There is a long process to painting your kitchen cabinets. If you don’t properly prep your cabinets, you’ll be sure that your paint finish won’t last long. Proper preparation also gives you a good foundation for achieving the beautiful, professional look you want for your upgraded cabinets. There are 7 steps to preparing your kitchen cabinets to receive the best durable finish.
The first step in the 7-step process is to remove all hardware. You want to remove the cabinet doors to make it easier to paint the kitchen cabinets. Most homeowners plan to reuse their hardware, so it is very important to remove the hardware to protect it from the next steps in the 7-step process. After you remove the hardware, you want to make sure to put the hinges, knobs, handles, and screws in a safe place so that when the painting project is done, you can easily install it.
The next step is to mask your cabinets. The worst thing you can do is damage your walls and countertops while trying to paint your cabinets. When masking, you want to cover everything, with paper or plastic, and use blue painter’s tape for easy removal and release of the tape from walls, floors, and countertops. Most people skip floor masking, but proper masking will give you crisp, clean lines on your floors. Painting near the floor is a difficult task to begin with, so be sure to tape the floor and cover it to avoid having to clean up paint splatters later.
After everything is masked and covered, the next step is to degrease the cabinets. If you have new cabinets that have not held up to the cooking environment, skip this step. Most paints claim to block stains, but oil stains are a different thing and any oil left behind will cause the paint job to fail, plus oil stains will go through the paint. You don’t want to put in 4 days of paint only to realize you’ll need to repaint your cabinets to remove oil stains. You can use any degreaser, just be sure to clean all the degreaser off the cabinets after you’re done.
The next most difficult part of the prep process is sanding the cabinets. You first need to make sure that the cabinets are dry from the degreasing process. Once you’re sure the cabinets are dry, you’ll need to sand them. It is best to use 220 grit sandpaper or blocks. Anything coarser than 220 will cause deep scratches that will show through the paint finish, so be sure not to use anything coarser than 220 grit. make sure your cabinets don’t have a shine or tarnish. If your cabinets were stained and sealed, the sealer is the clear coat and the sealer is what protects your cabinets, and that includes paint protection. Therefore, you must sand the shiny protection of your cabinets.
Once you’ve finished sanding the cabinets, you need to remove any dust left behind. Not removing all of the sanding dust can cause two problems. One problem is paint failure. Dust will prevent the primer from adhering properly to the cabinets. The dust creates a layer between the cabinets and the primer, which means the primer will not come in direct contact with the cabinets and be problematic at some point in the future. The other problem that dust will create is giving it a gritty finish. Once the primer dries on top of the powder, the primer will take on the characteristics of powder, which is a gritty texture. Also, the gritty texture will make it difficult to clean the cabinets later. Smooth cabinets are easier to clean than gritty-textured cabinets. Oil and dirt will be embedded in the holes that sanding dust will create. You should use microfiber cloths to remove dust after vacuuming up the dust.
Caulking and wood filler in cabinet blemishes will go a long way to making your cabinet paint job look professional. You won’t have to wait to caulk after the degreaser and sanding have finished to avoid damaging the cabinet and wood filler. If you need to wood fill something in your cabinets, be sure to do it before you caulk because after you fill the holes or grain with wood putty, you’ll have to sand the wood putty smooth. Then you would repeat the dust removal process mentioned above. Even with your caulk, you want to use a very small hole to caulk your kitchen cabinets. Be sure to smooth the putty properly by removing any excess putty and residue, as any unsmooth putty will show through you into the paint.
The last step in the 7-step process is to prime your cabinets. Before priming, you need to make sure your caulk is completely dry. If the caulk is not completely dry, the primer will dry more slowly and lead to failure later on. If you don’t let the caulk dry, the caulk will shrink, crack, or shrink and crack once you’re done painting the cabinets.