“I could do that myself.” you may be thinking. Honestly, you’re correct. Painting isn’t brain surgery and nobody is going to die if you mess it up.

Let’s look behind the curtain and see if it makes sense for you to tackle the job yourself.

If you have a 40 hour a week job (with the commute added in) then you’re probably away from your kitchen most days. That leaves you the weekend to DIY your kitchen cabinets. We’ve written a long blog post on exactly how to paint your cabinets just like we do, but I’ll summarize it here. For this exercise, I’ll assume that your free time is worth $30 per hour (feel free to adjust it as you see fit). What follows is a realistic, best-case-scenario for a DIY cabinet painter.

You don’t need to have a kitchen as outdated as the Brady Bunch to want to update the cabinets to something more stylish. Painting your old kitchen cabinets might be the perfect solution.

We got these questions on our Facebook Page when we asked people what their lingering concern about painting their cabinets was.
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Time to make your kitchen look brand new? Thinking about some renowation, adding appliances mentioned by productspy reviewing the best oil filled radiator – to maybe feel warmer while cooking? If you’ve been researching cabinet refacing in the Raleigh area there’s a good chance you’ve seen a company called Cabinet Cures. Cabinet refacing is a completely different project then painting your cabinets is.
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Who doesn’t love the beauty of oak?

The truth is, a lot of people don’t. As a professional cabinet painter, I’ve started to worry about oak cabinet jobs because some customers aren’t ready for the end result. They like the color, they like the quality of the work, but they almost always say, “I can still see the grain.”

Yes, oak has a very strong grain that requires extra attention to fully cover with paint, but the actual topography of the wood will not be changed by adding paint. Think about the last time you painted a wall and missed one of the old nail holes – the paint doesn’t fill in holes or repair things.
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Over the past five years, I’ve learned so much from my customers. The most important thing I’ve learned is what’s important to them better be important to me too. Here’s a short list of the questions anyone hiring someone to paint their cabinets should ask.
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I am so happy that almost everyday I get at least 1 or 2 people contacting me for a quote. About 10% of the time, I hear back from the person telling me that they received a quote from someone else for “a lot less.”

When I was first starting out, those calls concerned me. Was I over pricing my services? Were my costs too high? Was I paying my people too much? Should I be doing less prep work?

The flip side is that my customers are really happy with the results. Most tell us that it turned out better than they ever imagined.
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If you’re painting cabinets in a home you’re already living in, use a waterborne alkyd paint. This paint creates a glass-like finish that doesn’t show brush or roller marks and will hold up to your day-to-day wear.

We loved the Benjamin Moore Advance Waterborne Alkyd Paint for kitchen and bath cabinets. Benjamin Moore recommends this paint formula for giving cabinets a furniture-like finish. There are also very similar products from Sherwin Williams and Behr. Since we first wrote this post in 2016 we’ve found an even better paint for painting your cabinets!

Alkyd paints feel like an oil-based paint when you’re using them, with a nice smooth flow and self-leveling. They also have the benefit of low VOCs like latex paints and clean-up with soap and water. I’ll be fine if I never have to use paint thinner or mineral spirits again.

The Best Paints for Painting Cabinets

Benjamin Moore	Sherwin Williams	Behr
ADVANCE® Waterborne Interior Alkyd Paint	ProClassic Interior Waterbased Acrylic-Alkyd	Alkyd Semi-Gloss Enamel

If you have any specific questions or out of the ordinary applications, leave a comment below or contact us and we’ll try to help you make the right choice.

View of the kitchen with the cabinet doors removed

One thing we have noticed since we started painting cabinets is that the process can be confusing. Nobody knows what expect to see each night when they come home and see what has accomplished each day. I’m not sure why this was such a surprise to us, but it was. It’s one of those things where, when you’re really familiar with something, you assume that everyone knows what you know. But the fact is, they don’t. Otherwise we’d all be cabinet painters!

Painting kitchen cabinets is a very specific process. There’s lots of (tedious) steps involved. And all of them are either dirty, messy, or both. As careful, neat, and organized as we are, we still go home covered in paint each day – but you’ll look marvelous.

So if you’re going to have your cabinets painted, here’s what you can expect to see:
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Who says your kitchen island has to be the same color as your cabinets? Why not give your kitchen some much needed style, by making your island stand out?! The current trend of contrasting islands is here to stay. With a contrasting scheme, the island takes on an identity of its own—and makes an interesting focal point.  This is a simple way to give your kitchen a custom look, without breaking the bank.

Try one of these options to bring your kitchen to life.
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