wanna improve kitchen cabinets, is painting an option?

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gghrt000

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I am doing as much improvement as i can for my recently purchase condo. Kitchen and bath area is quite old although clean. I am painting walls and replacing the carpet and buying brand new freezer, stove and washer and drier. Also replacing all window sliders and possibly some of the track doors. After that place will see a much improvement. However the old kitchen cabinets are eye sore. It is probably the original cabinets when the place was build (1990). It looks definitely old and interior is dusty and old wood stuff. Hinges are dark. I thought about tearing apart everyone one of them and just complete remodel but i think it might be way too expensive. Plus, counter tops are pretty nice. So I am wondering what if I just paint them with very nice color. Do you think it will improve? Could it rival the brand new ones?

I put the picture below, please let me know if you are unable to see.


Thanks,

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Painting is an option but it needs to be done almost perfectly because of the light level, scrutiny, and attention kitchens get.

Maybe paint the frames and not the doors. I had one I painted the frames dark green and had oak stained doors with SS bar pulls. Looked great.

You may want to consider just changing the hinges to concealed European style and adding pulls to the doors and drawers.

If you're changing out the appliances, you may want to consider tiling the backsplash area.
 
If that was my project, I would have no problem painting the cabinets a nice off white color, adding a backsplash as mentioned above, and spending a few bucks on some new stainless steel appliances. Since the protrusion of the fridge seems too much, consider purchasing a cabinet depth style.
 
OP,
If you do go the paint route, meticulous prep is the key with no shortcuts.
 
Thanks all, I looked in the web there are lot of instructions on the youtube. Looks like it involves sanding or using some kind of agent (i forgot the name) to remove the grease and other residual. Since the doors has a finel bewels, i think this is going to be too much work. And it is not my favorite style eiher. I might just replace the whole doors with another new set. Plain rectangle ones with handle that covers the entire front area of each cabinet looks great. Which is what I have in my currently rented apartment, I will post the pics. As a prep, I went to home depo and info and looks like they can do an appt to make measurements.

For interior I might just paint it with white. This is also the case with my currently rented apartment.
 
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The other option is to find a small wood shop or cupboard out fit that might paint the doors for you, leaving to only painting the boxes. Auto body shop will some times paint stuff like this too.
 
Looking at those cabinets, painting is an option and will improve the look of the cabinets drastically. They do require some expertise and will look better if sprayed. Hire a pro to be safe.
 
Painting is a Good option to work on. It will change whole look of your kitchen and your cabinets. Select a color which suits your tiles and other furniture.
Selams
 
WELL, picked up rust-oleum kit with cabernet red color for ease. Here is my progress. I could not say it is professional job but it looks much better especially after second coat. You can see the messed up wall however I will be putting the freezer there so I was kinda skimped on this one. I thought about putting painters tape but paint was still leaking through tape (during mixed color wall painting) so this time I jsut decided to do without painter's tape and really concentrate on edges with extreme care. So visible edges adjoining with walls are looking ok.
For the next step I 'd be putting glaze and finish coat.

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Looks great and thanks for the heads up on the kit. I haven’t seen them before.
 
I used the rustoleum cabinet transformation stuff on mine and they turned out great. Much better decision than paint and a lot more forgiving with prep.


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you bet, i am approaching the finish line, however i noticed interior side of some of the door panel get some finger stain due to i was holding to put back on the ground after painting. Now I have to wipe down or re-paint again that section. This is after second coat. Do you think repainting 3rd coat like in that sectoin will drastically change appearance from 2nd coat?

Because I am laying down on carpet, I have to do one side at a time to give time to dry for sides that are up, which slows down my progress.

For glaze and finish protective coat, I might do the same.
The tutorial video recommends painting one side and flip over and place over wood with nail protruding which I can do but once the painting is over both side at the same time, how would you lay down? On sides?
 
They intend for you to have enough nails for all the doors at the same time. Or you could have done one side on all until dry and then do other side. I would just touch up inside, don't forget it is the inside.
 
OK I just started last coat which is a protective coat. However I notice the coat color is white which is vastly different than the dark red color I am painting. Now I started painting the protective coat and in a short time the white tint fades away on flat sections however the coat builds on corners no matter how thinly I try to apply the coat and it is markedly looks white n colors and boy it is ugly. Any solution to this? Thanks
 
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You have to watch the build up of the clear coat, it will stay white if thick enough.


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getting through final stages of it. Supplemented the painting with faux-wood vinyl planks + stainless steel appliances and this is how it looks now. :)
I bought couple of hinges to try because did not want to use the old ones. The self-locking ones has some kind of rubber wedged between which seem to prevent closing completely. I am bit perplexed on that one, is it supposed to be removed? I find it extremely hard if not impossible to remove. I dont remember something like that in the old ones.
Also there is some kind of metal mount on the left back side of the stove area. I tried to pull out using all my might and there are two medium sized bolts that went straight into the concrete floor. None of them even budges only thing happens is the metal mount itself just bends around. So I had to lay the vinyls around it and can not completely push the range all the way in. Thinking what kind of service I Can call to have it removed.

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Chris said:
You have to watch the build up of the clear coat, it will stay white if thick enough.


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Click to expand...
looks like it is done deal now. The white build up seems impossible to fix, if I try to remove after dry it only made it worse. So I guess I will have to live with it and hoping guests will not notice :D.
 
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