How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets


DIY

Since we are renting we asked our landlord for permission to paint our cabinets. A lot of landlords won’t let you touch the cabinets even if they are very dated. If you’re in a similar situation make sure to have the design/paint color nailed down to present to them. I sent him an email with our design plan for the space including the paint color and an inspiration picture. He wasn’t sold yet and decided to come see it in person. So glad he did! After explaining what we had in mind more in depth he was excited to see the end result and gave me the green light! I immediately went and bought the following materials.

We didn’t have a spray gun and I didn’t want to use one since I have never used one before, so we kept this process pretty simple. If I can do it so can you!

Here are the materials:

Paint brush or sponge brush:

6″ foam roller (with 3 extra roller replacements). If you go with a paint brush go with Purdy brand.

Clear coat: water based sealant

1/2 gallon (depending how many cabinets you have but you don’t need a lot of paint) of Pewter Green by SW (we had BM mix it up for us): we got it in the satin finish

We initially paid someone from Task Rabbit to sand and paint the cabinets since I am pregnant but I ended up taking over. We were paying someone to do what I could “easily” do myself (its not easy, definitely takes patience and a lot of time) but it ended up being more than we wanted to spend and we had a budget we didn’t want to exceed for this project.

Basic Instructions:

  • Remove all cabinets and tape off any parts on the base cabinets you don’t want to get paint on (the moldings, floor, countertop, etc (this part takes a lot of time!)
  • Sand down cabinets and the base cabinets
  • Wipe them down and make sure no residue is left on the cabinets
  • Apply primer let dry as instructed (add another coat if needed, I did two coats)
  • Apply first coat of paint. Add 1-3 coats
  • Apply clear coat with roller make sure to take your time as the clear coat creates small little bubbles if you rush through it. If this happens then sand down and touch up the paint then apply another clear coat.

That is it! Takes hours and lots of patience but so worth it! For a rental we are really happy with how it turned out.

We also added new hardware, faux marble adhesive countertop paper, adhesive subway tile ALL linked HERE

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

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