam rollers, I decided to use a paintbrush for this, as it left a more even surface. The rollers left a texture I wasn’t happy with. I spent about a day priming everything, plus an hour on the second day priming the backs of doors and drawer fronts.

5.) I let the primer dry overnight, then ran the orbital sander over everything lightly one more time. Then I wiped all of it down with tack-cloth to make sure there wasn’t any dust to get stuck in the paint.

6.) FINALLY to painting. I continued to use the Benjamin Moore Advance alkyd paint in Satin, because it turned out so great on the island. It is very viscous and not thick in the can, so it goes on really easily and nicely and sort of self-levels as it dries. I used a nice 2″ brush for most surfaces and a 1/2 inch angled brush for nooks and crannies.

7.) We let the first coat dry for a couple of hours (until it was dry to the touch), then went back with a second coat. Two coats offered really good coverage and a NICE finish. I love this paint. The color is “Gull Wing Gray” and is about a shade or two lighter than the “Gray” we used on the island.

8.) We let the paint cure for a few days before messing with anything in the kitchen, just to make sure it was really, really dry.

9.) Last step was bringing the doors and drawer fronts up and reattaching them, then installing the drawer pulls. For this we made a cardboard template so that we could ensure we were getting them all in the right place, centered, etc.

I did this in two phases–the bottom cabinetry first, then I went back to the top cabinetry. I’d say sanding, priming, and painting took roughly a weekend for each set (top and bottom), and then we spent another day reattaching doors, drawer fronts, and installing pulls.

Here are some more not-so great pics of the cabinetry painted and with hardware. Please ignore the mess; we’ll post some more professional looking pics when it’s all done. You can also see in these pics the butcher block countertops, which we’ll post separately about! Soon to come is the backsplash, which is obviously still a work in progress.

Overall, cabinet painting really wasn’t as onerous a task as I’d imagined it would be, and having all of the cabinets painted the same color means they blend together better and we can live with them for more years to come.