Professional Results When Painting Your Kitchen Cabinet

Everyone wants a bright shinny new kitchen with designer cabinets and all the latest built in storage units. Unfortunately many of us can't shake that money tree to make it happen anymore. If your kitchen cabinets are showing their age, one very simple and inexpensive way to archive the new look appearance is to paint them. Painting your cabinets will give you that new look without the hassle of ripping out the old cabinets and installing new ones. If you want to know how to paint kitchen cabinets just read on.

Before you decide to paint your cabinets, inspect them to be sure they are still in good shape. Inspect the doors and face frames for any signs of the plywood pealing or separating. You can touch up any minor damage with wood putty. If your budget permits, you can always have new doors made. A raised panel MDF door is fairly inexpensive and will give your kitchen a new updated look.

The first thing you should do is take down the cabinet doors and remove the hinges and hardware. Lay the doors on a clean flat surface to make them easier to work with. Over the years, your cabinets will likely have a greasy build up on their surface. You need to remove this build up or the new paint will not stick to the surface of the wood. The best product to use is TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate). You can purchase it at any major home improvement store.

The next step involves sanding down the cabinets. You want to use 150 grit or finer sandpaper. You're not trying to sand down to the bare wood. All you want to do is to rough up the surface so the paint will have something to adhere to. Be sure to sand all surfaces, even the small trim pieces that are part of some cabinets. This can be a tedious and boring phase of the job. Doing this step right will insure the finished paint job will last and look professional.

Now that you have a clean slate to work with it's finally time to prime the cabinets. If your cabinets are painted and you're repainting the same color, you can skip this step. If you're cabinets are stained you will have to prime because the paint will not stick to polyurethane or varnish. The best primer on the market is Zinsser 1-2-3 primer. Using primer will insure a sound base between the top coat. Allow the primer to dry for about an hour before painting.

You're now ready for the final step. All the prep work you did before will now pay off. I would use a 2-3 inch high quality brush for cutting in and a 6 inch roller with a short nap to paint larger surfaces. You may be tempted to slop on a thick coat of paint and just be done with it. Please don't, you need to build up several thin coats to do a professional job. Just take your time and do it right.

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