Painting - painting over stained and poly kitchen cabinets

I want to paint over kitchen cabinets made of pine with plywood doors. top coat is high gloss but I don't know if it is polyurethane or shellac or varnish.
I have sanded to rough up the surface. Can I use a primer used for drywall, concrete, brick etc or do I need something special for wood. What type of paint is best. Thanks Anita

I just did some cabinets the same way and I put a couple coats of BIN as a primer. Seems to hold up just fine. Main thing is to make sure everything is sanded.

Shellac will disolve with denatured alchol [found were paint thinners are sold] but all 3 coatings should accept a solvent based primer after a good cleaning and sanding. I do not recomend using any latex primer.

Waterborne and oil base enamels will give the best finish. I prefer waterborne, it dries fast and almost as hard as oil base and doesn't yellow with age - important if you paint white. It is the most expensive of the 3 types of enamel. Latex enamel would be my last choice as it doesn't dry to as hard a film as the other 2.

As always, you will find the best coatings [advice too] at your local paint store [not big box paint dept] They can also help you select the best tools for application of the selected coatings and your skill level.

here is some good info;
http://forum.doityourself.com/painting/292098-ideal-cabinet-repaint.html

I would sand the surfaces very well, vacuum, use Willbond surface preparer and wipe down the surfaces prior to painting, use oil base underbody with a little Willbond added, and finish with oil based eggshell paint. Ben Moore's Satin Impervo is a great finish and their underbodies are fine as well.

Bill

Bigg_Billy : Just wondering your reason for wiping with Willbond after you sand. Don't they essentially do the same thing?

Also...not sure about your area but we just had oil based paints banned from residential use (Satin Impervo was my favorite!) Our company switched to mainly using Muralo waterborne enamel - sprays new cabinets like a dream.

If I remember correctly, willbond is a liquid deglosser. If applied correctly the deglosser will both remove the sanding dust and soften the underlying finish to promote good adhesion.

I used to be pro oil base enamel and had little use for latex enamels but the waterborne enamels came out about the same time I started suffering from over exposure to solvents. IMO SWP's proclassic waterborne is one of the finest enamels I've ever used. With the exception of coating metal, it's my 1st pick of enamels.