Before & After: Painting our Kitchen Cabinets

This past weekend my parents and Kate came down here to Northern Virginia and helped us paint our kitchen cabinets. This has been on the list since we moved in last year. The brown wooden cabinets were in great shape and we didn’t want to do any major kitchen renovation at this time. Painting was the best option and they came out amazing! I can’t get over how much they brighten up the kitchen. I even think the backsplash and the counters look better now that the cabinets are painted.

This isn’t a quick project, but because we had my parents and Kate here to help us, the process moved a lot quicker than I thought!

THINGS YOU’LL NEED:

Deglosser/degreaser
1″ & 1.5″ brush this brand is my favorite
2 cabinet rollers at least 4-6 replacements. These mini cabinets rollers were a game changer.
Primer (1 gallon)
Paint (1 gallon) Benjamin Moore ADVANCE® Waterborne Interior Alkyd Paint – Satin Finish 792
Drop clothes (Lowe’s & Home Depot usually have plastic or paper you can put down)
Triangles – these came in handy when painting front and back
220 sandpaper
Electric power drill / screw driver (helps when getting cabinets/ handles off)
Space. Set up a space to paint. We used my deck and at night brought them back in
Clear bumper dots

Listing out the STEP BY STEP details below:

Take off the cabinet handles off
Degloss/ degrease. Instead of sanding we wiped the cabinets and anywhere we would paint with a degreaser/deglosser, my brother has used this before and swears by it. It also makes the process a lot faster!
Start taking cabinet doors off. Make sure to label where each one came from. We put some painters tape on the hinges of each cabinet (we can take the hinges off, but most of them we left on and I cut around them since they are hidden on the inside and not shown on the outside) We made a chart of which cabinets were A,B,C etc. This is SO important!
Primer – start 1st coat of primer. These cabinet rollers made a huge difference! We did all the backs first then by the time we turned them over the were dry (you can do a 2nd coat of primer but we didn’t and they are perfect!)
We waited around 4 hours before painting the first coat. Some people suggest to wait at least 24 hours before painting, but we went for it!
We finished the 1st coat of paint by sunset, brought all the cabinets into the kitchen to dry
Sand any spots where there may be drips or rough spots from the 1st coat
2nd coat. Next morning/afternoon we carefully hung a few of them up and started the 2nd coat (it was easy to get the front and back while hanging as long as one side is dry)
Leave your cabinets OPEN! We plan on leaving them open for atleast 2 weeks to really cure and tp help eliminate chipping
2 days later we carefully added the handles back on (These ones we have are $23 for 30 of them. Lightweight, but once they are on you can’t tell the difference)

One of our followers gave us a tip “if you are debating doing a 2nd coat. It needs a 2nd coat!!”

We can’t get over the difference in our kitchen and whole downstairs. If you are thinking about it, do it sooner than later! You won’t regret. This is such a great option if you want to update your kitchen, while still saving money.

BEFORE & AFTER:

When we first look at our house!