How To Prepare Oak Cabinets For Painting

Painting oak cabinet doors is definitely on tendency. The xc's and early 2000's were filled with an influx of builder grade, stained oak cabinets and as we transitioned to 2010 and now near 2020 those are far from "in style." But buying new cabinets isn't in everyones budget so let me walk you through my process for painting oak cabinets and transforming your kitchen in under $200.

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Prep to Painting Oak cabinet Doors

Probably the most of import part that a lot of painting oak cabinet tutorials WANT to skip, and lets be honest a lot of do information technology yourselfers effort and skip because its no fun, messy and tedious, just I'chiliad here to suspension the bad news. I think this stride is crucial. Even with a "no sanding" primer. I yet think information technology's imperative to get the old gloss and stain off the cabinet prior to painting anything.

Make clean

utilize a cleaning agent like TSP or Krud Kutter to clean the cabinets. Just spray and wipe downwardly with a mildly abrasive sponge or cloth to remove any buildup.
Use a deglosser, simply spray and wipe it on to remove some of that shine.
Sand. Use a combination of an orbital sander and hand handing or a small detail sander with 120 grit to remove the superlative coat of stain from the oak cabinets. Be sure to get all the edges.

Sand & Fill Grain

OPTIONAL: Fill the wood grain. There are several types of products y'all tin use to fill up the good grain, the well-nigh popular are Aquacoat, Bondo Wood Filler, and plastic wood. Use a putty pocketknife and apply at a 45 degree angle to go into the grain. Wipe abroad as much as y'all can and let try. Sand with 120 then 220 dust. The more meticulous you are in this process the less grain y'all will run into once you paint. For my project my in laws DID desire to see some grain smoothen through so I skipped this procedure.
Tack Material. The most crucial step to a silky polish end. A tack cloth is basically a sticky cheese material that yous utilize to wipe downward the surface prior to paint. It clings to any left over fuzz or saw grit and gets every final stray piece of debris.

Hanging the Cabinets

This might not exist an option for all people, but depending on your space and set it has been a life saver for me. I predrilled a small hole in the top of the upper cabinet edge and the bottom of the lower cabinet edge and screwed some center hooks into the cabinet. This allowed me to hang the cabinets and work on both sides simultaneously.

I hung them on a steel header in my unfinished basement. If you are only working on a few doors you could hang them from a wardrobe rack or another contraption. Word of warning, most doors took two hangers to fairly support the load, and once yous get more than than 3 or 4 chiffonier doors it starts to go very heavy. Exist certain to have adequate support from what they are hanging on. If they autumn off, the doors Will fissure and break. (For video of this procedure see my instagram highlights)

Hanging the cabinets also prevents the dreaded over drip or the painted side that hasn't fully cured peeling or chipping when information technology is laid downwards.

Subsequently Painting remove the loving cup hooks and fill with Plastic Wood in white and lightly sand. You'll never know they were even there.

Prime

Using the correct kind of primer is a complete game changer when it comes to refinishing cabinets. Zinsser is the most pop type of primer and comes in a multifariousness of finishes, latex, oil, and shellac. For oak cabinets, since oak is a very grainy, and naturally yellow wood you want to make sure you lot seal it, and seal it well. Since information technology has been finished with stain and a peak coat, the best primer to use is Zinsser BIN Shellac. Apply two-three coats with either a 4″ Mini Foam Roller and brush, or with a sprayer. Be mindful when you employ this product in a sprayer that information technology can simply sit in the gun for max of a few hours and it needs to be cleaned with acetone/denatured alcohol and cleaned WELL otherwise you will accept to get yourself a new paint sprayer.

Speaking of sprayers, for this project, and all my projects, I utilise my favorite entry level sprayer, the Homeright Stop Pro Max. For more tips on spraying encounter my paint spaying tips post.

Roller and Brush

First castor all the crevices with a paint brush. Side by side over over with a foam roller trying to go along with the grain blueprint (vertical). Next curl the sides of the chiffonier, flip the cabinet over and follow the aforementioned pattern (castor commencement, scroll second).

Sand betwixt each coat of primer and pigment with 220 dust and wipe downwardly with a tack cloth.

Paint Sprayer

Hither'due south some tips to working with a paint sprayer.

Load the pigment sprayer and test a flake pieces of wood nether the sprayer is consistently spraying with minimal overspray and no splattering.

Take your chiffonier door and motion in a continuous back and forth pattern with 50% of your current spray overlapping your final spray. Be sure to Ever have the pigment sprayer moving and start the sprayer off to the side of the cabinet.

Hang to dry co-ordinate to your pigment guidelines for recoat.

Painting Oak Cabinet

For this project I used ProClassic by Sherwin Williams in Egret White which is a light, creamy white. It was the pigment picked out by my in laws so I stuck with it. I typically similar to use Sherwin Williams Emerald because information technology hardens and cures, simply I'll definitely update this with how ProClassic holds up.

I sprayed two coats of Proclassic on each cabinet door sanding with 220 grit in between and wiping with a tack material.

Thus far the cabinets look very shine, still have a mild grain design depending on the lighting.

For more than behind the scenes and progress videos of all things DIY follow me @honeybuilthome