I have 12 year oak cupboards and want to paint them white. Should I have them professionally sprayed or can I do them myself. What paint, oil or latex? Prep? How do I go about finding someone to spray them?
You can paint them yourself. Wagner makes some pretty good spray equiptment that the average homeowner can use. The trick to painting is the prep. With kitchen cabinets people make the mistake of sanding the finish before they prep the fronts. You need to clean the cabinets really well to prevent the oils the grease that are on them from getting worked into the wood. Once that happens you will find it very hard to get the paint to properly stick. Go to a good quality paint store for advice on what cleaners to use. TSP is one but depending on the condition of the fronts you may need something a little stronger. Be sure to remove all hardware. Ideally painting should be done outside in a garage. Be sure to turn off any pilot lights on heating and hot water heaters if yoru going to do this in the basement. A good box fan for air to vent to outside of room is helpfull. As the spray dust will build up fast. Spray the backs first and let them dry. then the fronts. With spray equiptment you can put a lot of paint down real quick. Move fast and do several lighter coats rather then just one or two heavier ones. A high gloss oil base finish is the best. Much harder to clean up the spray equipment but much better results. Most outside folks would use water bases paints because they do not want to bother with cleaning their spray equiptment.
Posts: 952 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
I painted my cabinets. I cleaned them well to remove all food and residue then primed them with a good primer such as Kilz. I used a brush to paint the grooved areas first then used a foam roller to cover the rest. I was able to paint them on the cabinets by just removing the hardware and taping off the hinges. I used a latex gloss but you can use an oil based also if you don't mind the smell and extra clean up
Originally posted by The Home Care Club LLC: You can paint them yourself. Wagner makes some pretty good spray equiptment that the average homeowner can use. The trick to painting is the prep. With kitchen cabinets people make the mistake of sanding the finish before they prep the fronts. You need to clean the cabinets really well to prevent the oils the grease that are on them from getting worked into the wood. Once that happens you will find it very hard to get the paint to properly stick. Go to a good quality paint store for advice on what cleaners to use. TSP is one but depending on the condition of the fronts you may need something a little stronger. Be sure to remove all hardware. Ideally painting should be done outside in a garage. Be sure to turn off any pilot lights on heating and hot water heaters if yoru going to do this in the basement. A good box fan for air to vent to outside of room is helpfull. As the spray dust will build up fast. Spray the backs first and let them dry. then the fronts. With spray equiptment you can put a lot of paint down real quick. Move fast and do several lighter coats rather then just one or two heavier ones. A high gloss oil base finish is the best. Much harder to clean up the spray equipment but much better results. Most outside folks would use water bases paints because they do not want to bother with cleaning their spray equiptment.
I have been wanting to paint my cabinets since we moved in this house(15 yrs.ago) Unfortunately my husband thinks it's a "mortal sin" to paint the "beautiful oak wood" YUK! Any suggestions for me to update with a faux finish or would cabinets look nicer with a coat of paint. All of this would need to be done by my "lonesome" and cost at this time is of importance to me. Thanks for any and all advice you can give me. Shirley B.
