How we painted our kitchen cabinets - DIY

We painted our kitchen cabinets over two years ago; it’s a pretty simple process, but one that takes a lot of time and patience (and a good spray gun). Our cabinets are real wood and before being painted, they looked like the following:

Prior to refinishing our kitchen cabinets, we practiced by painting our laundry room and bathroom vanity cabinets. This helped us master the art and we saw a noticeable difference between our first and last cabinet doors.

Here is how we did it:

1.We removed the doors off hinges, removed the hardware, and brought them in the garage to clean. We used Krud Kutter Gloss-Off to clean the doors properly. We then used a liquid sander to remove any missed dirt and grease. We used Scott Shop Towels when cleaning and sanding the cabinets. However, we did have a tiny bit of chipping where our wedding rings hit the doors near the handles. For our island, we will sand the doors properly before priming using 120 or 180 grit sandpaper.

2.We prepped the garage by creating a spray booth; we used a vapor barrier to create it. If you do not create an enclosed area, paint particles will end up everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE.

3.We then primed with STIX Waterbone Bonding primer using this Paint Spray Gun connected to our compressor. We diluted the primer with a bit of water to make it sprayable. We sprayed one side of the doors, let them dry overnight, and then sprayed the other sides. We put two coats of primer and between each coat, we sanded with a 220 grit sandpaper by hand.

4,Then came time to paint! We painted the doors with ADVANCE Interior Paint in a Pearl finish (see our article “Which paint finish to use” for other sheens we used in our home). We sprayed one side, let it dry for 24 hours, and then sprayed the other side. We repeated this process two times, sanding lightly between coats with a 220 grit sandpaper.

5.While the cabinet doors were being painted in the garage, we primed and painted the cabinet boxes with a roller. We used the same primer and paint. We primed, let it dry 24 hours, then painted with one coat of Advance, waited 24 hours, then a second.

6.We installed the hinges back on, installed the hardware, and TA-DA! The following pic is two years after having painted the cabinets:

We also painted our pantry doors Cheating Heart by Benjamin Moore. Check out our blog post on the Most Beautiful Blue-Black Paint colors.

If you want to build the shelves in the picture above, check out this blog post on how we built our shelves.

Happy renovating!

The Roses