Painting kitchen cabinets

W

wheres me jumpa

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Hi,

Can anyone tell how difficult it is to paint kitchen cabinets? I have searched the forum and seen some guidelines but would it be advisable for myself (little or no painting jobs under my belt!) to take it on?

If not, can anyone recommend somebody in the south east who would do a better job than myself!

Jumpa
 
Oh hell no I would say. It would be tricky if you painted before to get the finish right. But having never painted?? Dont forget you have to look at these every day, more often than you would notice your walls!!
 
peteb said:
Oh hell no I would say. It would be tricky if you painted before to get the finish right. But having never painted?? Dont forget you have to look at these every day, more often than you would notice your walls!!
Click to expand...

Thought as much! Some DIY guides lead to me to believe it may have been an easy task!

Any idea how much it would cost to hire somebody?
 
Painting well is a skill, but its not hard to learn. You learned how to ride a bike, use a computer, and drive a car. So you can surely learn how to paint.

Heres what I'd suggest..

Get hold of an old wooden piece of furniture, bookshelf, chest of drawers or something like that. Try the freecycle ads or ask around the family. And have a go!

Theres loads of youtube videos on upcycling furniture.

Lots of people go for chalk paint but for my money I'd recommend a good scrub with hot water and scrubber to get grease & dirt off. Use Easy Surface Primer to prepare and then paint a basic undercoat (I use white ceiling paint) and then Colortrend Satinwood paint. And spend money on good brushes.

When you've finished your furniture piece you'll be pleased as punch, you'll have a nice item to give as a present to some one and you have confidence to tackle the kitchen doors!

Best of luck
 
+1 on what Thirsty covered above - preparation is the key to the good finish.. need to clean the doors and then some more cleaning.

Are you planning on just the doors or the front of the frames / kick board(s) too? You should look into getting new handles also - will help change the look of the doors.
 
If all the doors and units are all solid wood, then with good prep, a little skill and plenty of patience, it's possible. If it's a modern kitchen, it's more likely you have PVC wrapped carcasses which would be a different story entirely.
 
As Leo said if they are wrapped PVC then I don't think painting is an option.

We repainted our kitchen doors and it is very simple and achievable but is not a fun or quick task.

In our case the doors were pine and had been poor painted about 15 years previously. We removed the doors, sanded them to remove old paint drips and bumps and to give a better surface for the new paint to stick to. We did not sand all the way to the wood just sanded all over the existing paint. Then we washed doors with a rag with white spirit to remove the sanding dust and grease and grime that collected over time.
We wanted a really good finish so we primed all the doors with 2 coats Vinsser BIN Primer (expensive stuff but really worth it). The great thing about this primer is it can be painted onto old paint whereas some primers require all old paint to be removed. We then used 2 coats of hard wearing paint in the colours we wanted (can't remember the brand).
The finish is easy enough to get right. For the priming and painting use brushes for the details / grooves and small sponge rollers for the flat surfaces. Let doors dry horizontally to prevent drips.

We did this a few evenings a week and on weekends and it took about 3 weeks to complete as we have a large kitchen with about 25 doors and lots of units. The result is excellent but it was time consuming and very monotonous and boring.

We asked for some quotes for people to do it but they told us it wouldn't be something they would want to do or that there was no point because the quotes would high because of the amount of work involved. As we had just bought the house we had no spare money for it anyway and decided to do the DIY approach.

Hope that helps
 
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Did ours before Christmas...we have vinyl doors but wood kitchen...just sugar soaped, bin primer oil based one dulux satinwood...

I practiced on sunroom first but I used much cheaper b&q satinwood paint suitable for metal and wood...did wood ceiling, windowboards, skirting boards unit. All fine. Was disappointed with dulux, took way more coats and drip marks if not really checked.

If your on fb join make a house a home...real Irish women diy...
 
If your cabinet doors are real wood and had already been varnished without paint being added later just remove the doors (simple process). Your local cabinet maker will easily be able to strip the old varnish and respray with the new varnish. This can be done even with glass doors. After the process the doors will look like new. Just screw them back on.
 
Just one thing to be careful of you should check who every put in your kitchen they might be able to spray them to the color that way they wont don't chip as much if they are sprayed and primed as the do when they are hand brushed and the colour does not go as yellow.
 
I used acrylic paint quite effectively when I did mine. Some good tips early in the thread, notably to buy decent brushes for the job. And prepare the surfaces, sand and clean, and then clean again.
 
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