How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets in 5 Steps

We moved in our house about 4 years ago. It was built in the 1990’s and was very outdated. Which an outdated house didn’t bother me, I love DIY projects. So, it was time to paint kitchen cabinets.

Our house was covered in lots of brown, yellow, and gold. I mean, gold light fixtures, brown cabinets and trim, etc. But, nothing that a few coats of paint couldn’t fix. Yes, even paint for the light fixtures. Like my post here about how I covered the gold with Rustoleum Metallic Spray Paint. Which still looks fabulous by the way (2021 update).

Metallic Spray Paint was used to cover the Beige Hood before painting the kitchen cabinets

In fact, before we painted our kitchen cabinets white, we had an overhead vent on our stove that was beige. I knew that the beige would not go well with the white cabinets so I also used the Rustoleum Metallic Spray Paint on that in Oil Rubbed Bronze.

See all that brown and beige. It was even worse before because that white trim on the left and that white window on the right, was also brown.

Anyways, to paint the hood first clean it really well with a degreaser. I like to use Simple Green. Next, tape off around it and cover everything with plastic. Spray paint will go everywhere, so make sure it is covered well.

Now, spray it lightly with a coat of spray paint. Let that dry, then spray again. Beware that you cannot spray it on too thick. If you do, it will cause the underneath to not be able to dry and it will bubble. I know this because it happened to me when I first sprayed it…

I had to peel that bubble off and sand it. Then repaint that area. It was not ideal to happen, but I love the way it turned out!

Step 1 – Clean

Now on to the cabinets. Clean them really, really well with the same degreaser as the hood. Like the Simple Green. You do not want to paint over dirt. If there is dirt remaining on the cabinets, it could cause your paint to peel.

Step 2 – Degloss

Once they are cleaned from the inside and outside. Use liquid sander, or deglosser, to get all of the sheen off. I bought ours from Home Depot. This takes place of sanding. It roughens up the outside of the wood. You will need to do this step twice.

Step 3 – Prime

Once that is dry, you are ready for primer. Now the product that you buy is super important! I was recommended Sherwin-Williams Extreme Bond Primer by several people. We only use Sherwin-Williams paint in our house, so it made sense to buy this primer.

Paint one coat of the Extreme Bond Primer. I only use Purdy Paint brushes and the 1.5″ angled brush was perfect for this job. You don’t want a brush that is too wide because it will hold more paint and you will have dripping. *The first time I painted the cabinets I painted with the doors on. This worked okay for that process of paint and primer but does not work well at all with Polyurethane. So, please remove all the doors.

One other tip is to lightly sand with 240 grain sand paper after the primer dries. Lightly sanding (more like wiping down) between each coat of paint/primer/polyurethane can give you super smooth cabinets.Just be sure to clean off any dust caused by sanding.

Step 4 – Paint

Once all of your cabinets have a coat of the Extreme Bond Primer on them and they are all dry, it is time to paint! Now your paint choice is just as important as the primer choice. We used Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel in Extra White with semi-gloss finish. I chose Semi-Gloss because it will clean easier. Also, we paint our walls Satin finish and want our cabinets, trim, and doors to be contrasting with the Semi-Gloss.

*I actually went back and updated this post because we had to touch-up to our cabinets. I went back over it with flat paint and used a semi-gloss polyurethane. I was told previously that this Sherwin Williams paint did not need polyurethane finishing because it had it in there. However, cabinets are high touch used surfaces and really do need polyurethane. I recommend to use a flat paint finish for the cabinets then choose your sheen for the polyurethane.*

Do the same process as you did with painting the primer. We actually used a small roller for this, using the Mohair roller pads from Sherwin-Williams. These are smooth and don’t show bubbles. We rolled the outside surfaces that we could, then went over the groves with the angled Purdy Brush.

Once you have covered all of the cabinets with 1 coat of paint, you will want to let it dry completely. Lightly sand/wipe does with 240 grit sand paper for a smooth finish between each layer of paint. It is best to allow paint to dry for at least 6 hours between coats, or whatever is recommended on the paint can.

Then, you will need a second coat of paint everywhere. I did have to go over some areas for a third time. The hardest part to get coverage on is the groves and where the wood curves.

Step 5 – Protect

THIS IS A 2021 UPDATE. We did not originally apply a Polyurethane coating to our cabinets. Our paint started to peel in high touch areas.

I do recommend for longevity of your cabinets to apply 2 coats of polyurethane. This would be best if the cabinets are removed. This was a lesson learned, which happens when DIY-ing. Allow polyurethane to dry for 24 hours.

Also, with polyurethane you can determine the finish of your paint. You could use a flat paint then a semi-gloss polyurethane finish. Remember to lightly sand/wipe down with 240 grit sand paper between each layer of paint or polyurethane.

Finishing Touches

Once the paint is finished, you are ready for hardware. We priced knobs and handles at our local Home Depot and they are pricey! It was going to cost about $100 for 25 handles and knobs. If our kitchen already had them, I would have just used the Rustoleum Metallic paint to cover, but since we didn’t have them already we had to purchase.

I found some super cute handles on Amazon that had great reviews. They even came with 25 in a pack, which was exactly what we needed. So, we decided to use handles on all of the cabinets and drawers.

Here’s the exact ones we bought. They come with the screws and were perfect!

And that’s it! Step back and enjoy how bright your kitchen looks!

Here is up close photo of the retouched paint with 2 coats of Polyurethane. Nothing compares to white cabinets and I love the way it it brightens up the kitchen.

Below is what the kitchen looked like in December 2020, about 20 months after we initially painted the cabinets. There were some worn area from the original paint job but overall not too bad. For the retouch I took off all cabinets and drawers, added 1 coat of paint and 2 coats of polyurethane. Looking back on photos from 2019 of how dark our kitchen looked with the brown, I would totally do this again. Completely worth it!

I thought you all would appreciate my sink full of dishes LOL! I’m a mom of 3 school-aged busy kids, work full time, and run this blog on the side. So, this is as cleans as this kitchen gets on most days, ha!

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