Last year after looking at so many different homes, we decided that we were going to build a house. As we were picking out the finishes for the house, I wasn’t crazy about any of the color selections that were being offered for the kitchen cabinets. The one cabinet I liked was completely outside the budget. So we agreed that we would just get the natural color cabinets and paint them. Prior to this decision I had already done some research on painting wood pieces and cabinets, so I thought I could do this! Mind you, I have never painted cabinets before, and I must say I learned a lot in the process. In this post I’m going to show you what I did to my new cabinets, and I absolutely love walking into my kitchen every day!
Here are a few pictures of my cabinets when we first unpacked them. For me, it was much easier to spray the cabinets before they were hung, if you have the opportunity to do so. I did have to touch up some paint and add the top coat after they were hung. You can paint your cabinets if they’re already hung, but I found it to be a little more work than when they were not hung.
After unpacking the cabinets we followed the lay out of the kitchen cabinets and determined what panels would be showing and which ones would be hidden (against the wall or another cabinet). By planning this out, it helped save on paint, and most of all time! We then lightly sanded the parts of the cabinet that I was painting, with a 220 grit to remove the shine, then wiped them down with a 50% rubbing alcohol and 50% water mixture, to remove all dust for a clean surface to spray on.
I had a lot of cabinets to paint and a limited time to do them before the carpenter was scheduled to put them up. So I decided to use a spray gun called Wagner Home Decor HVLP Stationary Sprayer at Home Depot. I purchased the unit that came with a tent (only $20 more). This sprayer was easy to use, but may not have been the right choice for such a large project. There were a few times that the sprayer would either get stuck, or would not evenly spray. After a little more research I learned that if I strained the milk base paint with a filter from Home Depot, which is where I purchased mine, I had fewer issues with the spray gun.
You’ll see in the images below, that we used Green FrogTape to tape the inside of the cabinet off, to keep it clean. I took the tape and stuck it around inside trim of the cabinet, with the sticky side of the tape facing out, then cut a piece of plastic drop cloth that I purchased from the Dollar Tree, to the green tape. You’ll see I also used the tape to cover any holes or gaps to prevent paint from spraying into the cabinets.
You can see in the second picture above that it looks as if the paint was running. That area seemed to be skipped over when we were sanding, which is why it looks like that. Lucky the General Finishes Milk Base Paint is very forgiving, thankfully! When you apply light coats of the milk base paint with the spray gun, it gives it an amazing finish. I applied three coats of paint, which I mixed with two colors to make the color I used, and three coats of High Performance top coat. I wouldn’t recommend using any less, from my personal experience.
It was hard for me to find the color I wanted. At first I was going to do Queenstown Gray or Driftwood but our whole house is painted two different shades of gray. As I debated on what color to pick, it occurred to me that I really wanted something rich, that stood out, but flowed with our house too. It took me a few attempts, but here is how I figure it out.
It’s very scientific, I know! I just took a drop of all the colors I liked, and started mixing one or two drops together until I fell in love with the color I created, which was one part of Coastal Blue and two parts of Queenstown Gray. I thought I mixed enough the first time for my project, but actually come up short. My suggestion is to buy a little more than you think you’ll need and mix all at the same time. For my project, I bought about a gallon and a quart of paint.
Here is what the cabinets looked like after they installed them. Although I really liked the dull look, to keep the paint in its best condition you have to apply a topcoat. I used three coats of the High Performance topcoat. General Finishes does have a Flat Out topcoat which I think would be a great topcoat for the cabinets, if you were looking for a duller/flatter look. They recommend that you use the Flat Out on top of the high performance topcoat.
Here are the kitchen cabinets completely finished with topcoat and hardware. I’ll share the hardware refinishing information with you too in my next post!
Please leave any questions or comments below, as I would be more then happy to help!
Xo Christine