WWA Info Exchange

Well, we're re-doing our kitchen next... new tile, pulls on the drawers/doors, new drawers with bottom-slides and dovetails, and new crown molding and under-cabinet lighting.

We are planning to paint our bog-standard cabinets. The last owners put pretty darned nice granite countertops and a new stainless sink in but did not do anything to the cabinets. A couple of the drawers are coming apart and I've ordered some blum solo (not bearing) slides and will be making some dovetailed drawers.

Have any of you painted cabinets before? I plan to clean them well with murphy's and then put a good coat of shellac based primer on them before hitting them with a couple of coats of eggshell latex. Is this the right approach? We're not spending too much $$ as we never know when we will be moving so we're not considering new cabinets.

Thanks in advance for your answers as to wheter a clean, then prime, then paint is the right attack strategy
Lawrence

Lawrence,

Painted many, many cabinets. What you want is a specific type of paint for cabinetry. It is harder than standard latex. Muralo brand is one and Benjamin Moore satin Impervo is the other. If you are brushing or rolling add Xtend flow control to it to eliminate brush and roller marks.

If spraying, it will need thinning and a bit of Xtend as well.

Also use a really good primer first.

Good luck,
Darryl

Not sure I'd use Murphy's if you're going to paint them.... I think it leaves a residue that paint might not bond to very well. Could be wrong, but I'd check it for sure.

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I agree with Underdog about the Murphy's. I think I would wipe them down with a light mixture of TSP. It is a cleaner, comes in powder form. Check with a paint store also, they could give you the best information.

Bill

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Amateur Bill
O'Fallon, MO
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Thanks all--

We went and picked up some primer and Impervo today. We can't get Muralo here in AZ. I really appreciate the advice Darryl (and all). Pics to come as and when... I plan to brush the cabinets and spray (with my Earlex) the doors.

Lawrence

Thursday night-- pulled off doors and hardware and then gave everything a TSP/deglosser/light sand where needed. (thanks again all for the advice) Friday Morning I built my spray booth with $5 worth of plastic, a 20 inch AC filter and box fan, a portable AC (we hit 102 yesterday) and some duct tape.



I then got dressed for battle


It was a long day of spraying, letting the doors sit for a few, flipping on their lazy susans with 4 drywall screws in them, spraying the front, letting them sit for 5 mins, carrying them carefully inside to rows of cardboard with staples sticking out to hold them while the prime dried completely. (flowtrol is a must here in Tucson)

While I did this, Karen primed the cabinets as I can only dream of doing with her favorite 1 1/4 purdy tapered.

The booth worked well-- the fan and AC kept the air moving and cool
(the outside and inside temps are reversed.. inside is in the garage and outside is inside the booth even when the temps outside were close to 100



But the doors are all primed and the earlex worked GREAT.

Today is painting starting at 6:30am (another 100 degree day) and we are going to a neighborhood "block party" with the boys at 11:00 or so.

Lawrence

Well, most of the painting is done... Darryl thanks again for the tip on the impervo... that stuff dries hard, smooth, and flattened out like a dream. Over the weekend we primed, painted, put in undercabinet lights, added crown molding, fixed broken doors and reglued 2 cabinets. Tonight we moved out the fridge, stove, and dishwasher, added the pulls (loosely so as to not mark the paint while it continues to cure.. but we wanted the knobs so we arn't handling the doors to open them) and lifted all the tile and threw it into the back of my truck--it is being replaced by 18 inch porcelain tile (tawny brown/grey colored)

I'm not sure why, but the tile that was laid down was done so on top of what appears to be roofing paper... it was almost floating (no wonder things sounded hollow when you dropped a spoon on the floor) As a result, with a small 3x3 exception, all the tile came up like a breeze... 160 sq feet in about an hour. Tomorrow while I'm at work LOML is painting the wall behind where the stove was and a couple of other small bits here and there. When I get home we plan on beginning with the tiling. Today I swung by my local WW'ers source and picked up 34 linear feet of 5.5 inch wide 1/2 cherry and a 5x5 piece of 1/4 baltic birch for the drawers (and hopefully some leftover which LOML will never know about ) I'll be dovetailing them on the incra after we return from our holiday in San Diego next week (we plan on going after laying the tile/grouting to let things cure) I got some Blum bottom mount drawer slides (solo- the cheaper, non-bearing slides) and also have some of the blumotion for doors (found them on sale for $2.59 each) to put on the cabinet doors on the way.

Before

After



More pics to come as and when... after the tiling and the trip comes the drawers which are the only real ww'ing other than the crown and trim.

Thanks again for the advice and encouragement,
Lawrence

Looks good Lawrence.

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My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter!

Looks great. Do you guys ever slow down?

Lookin' good Lawrence . Big job, overhauling a kitchen. Mine has been dropping hints for a couple years now, and it's getting harder to distract her.

Picked out the tile yet? And I think you ought to handcut all the DT's on the drawers.

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Ah Lawrence! You poor, poor man. Little do you realize that you realize that you have fallen into the classic wife trap. "Honey ... If we repaint the cabinets, they'll look so much nicer than what we have now!" <Little does honey know I am going to ask for new appliances as soon as he sees how the old ones don't fit with the painted cabinets. Heh heh heh!>

The kitchen's looking good bud!

Fortunately, we purchased new appliances when we moved in a couple of years ago so none are needed.... we kind of wish we'd gotten the stainless at the time but to be honest, it wasn't worth the $$ to us and black is good for little boy (and Daddy) fingerprints

Lawrence