“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You don’t need to have a kitchen as outdated as the Brady Bunch to want to update the cabinets to something more stylish.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 a normal DIY homeowner painting kitchen cabinets in a house you’re already living in, we recommend using a waterborne alkyd paint. These paints create a glass-like finish that barely shows brush or roller marks and will hold up to your day-to-day wear and look like new cabinets.

Like any good painting projects, this one will require proper prep work, including cleaning, degreasing, filling in big dents or gouges with wood filler and finally sanding. When you decide to paint kitchen cabinets it’s even more important because of the abuse they will need to put up with.

You don’t have to go overboard with the sanding. You need to get the cabinet doors “roughed up” enough so the new paint will adhere properly. That doesn’t mean you have to get your wood cabinets looking like they just came out of a woodshop. The sandpaper you use should be a fine grit (150-180 grit sandpaper) or even a superfine (220-240 grit sandpaper).

We loved the Benjamin Moore Advance Waterborne Alkyd Paint for cabinet doors, cabinet drawers and the cabinet face frames. Benjamin Moore recommends this paint formula for giving cabinets a furniture-like finish. There are also very similar products from Sherwin Williams, Valspar and Home Depot’s 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. The dry time is about an hour for these which allow you to continue moving at a good pace.

I’ll be fine if I never have to use paint thinner or mineral spirits again to clean up oil paint. Dripping on your countertops or backsplash with a water-based paint can be cleaned up with a damp paper towel.

Best Paint Choices for Painting Cabinets

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

Part of your choice will also be what type of sheen you want. A cabinet paint in a matte finish will be the easiest for you to get a smooth finish, minimal brush marks and the easiest to touch up later if you have a scuff or other type of accident. As you move up the glossy finish spectrum – eggshell, satin finish, semi-gloss, gloss, and high gloss finish – imperfections become easier to spot and harder to touch-up without noticing.

You may also be wondering about a top coat to protect your paint job. That will depend on the type of paint that you decided to use. The best paints for cabinets are made specifically to cure hard and durable. Other paints, like enamel paints and acrylic paints, also cure to a very durable finish and don’t normally need a top coat. In the end, it will depend on how much additional effort you want to put in. It’s all about using the right paint for the right job.

Kitchen Cabinets that are not wood

We receive questions every week from people with laminate doors or thermofoil cabinets (which is cabinetry that is made out of MDF wrapped in a plastic skin). Both of these can be painted as long as the structure of the cabinet doors is stable. The prepping will remain the same, and the painting techniques are also the same. The paintbrush that works best on these types of cabinets should be as soft and allow the paint to flow easily. If you decide to use a foam roller be aware that it’s much more difficult to get a glassy finish because of the way it works.

The makeover effect of painting any cabinets is always amazing, but the “builder grade”, white, thermofoil kitchen cabinets becoming customized is almost breathtaking.

No Brush Strokes

If you want to paint your cabinets, you can also try a hybrid approach. If you take the initiative to remove the doors and drawer fronts you can bring them to a professional sprayer so they will have a true factory finish and then you’ll only have to brush the face frames by hand. This solution is usually a great middle-ground when the homeowner is handy but wants a better final look. This is something we do at 2 Cabinet Girls fairly regularly for customers.

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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