Painting Kitchen Cabinets So They Last

A painted kitchen can look like a new kitchen. It can also look tired within a year, with chips at the edges of the doors, peeling around the handles and a tacky film on the drawer fronts. The difference is almost never the color, and only partly the paint. It is the preparation, the primer and the patience at the end.

Cabinets are handled more than any other painted surface in a home. Doors are opened dozens of times a day, drawer fronts are bumped, and the area around the stove gets a fine coat of cooking grease. A wall paint will not survive that; the job asks for its own sequence.

Why do painted cabinets chip?

Three reasons account for nearly every failure. The grease was not fully removed, so the paint sat on a film instead of the wood. The old finish was still glossy, so the paint had nothing to grip. Or the wrong paint was used: a soft wall paint, rather than an enamel that cures hard. A fourth reason is impatience, when doors are rehung and used heavily before the finish has had time to cure.

The sequence that makes it last

1. Take the doors and drawer fronts off. Each one is labeled with its position, and the hinges and hardware are bagged with it. Finishing doors flat gives a smoother result with no runs, and it means the cabinet boxes can be worked on at the same time.
2. Degrease everything. Kitchen grease is invisible and everywhere, worst above and beside the range and around the handles. It is cleaned off with a degreaser made for the job and rinsed, because paint will not bond to oil, and sanding grease only spreads it into the surface.
3. Repair. Dents and gouges are filled, loose edges are glued, and any swollen spots near the sink are looked at honestly. MDF that has swollen from water does not get better under paint.
4. Sand the old finish dull. The aim is not to strip the cabinets to bare wood but to scuff every surface so the primer has something to grip. Edges and the profiles of raised panels get particular care. The dust is removed completely.
5. Prime with a bonding primer. Cabinet finishes are often slick factory lacquers or old varnish, and a bonding primer is designed to grip surfaces that ordinary primers slide off. On wood with knots or tannin, a stain-blocking primer keeps those from bleeding through a light color.
6. Apply the enamel in thin coats. Thin coats level better and cure harder than one heavy coat. A light sanding between coats knocks down any dust nibs.
7. Let it cure, then rehang. The doors go back on once they are dry enough to handle, with the hardware reinstalled where it came from.

Which paint goes on cabinets?

Cabinet work calls for an enamel: a paint formulated to dry to a hard, smooth, washable film. Most modern cabinet enamels are waterborne, and many are alkyd- or urethane-modified, which gives them the leveling and hardness that older oil paints were known for without the strong solvent smell or the yellowing in low light. Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel and Dunn-Edwards Aristoshield are examples of this category. The right product depends on the cabinets, the color and how the kitchen is used, and Ebenezer chooses between Dunn-Edwards and Sherwin-Williams on that basis.

Sheen is usually satin or semi-gloss. Higher sheens wipe clean and resist marking but show every imperfection in the door; satin is more forgiving and looks softer on a shaker-style panel.

Spray or brush?

Both are used, and your preference comes first. A sprayed finish on doors laid flat is the smoothest a cabinet can look, close to a factory finish. A brushed and rolled finish, done well, has a subtle hand-made quality that some homeowners prefer, especially on painted wood in older homes. Often the doors are sprayed and the boxes, which stay in the kitchen, are brushed and rolled so the room does not need to be sealed for spraying.

What about the wood itself?

Oak, common in kitchens fitted in the 1980s and 1990s, has an open grain. Paint follows that grain rather than hiding it, so painted oak shows a fine texture under the color. If you want it smooth, that means filling the grain before priming. That is a real addition to the work and it belongs in the estimate, not in a surprise halfway through.

Maple and painted-grade wood paint smoothly. MDF doors take paint very well on their faces, but their routed edges are porous and need to be sealed with primer or they soak up the enamel and feel rough.

How long does it take?

Cabinet work is slower than walls, because most of the time is preparation and drying between coats rather than painting. The kitchen is partly out of action while the boxes are being finished and the doors are away. Ebenezer will give you a realistic range once he has counted the doors and drawers and looked at their condition, and he will tell you which days the kitchen can be used and which it cannot.

Being clear about what is included

The doors, drawer fronts, face frames and visible end panels are the usual scope. The insides of the boxes, the shelves, the back of each door, new hardware and any repairs beyond small fills are all things to decide at the estimate, so the plan on paper matches the kitchen you expect at the end.

In older kitchens, such as many in Chula Vista homes from the post-war decades, or the original built-ins found in period houses in La Mesa, cabinets may have many coats of finish on them already, and very old ones may pre-date 1978. Paint that old may contain lead, which changes how it may be sanded. Ebenezer is EPA lead-safe (RRP) certified, so if there is lead, the sanding is done the lead-safe way.

Before you choose a color

Cabinets dominate a kitchen, so the color has to work with the counter, the backsplash, the floor and the light from the window. A sample painted on a spare door or a board, propped in place for a few days, is worth the wait. How to choose a paint color has the habits that help.

If your kitchen cabinets are ready for a change, ask for a free estimate. Ebenezer will open the doors, look at the finish and the wood, and tell you plainly what the job involves and what result to expect. You can also read more about interior painting or the guarantee that comes with it.