My Old Kitchen Cabinets received a Facelift

My Kitchen Received a Makeover. Kitchen cabinet painting.

Andover cabinets before painting

We see them on TV with all the television shows on how fast and easy it is.  In a half hour they remove the old kitchen cabinets rip up the floor, rearrange the configuration of the room and during a commercial break they install the new kitchen.  They even have a bowl of fresh fruit on the counter when they are complete.

Unfortunately this is not reality.

We recently decided to “spruce” up the kitchen as our plans are to move within the next year and did not

want to invest too much in our kitchen as it had “good bones” but after 4 kids it needed some reviving.

A new renovation would have been in the $40,000 range and that was not in the budget for this kitchen.

The cabinets were from the 1980s.  The cabinet boxes were made from plywood and the cabinets were some kind of solid wood.  We are now having new counters and back splashes installed and this will be performed in the next few weeks to complete the transformation.

Since we own a painting company we decided to do what we do best.  LET”S PAINT.

The process of repainting the cabinets:

1. remove all cabinet doors and associated hardware.
   

   complete cabinet painting in Andover

2. wash down all the surfaces inside and out with dawn dish detergent, it works on oil covered birds so it will work on your cabinets.
3. light sand all the cabinets, doors and drawer fronts.
4. repair any imperfections to your liking.
5. apply an oil based stain blocking primer made for this application.  Please remember that not all primers are the same and there are ones especially made for applications such as this.
6. lightly sand after priming and vacuum and use a Tack cloth to remove dust and other contaminants before painting
7. apply two coats of a HIGH Quality interior paint.  We used Benjamin Moore Advanced latex semigloss paint for the cabinets waiting 24 hours between each coat.
8. We then waited another 48 hours after final painting for cure time before  reinstalling doors to cabinet boxes.  We used this time when no cabinet doors were installed to install contact paper in the cabinets and cabinet pads as we had easy access.

• The color we used on the Cabinets is Benjamin Moore Cinder

A couple Tips for Do it Yourselfers.

• As you remove the cabinet doors and drawers, LABEL them.  A small piece of tape were the hinge goes with a number under so that you do not paint over the number.
• If you are going to change the hinges or pulls/handles try a test cabinet door first as some times the hinges or cabinet pulls do not line up with the old holes. We also have found marks from the old hardware can be tough to sand off or hide
• Do not rush the process
• We also have two larger dogs and their fur seems to wander and added a step to always vacuum and wipe down with tack cloths between every coat of paint.

Good luck if you take this project on yourself and if you need advice, questions answered or would like Ramsden 1-800 PAINTING to provide a proposal on painting your cabinets you can contact us at Ramsden Painting website .