How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets

Painting kitchen cabinets is an easy and inexpensive way to bring old cabinets back to life. AsktheDecorator.com host Meghan Carter shows you how to paint kitchen cabinets and offers a few inspirational decorating ideas for really dressing up your kitchen cabinets.

Painting kitchen cabinets brings old cabinets back to life and I will show you how to paint them like a pro. I am Meghan Carter and this is Ask the Decorator. Painting kitchen cabinets is so easy that your biggest problem will be choosing which color to paint them. For these cabinets, I will be using a light purple color and I will keep the bottom cabinets stains, so that the cool color repaint will contrast beautifully with the warm tones of the stain, which will give this kitchen an inviting, and refreshing feel, but enough about color. Let us start painting. When you paint kitchen cabinets, you should first remove the cabinet doors in cabinet hardware. Taking those off will make it easier to clean and paint your cabinets. Once the cabinet doors and hardware have been removed, clean the cabinets and doors with a mild soap and water. Then wipe them dry with a clean cloth, once your kitchen cabinets are dry, it is time to rough them up. So the paint will really stick. Now, you can either use sand paper or liquid de-glosser to rough up your cabinets. I will be using a liquid de-glosser because it is so much easier and quicker to use. But if you decide to use sandpaper, make sure you clean up all of the dust really well. Otherwise, you will ruin your paint finish. Now, if you decide to use the liquid de-glosser you will probably want to wear some gloves. Put a small amount on a lint-free cloth then rub the cloth in circular motions on the cabinet, until all of the cabinet has been covered with de-glosser. Wait until the de-glosser has dried. The instructions will tell you how long to wait and you are done. It really is that easy and trust me it is way better than sanding. Once your kitchen cabinets had been all roughed up, you want to apply the primer. Now, you should use an oil base primer, because oil base primer stick much better than latex primers. Now, to apply the primer, all you need to use is a clean paint brush. When applying primer and paint for that matter, there is a proper technique. If you have beveled doors such as these, you want to start in the center of the cabinet on the race portion and work your way out. Painting the door in that order will help to eliminate drips, with painting flat doors and the base of kitchen cabinets, start painting on the top of one side of the cabinet and then work your way across. When painting those cabinet doors in the base of the cabinet, you stray even strokes. If some of your strokes look heavier than others, go over them and blend them together. To blend your strokes together, start your brush stroke applying the same amount of pressure you normally use when painting. And as you move toward the stroke, gently lift up the brush. It will make your brush stroke disappear and blend them to your previous brush strokes. If you do find drips, do not worry they are easy to eliminate. First get all of the paint off of your paint brush. Then blend the drip into the rest of the paint using the blending technique I just showed you. Once you are done applying your primer you need to let it dry. Read the primers label to see how long it needs to dry. It is best to apply your first coat of paint, as soon as the primer is dry. Do not wait days after priming to paint. Your finish would not look as good. The primer is dry, which means it is time to start painting the kitchen cabinets. Now kitchen cabinet needs to stand a lot of abuse, which means you need a very durable finish. Now, I recommend using an oil base paint because oil base paints have more durable finishes than latex paint. When you apply the paint, do it exactly the same as you did with the primer. Remember to blend and you straight even brush strokes to get the best finish. Let the paint dry and apply second coat if needed. Once the paint is completely dry you can put the cabinet hardware back on and attach the doors to the kitchen cabinet. If you find single colored kitchen cabinets boring, here are some cabinet painting ideas. You can give your cabinets a bit of depth, by using a two toned effect. Simply paint the indented part of the cabinet you shade lighter then the raise part and you are done. Still not interesting enough? Maintain a design on your cabinet door. Painting your kitchen cabinets with the design will personalize your kitchen and it adds color and pattern to the room. But maybe now, after all that hard work the cabinets look too new. If that is the case glaze them. Using a glaze will make your kitchen cabinets look empty. What do you think was I able to bring these old cabinets back to life? I think they look pretty good. I am Meghan carter and this is Ask the Decorator. For more decorating tips and information on new decorating products visit my website AskTheDecorator.com