When we bought our ranch house, the kitchen cabinets were the color of a well-used catcher's mitt. Dark stained wood, original to 1974, with brass pulls that had worn down to a sort of greenish bronze. They were solid, and the boxes were in good shape, but the room always felt like it was about 6 p.m. in November, even at noon in June.
A kitchen remodel was never going to happen on one income. A quote I got from a local refinishing company to paint them professionally came back at a little over $4,000. So this fall, over three weekends in late September and early October, Mike and I painted them ourselves for $236. They're done, they look good, and I have opinions.
What we bought
| Supply | Cost |
|---|---|
| Degreasing cleaner | $9 |
| Sanding sponges and 220-grit paper | $16 |
| Bonding primer, 1 gallon | $44 |
| Cabinet and trim enamel, 1 gallon plus 1 quart | $98 |
| Foam mini rollers, a good angled brush, trays | $27 |
| Wood filler, painter's tape, drop cloths | $18 |
| Clear bumper pads | $4 |
| Spray paint for the old hardware | $20 |
| Total | $236 |
We kept the original hinges and pulls. Mike cleaned them in a bucket of hot water and dish soap, and we spray-painted them a matte black. They look like new hardware, and replacing all 32 pulls would have cost more than the paint.
How we did it
- Label everything. Before taking off a single door, I put a piece of painter's tape inside each one with a number and a matching number inside the cabinet frame. Do not skip this. Doors that look identical are not.
- Remove doors and hardware. Screws went into zip-top bags with the same number as the door.
- Degrease. Fifty years of cooking leaves a film you can't see until paint refuses to stick to it. We scrubbed every surface twice and rinsed with clean water.
- Scuff sand. You're not taking the finish off, just dulling the shine so the primer can grip. We filled a few dings with wood filler and sanded those smooth.
- Prime. One coat of bonding primer, brushed into the corners and rolled on the flat parts.
- Paint. Two coats of enamel, with a light sanding between them. We painted the doors flat on sawhorses in the garage, one side at a time.
- Reassemble, put the bumpers on, and try not to touch anything for a while.
We went with a soft, warm white. It's not a bold color, but I wanted something that would still look right in ten years and wouldn't fight with our old countertops.
The lessons, including the expensive one
Drying is not the same as curing
This is the one that cost us a week. The paint can said it was dry to the touch in an hour and ready to recoat in four. What it said in smaller print was that full cure takes a couple of weeks. We rehung the first batch of doors three days after the final coat, and within a day, two doors had stuck to the frames. Pulling them open peeled off a strip of paint on each. We had to sand, repaint, and wait again. The second time, we left the doors in the garage for a full week before rehanging, and we put the bumpers on right away.
The kitchen is out of commission longer than you'd think
With the cabinets open and the doors gone, dust and dinner don't mix. We ate a lot of sandwiches and slow cooker meals made in the dining room. The kids thought it was a campout. I did not.
Foam rollers beat brushes on flat surfaces
Our first door, done with a brush, had visible brush strokes. The foam roller gave us a smooth finish on the flat panels, and we only used the brush for the grooves and edges.
Two people, clear jobs
Mike is a maintenance mechanic, so he took charge of the hardware and the rehanging, which involves more fiddly adjusting than you'd imagine to get the doors to line up again. I did the sanding and painting. We didn't argue once, which is a record for a home project in this house.
Was it worth it?
Yes, with one caveat. This took more time than any tutorial suggests, roughly 35 hours between the two of us. If your cabinets are falling apart, paint won't fix that. Ours were solid and just dated, so paint was the right tool.
The kitchen feels twice as bright. Ella walked in after we rehung the last door and said, "It looks like someone else's house," which I think she meant as a compliment. I'm keeping the leftover quart in the basement for touch-ups, because with three kids, I know I'll need it.
