Painting Cabinets like a Pro Tips 6-10:

Learn my tips for painting cabinets from 15 years of experience! Paint cabinets like a pro with this list of supplies for your DIY cabinet painting project.

Tip 6)  Shellac-based primer is by far the best primer for painting cabinets.  Shellac will stick to anything and anything will stick to Shellac.  Again, this is NOT a substitute for sanding.  Primer should only be applied after you have properly prepped your cabinets.

Learn my tips for painting cabinets from 15 years of experience! Paint cabinets like a pro with this list of supplies for your DIY cabinet painting project.

Tip 7)  Wrap your paint trays with Press ‘n Seal before pouring the paint in the tray.  It will make clean-up a breeze.  I also wrap my paint brushes with Press ‘n Seal to keep from having to wash out my brush between coats.  The enemy of paint is air so as long as you keep the air out…your brush will be ready for the next coat.

Tip 8)  Mohair rollers are the best way to get that professionally-sprayed look on your cabinets.  At Rekindled Spaces, we always take the doors and drawers back to our shop and spray them in our paint booth but what about the body of the cabinets?  Most of the homes we work in have families living in them.  So we opt to brush and roll the body of the cabinets to keep disruption for the family at a minimum.  Using these rollers, makes it almost impossible to tell the difference between what has been sprayed and what has been rolled.

Tip 9)  Buffing pads are the key to getting a smooth finish every time.   At Rekindled Spaces, we buff between every layer that is applied to the surface.  This accomplishes 2 things:  1)  It ensures that each coat of product that was applied bonded correctly and 2) guarantees a smooth finish.

Learn my tips for painting cabinets from 15 years of experience! Paint cabinets like a pro with this list of supplies for your DIY cabinet painting project.

Tip 10)  These paint pyramids are a true time-saver.  You can paint one side of the cabinet door and flip it over immediately and set the door on the pyramids and paint the other side.  Trust me…order 2 or 3 packs of these at once because you will use them all of the time.  I use them for my spray-painting projects almost daily.

As far as paints go, I have 2 brands/product that use:

  1. Benjamin Moore Advance, a premium quality, waterborne alkyd paint that offers a full line of durable high-end finishes ideal for doors, trim and cabinetry.
  2. Sherwin Williams  ProClassic® Interior Waterbased Acrylic-Alkyd Enamel,  a tough and durable coating that enhances the look of doors, trim, cabinets and furniture. Excellent adhesion, flow and leveling, non-yellowing and a unique wet and dry hide makes ProClassic® a perfect choice

If you have a brand/type of paint that you love, by all means stick with it but as a decorative painter and cabinet-refinisher of 17 years. these are the 2 paints that I use.

I hope these tips have made painting seem a little less daunting.  Trust me…painting your cabinets is not for the faint of heart but it can be done.  I would just make this one request:  If you are going to paint your cabinets yourself, paint them like the pros would do.

DIY doesn’t mean take short cuts…it means Do-it-yourself THE RIGHT WAY!

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