Kitchen Cabinet Interior Painting

[Tazman]

Hi all,
I'm slowly planning a kitchen facelift and will most likely get new doors & drawer fronts and refinish the cases. I've done various refinishing projects so I'm comfortable with that task. I'd like to paint the insides of the cabinets in a gloss white to freshen them up as well.

Questions:

I want to spray, as a brush would be a painfull task. I have an airless sprayer. Is this appropriate or do I need a to get gravity feed gun for my compressor?

I was planning to spray first and then sand and refinish the cases. My thoughts were if I did get any paint on the surface, it would be easily removed.

Comments?
Thanks
Randy

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

I own a small apartment block, and so having maintenance free (or as close to maintenance free as possible) kitchen cabinets and cupboards is important to me. On a working surface like a shelf you need a paint that dries to a HARD film. That's cuz the harder the paint film is, the less easily it's damaged (principally scratched by the hard dishes and pots you slide over it) and the less dirt will become embedded in the paint.

In my case I used a 3 inch roller and a brush to paint my cabinet interiors with Benjamin Moore Melamine in the 303-90 white tint base, and I'm very happy with that paint decision. BM Melamine is a "urethane fortified alkyd" meaning that it's binder consists of a mixture of both alkyd and polyurethane resins. The addition of the polyurethane gives it greater hardness, and that results in the paint standing up better than it would if it were just an alkyd wall paint.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't spray the stuff if you thinned it enough. But, my feeling is that you want a THICK coat of hard paint on the shelves for maximum durability, and that might be done better with a roller than with spraying.

 

[Tazman]

Thanks Nestor! I'll check with my BM dealer for that paint. Maybe I could spray them the first round and then come back with a roller and add a 2nd coat to just the shelves to get an extra level of thickness there.

Thanks!
Randy

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Yeah, that'd probably work to get a nice smooth finish over the sides and shelf bottoms, but a thicker, more protective film on the shelves. You may find that hard and heavy objects (like a cast iron pressure cooker) will still grind dirt into the paint. Use a Magic Eraser to remove that dirt and the shelves will come up looking new.

Just don't even consider using a latex paint. It's so soft that any non-black paint you use on your cupboards will get so much dirt and dust ground into it, the shelves will end up looking like he11 within a year.

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

You should also be aware that Benjamin Moore Melamine 303-90 doesn't have great hide, so if you're going to want to hide any underlying colour or blemishes, it would be a good idea to give the cabinets a coat or two of a high hiding INTERIOR alkyd primer to get everything white to begin with.