If you happened to have read my post on How I Painted My Brand New Kitchen Cabinets With General Finishes Milk Paint, you will find that the process is the same, but I thought it would be helpful to give you more examples on how to save money repurposing the items you already have in your home.
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 topcoat 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 and separating the bathroom cabinets from the kitchen cabinets, I 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, which are actually my kitchen cabinets but that’s because it was hard to take a picture in the bathroom, as the cabinets were already mounted. The process is the same as in the picture below. I used Green FrogTape to tape the inside of the cabinet off, to keep it clean. I took the tape and stuck it around the inside of the 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 Store, 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.
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, and three coats of High Performance topcoat. I wouldn’t recommend using any less, from my personal experience.
I knew that I wanted a gray color cabinet in my bathrooms, but General Finishes has so many great colors to pick from that it was still hard to decide. I finally went with Driftwood because it was a lighter shade of gray and I thought it would look great with the finishes I wanted.
Here are my finished bathroom cabinets with the hardware that I also refinished in this post Knobs, Knobs, Knobs!
What do you think? I love how both the cabinets and hardware came out! Please leave any questions or comments below, I would be more than happy to help.
Xo Christine