Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - My Kitchen Cabinet Painting Results (Pics)

ok, so I read the infinitely valuable "how to" on this very site when I decided to redo my cabinets myself. First let me say that I did lots of research before I started to make sure I was doing it in the best way and perhaps not the cheapest way. It was VERY time consuming but I did it when I was alone in the house for just over a week. As part of this remodel, I also got new counters so there was some demo involved that just a strict painting would have avoided.

In a nutshell, here are the steps that I took. Removed all the doors/drawers from the cabinets. I wrote under each hinge (in the hole) which cabinet it went to. In each cabinet I stuck a piece of painters tape with the corresponding number. On the drawers I just wrote the number on the bottom of the drawer with a sharpie. After writing the numbers I stuck a piece of tape over it so that the paint would not cover it. Removed all the door hardware. I did not remove the drawer hardware since I only refinished the fronts. Washed all the doors with warm Mr Clean diluted in water instead of TSP. I know there are other degreasers, but I could not find them. I kept the bottle warm and sprayed it on, let it soak for a couple minutes and wiped off. Set them overnight to dry.

Next I used 150 grit sand paper in a block and sanded all the cabinet rails and stiles, doors (front, sides, back) and drawer fronts and sides. For the angles, I used a sanding sponge that sort of conforms to the profile. You could see the "shine" sanding off the surface of the cabinets.

For the drawer fronts and all cabinet frames I hand applied the zinsser 123 primer with a small foam roller -- This was very tedious, but I was not sure of myself with the sprayer inside the house. I had 30 cabinets to do and this too a few evenings.

I sanded the primed surface with 220 grit. I then used the same foam roller to apply BM Aura semi-gloss to it. I am not sure if it is as good as water based enamel, but it seems to be durable so far. It goes on very smooth (though I 'd say for 60/gallon it should).

Next I sprayed the primer onto the doors. I tried to get a nice thin coat, but the zinsser was hard to get right with the flotrol. I ended up with about 25% flotrol in an HVLP sprayer. The thin coats dry quick and let you do more coats in a reasonable amount of time. I sprayed all four edges then when over the front with 2 coats and back with 2 coats. After those dried overnight, I went over it with 220 grit and tacked off the dust. Now they are ready for the final coats of paint.

I used the same BM Aura mixed with 10% flotrol in an HVLP. Again I did the edges, then backs with 2 coats. Then the edges and fronts with 2 coats. It was over 100 outside so the coats dried in minutes. The Aura sprayed was very easy to use. It was nice and thin without any big pieces flying out of the sprayer. All told it took about 3 hours to do all 25 doors including mixing the paint and getting the fixtures setup.

So thanks everyone for posting such valuable info and ask away if there are any questions.

I don't know how to post pictures here, but there are some on another forum: http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=56683&stc=1&d=1247547750

You can post you pic here by first uploading it to a photo storage site like photobucket. Then click the "Insert image" icon here and copy and paste the URL. Give it a try. Nice paint job. :coffee: