Painting Kitchen doors / Cabinets

Pottermuss

I wonder if anyone has any experience of painting kitchen cabinets, i have a dark wood oak kitchen and want to bring a bit of light into the room, the cabinets have oak side panels / tops so i cant really just replace the doors and its a bit extreem to rip out the whole kitchen as its only 5 years old,
any ideas ?

starfish10

I have successfully painted my dark 80's kitchen, I just sanded well, primed and then 2 coats of dulux satinwood. I have found this to be very hardwearing, and is easy to redo when needed ( it lasted about 4 years before I felt it was starting to look tired.

Doozergirl

It works really well on real wood doors. My H bought some cupboard paint in Champagne from Crown, I think? and whilst I was really sceptical and was insisting on replacing the doors, he did it as a surprise for me.

I went a bit nuts until I saw it and it looked absolutely fabulous. You could really splash out and get a nice, sophistacated colour from Farrow and Ball and I bet that would look lovely. Replace the worktops and sink maybe and you have an entire new kitchen!

rockie4

I painted my melamine cupboard doors with crown cupboard paint using a gloss roller and they look fabulous! I was a bit shocked when I read that it takes 3 weeks to get to full hardness, I was worried it might chip, but 6 months on it's still like new. I did 3 thin coats on each door - I took them off and painted them outside, it dries quickly so you can re-coat the same day.

misgrace

Pottermuss wrote: »

I wonder if anyone has any experience of painting kitchen cabinets, i have a dark wood oak kitchen and want to bring a bit of light into the room, the cabinets have oak side panels / tops so i cant really just replace the doors and its a bit extreem to rip out the whole kitchen as its only 5 years old,
any ideas ?

if the dark oak cabinets has a shine on them, ie varnished, then its advisable to sand down the doors to get rid of the shine and get a key.

I would go along with starfish's method, prime, but I would undercoat them as well, using oilbase paint, this will give you a platform as such for a really good finish, and the gloss roller will give it a nice smooth appearance.

If your top coat is going to be cream for example, or any lightish colour, then go with white undercoat, and finish off with two coats of satinwood (oilbased), you can get any diy store to knock you up a tin of the colour you want in satinwood, or if you want a flatter finish, go for oilbased eggshell.