Stainless Steel Cabinets

misskimm4 · 04-27-2008, 01:02 AM

I am new here, so bear with me for a bit.

My home was built in the late 1940's, Mass. I have the original kitchen cabinets, metal or stainless. They were painted lt blue (popular to its time) then painted again about 30 yrs ago to a lt. tan, its present color.
I was wondering what material it was ? I have stainless appliances that magnets dont stick to, yet they stick to the cabinets. I'm told if a magnet sticks to them they are some kind of tin or metal, but not stainless.

Could I strip the paint and buff and sealcoat them to appear as Stainless Steel ?
There are 18 cabinet doors, three sets of draws, and a pull lup butcher block cutting board. It would be very expensive to replace them with stainless.

Any ideas out there ? and what would be some inexpensive options with appealing looks ?

Thanks in advance.

glennjanie · 04-27-2008, 12:48 PM

Welcome MissKimm:
Your cabinets are most likely made of steel. You may want to strip the old paint off and use 200grit sandpaper to smoothe them for a coat or two of spray paint. It is very difficult to brush steel and not show brush-marks.
You could buy an inexpensive Wagner sprayer, use an oil based primer and a finish coat. If you get a run, you can wipe it away with a cloth soaked with paint thinner and spray again. It is better to use 2 or 3 light dustings with the paint than to get it too heavy and make runs or sags in the paint. Wait at least an hour between coats for some flash curing.
Its a big project no matter how you look at it but it will bring pride and satisfaction on completion.
Glenn