Painting Kitchen Cabinets

Homeowners looking for a quick pick-me-up in the kitchen will often repaint the kitchen cabinets to give them a fresh new look. Its the fastest and easiest way to update your kitchen while increasing the property value. If you're doing a quick house flip with a very tiny budget this could be the best option for you.

This process compensates for low expense by being fairly labor intensive. Its also messy and will require you to eat out until the project is finished. Also be aware of safety considerations and seal off the kitchen doors with plastic to prevent, or at least reduce the spread of paint fumes and splattered particles.

Proper Steps for Painting Kitchen Cabinets

1. Clean out the drawers and cabinets, throwing away the trash and storing food items in another room
2. Remove the cabinet doors and drawers so you can paint them seperately
3. Scrape the existing paint chips to give you an even surface. Remove as much of the old paint as possible
4. Thoroughly clean all cabinet surfaces to be painted. This will allow the paint to be applied evenly without picking up existing dirt
5. Repair any dents and scratches. You can get filler materials at any hardware stores. It doesn't have to be an exact color match as you will be painting over it.
6. Cover the clean cabinet surfaces in primer
7. Apply at least 2 coats of a gloss or semi gloss enamel paint to all exterior surfaces
8. Allow to dry
9. Apply the same number of coats of paint to the doors and drawers. Its easiest to use sawhorses to paint the surfaces visible to you and then turn them over when dry to paint the other surfaces.
10. When all parts are painted and dry, reattach doors and drawers to the cabinets
11. Attach cabinet hardware (you probably will want new hardware to finish the new look)

Of course before starting this project you would want to have chosen your paint colors, matched to any wallpaper and flooring you have to work with. When painting, you have the option of making everything one color, painting the cabinet bases a different color than the doors, or painting door insets a different color than the moldings. Use your imagination and defer to those with quality taste. Also consider whether you're painting for yourself or to resell. You don't want to do anything shocking and outlandish if you want a large target audience to like the end results.