HOW I PAINTED MY CUSTOM CABINETS
I really had to bite the bullet on this project. When I first renovated my home and took it down to basically dirt, I chose to go with custom made cabinetry. I chose a traditional door style in hopes that over the years they remained timeless BUT the colour… I just couldn’t shake it anymore. Finally, I decided enough is enough and with my open floor plan, I wanted to love every corner.
You should know that I haven’t yet placed my hands on a paint sprayer or tackled any project of this type. Needless to say, I did a ton of research! Now that a few months have gone by and ZERO chipping has occurred, I feel confident to share my method and products used.
Prep work and patience are NOT my thing, I’m more of a walk in with a sledge hammer or paint with no tape kind of gal. Before starting I had to sit down and have a talk with myself, “Take the time, do it properly, don’t rush, just breathe”, you too might need this little self chat.
PREP WORK:
Ahhhh I know, prep is a real pain in the ass hey? This is usually the part where people start to question whether or not it’s worth doing. But guess what? A little elbow grease and a week of sanding/painting is worth it once you sit back and like what you see. First, remove all hardware and cabinets (kind of a no brainer there). Label inside where the hinges are or under a drawer where you took it from so when it comes time to place them back, it’s easy. Next, CLEAN, and I mean spotless. Any grease left over will transfer through. I used TSP followed by soap and warm water. I was so paranoid that I might of missed a spot and took it to the next level by shining a flash light on the damn cabinets to see if I could spot anything. Don’t be like me, it’s probably good to go and the next step, sanding, will help. Oh and yes, this is the cleanest your cabinets will probably ever be.
On to sanding...I started with 120 grit to rough the surface up followed by 220 with my orbital sander and by hand. You do not need to take down the previous paint completely but if you have varnished wood cabinets, it’s probably best you remove all of that. Speaking of wood cabinets, I believe this method would work if you have a unpainted surface but you should double check, I’m not THAT trustworthy. The sanding step is important as it gives the paint something to adhere to. Once the sanding was over, which felt like a life time, you can clean with a wet microfibre cloth. Also, you could probably use a wipe down as well after this step.
Here is a picture of the original colour.
PAINT SPRAYER:
You are now ready for paint. I chose to use the Wagner Flexio 590 because the price was right, the reviews were standard and it was a HVLP sprayer which is recommended. What is HVLP? It is the acronym for high voltage low power. You can google this but basically, it just means you will get a softer spray with less product waste. Now, let me stop you right here and warn you that before you even begin to spray, put on a friggen mask. If you watch my Instagram videos of painting, you will notice I did not wear one and I regret it after thinking about all the chemicals I was just carelessly breathing in - not to mention my “forrest floor” tinted boogers for days. Back to spraying - when using the Wagner, I did notice when it came time to apply my colour I needed to dilute with water or there was texture - we are aiming for a flawlessly smooth finish here and not a spackled ceiling look. I would use 1/2 cup of water to 3 cups of paint. Sometimes I had to add splash of water again if I noticed it was spackling. You want the spray to be “misty” if that makes sense. The Wagner has multiple settings and I used the max air flow and max paint flow. I was too impatient at this stage to get into reading the manual and just found a setting that I liked best, MAX dude. Be sure to test the settings on a piece of cardboard and not on your cabinet. A few other things to note while spraying are to pull the trigger before meeting the cabinet and release once your past the end point. Use the wide setting and move swiftly - I did 3 passes to complete the cabinet end to end and on an angle to make contact with the edges.
PRIME:
The first coat will be your primer and don’t even think about skipping this part. Actually, don’t skip any parts and think this will turn out good - follow the steps, alright? The primer is basically the glue to hold the paint on and without it, you will most likely experience chipping. I used the brand INSL-X STIX and did not water it down.
The Process:
•Spray
•Wait for dry time
•Sand with 400 grit by hand
•Clean with microfibre cloth and water
•Repeat once more
I did two coats of primer as I applied each coat nice and thin to reduce running or bubbles.
By the way, sanding is your best friend. However you finish your last coat of paint by sanding is going to affect the next coat. You want this to feel silky smooth and use your bare hands to feel for any roughness. I chose to skip the orbital sander for these stages and hand sanded. I found this to be easier as I had more control and used a sanding block (sponge type thing) wrapped in a sheet of sand paper. I bought sheets of paper opposed to new sanding blocks as it was more cost effective and I found it to last longer than the block.
PAINT:
Finally, you can lay some colour down, yahoo! I read great reviews on the Benjamin Moore Advanced line and bonus, I could get it locally. The colour I chose is called Forrest Floor in a satin finish (sorry if you refer to my boogies as this now). I added the paint to my gun with the watered down recipe I mentioned above and started spraying. Don’t try and get this to be one solid colour right away, do thin coats and take your time.
The Process:
•Spray
•Wait for dry time
•Sand with 400 grit
•Clean with water and microfibre cloth
•Repeat until colour is SOLID
I needed 4 coats and I think it’s because I sprayed each coat so lightly and experienced some texture when I did my 3rd coat, bummer hey? Oh well. I also would spray in the morning and then sand, clean, spray again the next morning giving it about 24 hours in between each coat.
While I had the cabinets in the shop being painted, I also had to paint the bases for the cabinets. I followed the same prep and paint process but let me tell ya, it’s a mess. Looking back I probably would of just used a roller and quality brush to tackle this area. Even though I did my best to tape and plastic off all areas, the overspray did float in the air and land on everything. So, you can do a super professional job by absolutely blocking off the space with plastic but I already felt major guilt using as much as I did to waste afterwards (that’s just me though, I like to reduce as much waste as possible).
I ended up doing 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of colour on my bases because having a taped off kitchen with a toddler was not fun. I also rushed the dry times on this but all seems to be holding up. To be honest, the corner did chip but didn’t stand a chance against the metal Tonka.
Once everything is completed, you may want to haul the cabinets right back to their home and install them but I suggest you don’t. The paint actually takes around 30 days to fully cure. Again, we know I don’t have patience, but I was able to push it to about 2 weeks before I installed them again.
MATERIALS:
Soap and TSP
Microfibre cloths
Mask
Orbital Sander
120/220/400 Grit Sandpaper - ALOT
Wagner Flexio 590
Paint roller and Brush
Primer (INSL-X STIX)
Paint (Benjamin Moore Advanced)
Of course, I’m always nose to the grindstone when I start a project and took zero pictures of each stage. What I did do is video my journey and if you would like to watch, I have a highlight reel on my Instagram @mynavyhomeco called Kitchen. I also have a blog post on how to make concrete countertops here: Concrete Countertops
DISCLAIMER : This post is not sponsored or endorsed, the end.