Painting Kitchen Cabinets

[edgemar]

My kitchen cabinets were done on the cheap. The coating was minimal at best and most of areas where any type of contact occurs have rubbed off to bare wood.

I want to re-finish them...maybe spring for a HVLP gun to do it. (Fuji 2203)

Is the learning curve too steep to take something like this on?

I have been doing research on paints and there are a huge amount of opinions. Some people like Benjamin Moore Advance, while others say European paints like Renner are the way to go.

Anyone have any thoughts or could point me in the right direction?

TIA

[KFC911]

I would hire Dipso

[edgemar]

Pic... yuck..

[wdfifteen]

Prep work is going to make or break the job. Zeke probably knows the best paint to use in an HVLP gun for woodwork.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by tcar

TSP first.... (Tri-sodium Phosphate)

You don't want to get the wood too wet. But they must be clean. I'd steel wool the flaking stuff and wipe with alcohol, then put a sealer on just that part. Then wash with a damp rag, dry and sand. Dust off and prime everything.

Sand lightly using fine steel wool on the contours and dust again followed by a damp wipe with a lint free cloth (sheet). Paint a light coat and allow an hour then lay it on.

You'll need practice with a gun before painting. Thinning and adjusting the gun and your spraying technique will have to be dialed in closely and related to ambient temps.

No recommendations on an HVLP. I have the blower type and the compressed air type. They do have different air caps, fluid nozzles and needles for different materials. What is good for a fence isn't what you want for cabinets. Do your research!

[Chocaholic]

Or hire Dipso. A man must know his limitations.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by KC911

I would hire Dipso

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Or hire Dipso. A man must know his limitations.

Well then you'd have a liberal cabinet.

[edgemar]

Zeke - what paint do you prefer?

Thx!

[908/930]

I used BM Advanced paint years ago on kitchen cabs and it worked out really well, as others have said clean with TSP then lightly sand, I used there primer and then sanded again to get flat then painted with a foam roller, the Advance paint flattens out quite well.

[PorscheGAL]

Originally Posted by edgemar

My kitchen cabinets were done on the cheap. The coating was minimal at best and most of areas where any type of contact occurs have rubbed off to bare wood.

I want to re-finish them...maybe spring for a HVLP gun to do it. (Fuji 2203)

Is the learning curve too steep to take something like this on?

I have been doing research on paints and there are a huge amount of opinions. Some people like Benjamin Moore Advance, while others say European paints like Renner are the way to go.

Anyone have any thoughts or could point me in the right direction?

TIA

My husband has just built a bookshelf in our home and is painting using a HVLP. Do not use the BM Advanced. He painted the doors in one room with that and 1 week later draped the room to spray the shelves. The plastic fused to the new paint. It will need to be redone. Learned later it's cure time is 30-60 days. The bookshelves are being sprayed with Target coatings laquer on the bookshelves.

Learned a lot from this guys YouTube channel about prep work and how to spray with HVLP

https://www.youtube.com/user/idahopainters

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Well then you'd have a liberal cabinet.

LOL...yer a hoot

[dad911]

I've been happy with the cheap harbor-freight hvlp cup gun. Under $20 It's my goto for trim etc.

I just used it to 'mist' a wood ceiling for whitewash look. Also used it for trim, and some car parts like my rollcage.

check this thread: paint gun done gone , need a new one.

[look 171]

Our paint sucks here in Ca especially LA county. Now days, I am not sure if that LA county makes a difference anymore? I use A product call Chemcraft, but not available to the public. We have also used General finish's Milk Paint (I know, the name? but its great stuff) and their clear coat on top of that. It will take a little time, but the protection offered is amazing. Some of the industrial water base clear coat is damn good at keeping water out like you have there and offer superior protection against scuffing over many traditional oil or lacquer base finishes.


General finishes can mix white or whatever color into the clear but only a couple locations will do that in socal. I think they call it Whitepoly? But I can check Monday when I go back to the shop. The beauty about using those products are that they are all self leveling.

1,Clean and prep, shoot primer over bear wood.

2,Sand with 320 grit 3m Tri-mite paper

3,Shoot paint (thin coat, the entire door), let dry and sand with 320 grit paper, shoot another coat.

4,Shoot clear (Thin first coat), let dry and sand between coat with 320

5,Shoot med to semi heavy coat. Let dry for 2-3 hours, sand and repeat. Apply two coats

6,Apply thin to medium coat, but make sure its apply evenly through out the surface of the door. Make sure door is sitting flat so the finish do not run on thick coats. Let dry over night. Hang em back up, done.

For Whitepoly, skip no. 3

If you want to do that, Let me know, I can help you with my discount. The cost is a lot more then jsut paint. If paint is what you want, I will ask my guys for the name. the name escapes me now. Its a durable paint, drys pretty hard. Dry time is much longer then the typical water base paint.

One more important thing, make sure you shoot good coats on all edges of door. I mean a good coat. That's where the damages occurs and it gets beat up there often.

[edgemar]

Look -

Awesome write up! Thanks! A lot of good info about Milk paint on youtube as well.

[look 171]

Where in socal are you. If you decide to use General finishes, the place is in OC.

[edgemar]

Look PM'd you.

thx!

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by edgemar

Pic... yuck..

Hey, plenty of folks out there pay extra for the "distressed" look.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by edgemar

Zeke - what paint do you prefer?

Thx!

Lately I have used a "Hybrid Urethane Alkyd Satin Enamel Interior/Exterior" (copy from the HD site) which has been a decent alternative to the fact that a lot of good cabinet finishes are not available in CA.

Whenever look171 posts about finishing, I would defer to him. I've been doing it a long time but cabinets and mill work are his specialties.

I just can't afford him.

[john70t]

Not a pro, but I did some off-white cabinet doors only with a HPLV in the garage. Turned out okay.
Used Sherman Williams self-leveling made for that, but with no gloss clear.

First swept and blew out every spec of dirt inside.
I put them raised up on a door on saw horses. There will be overspray and it will be messy. Make sure there is room for hose and to walk around.
Wiped down everything with acetone then TSP and let dry.
There was a light source from the door windows but some extra spotlights were needed.

Did some practice adjustments to get the paint to flow right. You want to use fine round for the corners and big sweeps for the flats.
Sprayed all the edges blending into the flats and let them dry.
I erred on the side of too much acetone thinner and doing multiple coats. Didn't want drips and runs.
After a couple coats on edges, do the edges again, and then the flats.
If the gun is too close there will be orange peel. If too far away or going towards you there will be a bumpy surface.

I went slowly, away from me, hose over shoulder, so the mist didn't stick and create sandpaper.
Gun was slightly at an angle to not create pressure lines.
Using the back light for reflection, spray slowly enough for all the droplets to melt together and create a mirror and continue on.

(most important: No stains for at least several months. I went back and there were rivers of dried red wine running down the faces. Tearing my hair out. I was surprised but those actually cleaned off mostly)

[javadog]

I did this last year, in conjunction with the light remodel on the kitchen. I removed the countertops, as I was going back with granite anyway. I also removed all the doors and drawer fronts and just had new ones made. It wasn’t worth the effort to strip them. Mine had the original stained finish, plus one coat of God knows what which had been applied by the wife, over a three day weekend when I was on the East Coast at a motorcycle race. Because of her lack of prep and copious consumption of Chardonnay while painting, the results were less than stellar. There was no way I was simply going to paint over that, it had to come off. Because the paint you have now didn’t adhere well, my suggestion would be to strip them completely.

In my case, I used a citrus-based stripper, followed by careful cleaning of the residue then sanding with a variety of different types of sanders. Once down to bare wood, I primed then painted them. I used Benjamin Moore Advance, which is a modified alkyd and seems to be pretty durable. Cases were spray-painted in situ, doors and drawer fronts were sprayed in the garage.