Refinishing Kitchen Cabinets: Simple Steps to a Colorful Makeover

TOOLS & MATERIALS

Replacing kitchen cabinets can be messy and expensive. Refinish cabinets with a fresh coat of paint and hardware is a budget friendly alternative perfect for intermediate DIYers. Here’s what you’ll need for this satisfying project:

TOOLS

• Phillips Screwdriver
• Drill/Driver
• Rosin Paper
• Painter’s Tape
• Paint Brushes/Rollers
• Putty Knife
• Finish Sander
• Sanding Block
• Vacuum

MATERIALS

• Degreasing Solution
• Scrubbing Sponge
• 100 and 200 Grit Sandpaper
• Wood Putty
• Drop Cloth
• Rags
• Tack Cloth
• Primer
• Paint
• Painter’s Tripods

When taking on this DIY task to refinish cabinets, be sure to equip yourself with the proper safety gear. Throughout the video, we’ll alert you regarding when you should and should not use the safety gear.

STEP ONE

Protect counters and floors. Start by covering your backsplash and counter with strips of rosin paper, taping it to both walls and counters. Place drop cloths along base cabinets.

STEP TWO

Remove doors, drawers, and hardware. Unscrew all hinges and remove them from both cabinets and doors. Empty drawers and remove them as well along with door and drawer pulls and handles. If you plan on reusing the hardware, store everything together in a safe place, along with connecting screws. Apply painters tape around cabinets to protect cabinets and the wall.

STEP THREE

Clean the cabinets. Use a degreasing solution and a scrubbing sponge to thoroughly clean cabinets, doors, and drawer fronts. Be sure not to skip this step, as cooking grease that accumulates on cabinets will prevent primer and paint to adhering properly.

STEP FOUR

Fill holes and dents. To ensure smooth surfaces, fill any dents with wood putty, wiping away excess with a putty knife. If you’re replacing hinges and handles with new hardware that features different hole spacing, fill all screw holes with wood putty as well. Reapply putty in all dents and holes to ensure they’re completely filled.

STEP FIVE

Sand. You’ll need to sand your cabinets so they’ll have the right tooth for your primer to adhere to. You can use a sanding block for this task. But, a power sander will save time and effort. Whichever method you choose, be sure to use 100 grit sandpaper and sand with the wood grain. If your doors or drawers have raised panels, use a fine grit sanding sponge to get into corners.

STEP SIX

Remove sanding dust. Vacuum all surfaces you’ve sanded. Then, wipe them down with a rag or tack cloth, which is specifically designed to pick up dust.

STEP SEVEN

Prime. For the smoothest possible paint surface, start with a primer labeled as sandable or high build. Brush back and forth to work the primer into the surface. Start by painting the back of the doors. Once they’re dry, flip over and paint the front. Don’t worry about even brush strokes since you’ll be sanding the primer once both sides are dry.

STEP EIGHT

Sand primer. Sand your primer with 220 grit sandpaper. Whether you use a sanding block or finished sander, be sure to sand with a light touch. Sanding too hard will remove the primer.

STEP NINE

Paint first coat. Paint with the grain, using long even strokes. After painting all drawers and doors, check the edges for drips, brushing out any that may have formed.

STEP TEN

Paint second coat. Allow the paint to dry per manufacturer instructions. Lightly sand and apply a second coat to all surfaces. Let the paint cure for a day or two before reinstalling doors and drawers. Failing to do so can cause the paint on doors and drawers to stick and chip.

STEP ELEVEN

Install hardware. Pre-drill new holes for knobs, pulls, and hinges. Whether you’re reinstalling old hardware or installing new hardware, take your time with the installation, making sure everything lines up and is properly centered.

Your project to refinish cabinets is complete. Step back and admire your newly refinished cabinets.

Looking for great tools to help get your project done?  Shop Stanley, Black & Decker and DeWALT for everything you need!

LESLIE:  Kitchen cabinet painting is one of the most popular ways to affordably update a kitchen. But can painting your kitchen cabinets provide the same level of beauty and durability of a factory applied finish? They can if you get the painting steps right. And that starts with using the right type of primer.

TOM:  Dr Greg Williams is an expert in all things paint. He’s the Director of Marketing for the Bare Paint Company and joins us with tips on achieving Instagram worthy results from your kitchen paint project. Welcome, Greg. Thank you for having me, Tom and Leslie. Good to be here.

I think priming is the step that DIYr’s like to skip, but is really essential for a lot of reasons, right ?

GREG: Yes, it’s absolutely critical because, you know, it’s the foundation of your coat and it gives you that strong adhesion to the substrate.

TOM:  Yeah, absolutely. I always say it’s like that’s the glue that makes the paint stick, right. I mean, if you don’t get that adhesion, then everything that follows is not going to be very durable.

GREG:  Absolutely. It could peel right off. And, you know, you put in all this hard work, you want to make sure you get a lasting finish for a number of years to come.

LESLIE:  So, if you’re trying to convince folks that priming is key, is it one cote? Is it two coats? I mean, we all know it does the good job that you need it to, but is more, better?

GREG:  More isn’t necessarily better. So with KILZ3 primer, which, you know, I would recommend, especially for kitchen cabinets, you can tackle the job with one coat and sometimes you’ll see a stain that might be still coming through. But rest assured, it is locking in that stain and it’s going to block it from coming through to the top coat. And that one coat is going to give you the proper foundation and adhesion you need to be confident that your coating is going to last for a long time.

TOM:  Yeah, you mentioned adhesion. So we have products out there that are strong adhesion. You have those that are high build. Can you kind of clarify some of those terms that consumers might see when they’re shopping for products ?

GREG:  When you see adhesion, you want to look closely to what substrate you’re talking about. So, you know, for example, with KILZ, we’ve got products designed for the right job. You might be trying to tackle an exterior masonry surface. You might be trying to tackle a kitchen cabinet project. So, you want to look for the combination of properties that’s appropriate. In the case of kitchen cabinets, there’s moisture as well.

So you want to make sure you’ve got something that’s going to give you good adhesion and durability, but also going to be mildew resistant and moisture tolerant. In addition, when you talk about the high build, this is delivering the amount of paint in one pass. So if you choose a paint that is a higher solids, has more volume solids with every coat, you’re going to get a thicker film applied. So it’s important to factor that in when you’re considering these projects, because the thicker the film, you’re getting better durability. But it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to put two or three coats. You can get by with one thick film that’s adhering very well to the substrate to give you that good interaction between top coat as well as the substrate.

TOM:  Now, the top coat actually flows a lot better when you have the primer in place. We’ve known as distinct differences in the way the painting finished dries when you’re going over a primer versus not. So that build really assists in making sure that you have fewer brush strokes and that sort of thing, right ?

GREG:  Absolutely. Yeah, that’s a great point. And so one of the main features, in addition to adhesion from a primer, is the fact that it can seal a porous substrate or uneven sheens or uneven finishes. Right. So as you go over that surface, it’s going to fill in any of those imperfections. It’s going to seal some of the porosity that you might have in different areas. Maybe you’ve used some of abrasive in the past and you’ve knocked down the gloss and now it’s more porous.

So in order to get uniform drying, which you’ll and uniform flow, which is really important for to minimize the brush marks, you need to properly seal the substrate. And that’s where the primer really comes in to do that.

LESLIE:  Now, what about sanding the primer before you apply the topcoat ? Is this a necessary step to sort of get a better finish or not needed at all?

GREG:  Typically, it’s not needed. And the reason for that is this is designed to have a good balance of properties and it’s designed to adhere well to the substrate. But also to the top coat. The primer is designed to stick very well to the top coat. This is what really makes a primer different from a top coat, is that it’s got both the good adhesion to the substrate, but also allows the top coat to stick very well to the primer. But if you were to use these same properties in a top coat, you’re not going to get your desired hardness and durability and performance. So that’s why it’s designed in this way to really maximize adhesion between both the coating and the substrate.

Gregg Williams, the director of product marketing for the Behr Paint Company and the KILZ brand. This guy knows what he’s talking about folks, he has a degree in organic chemistry, and if you want to know what makes paint stick, this is the guy you need to talk to. So, Greg, thank you so much for filling us. This was really, really helpful. And we appreciate your expertise.

GREG:  Thank you, Tom and Leslie. Great to be here. Great to talk about KILZ3 with you today.

TOM:  If you’d like to learn more about Kills three as the go to primer for kitchen projects, go to the website at KILZ.com. That’s K-I-L-Z.com.