painting fireplace and cabinets

[semidevil]

when we bought our house, it came with very nice white trim and white doors. Unfortunately, in order to get the fireplace and kitchen cabinets white, we had to pay an upgrade. We decided to not upgrade it and get the regular 'wood' color.

A couple years later living in the house, we decide that having the a white fireplace and white cabinets to match the trim and door would look really nice, so we are considering it doing it ourself.

Is this a particular 'big' project? We are just husband and wife and really have no experience in painting or any home maintance.

here are some pics:
kitchen cabinet
http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img00188xd0.jpg

fireplace
http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img00186rw4.jpg

trim I want to match to:
http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img00187oe1.jpg

Is this a fairly difficult project for first timers?

some questions:
how do I get the exact same 100% same white/glossy paint?(I never bought paint before)

do I need to 'sand' down the current finish? IF so, how?

what other materials do I need and how do I use them(primer, paint, # of coats, etc etc)

Is it wise to paint these 2 items while they are on the wall? If it requires taking them down and screwing it back in, I might not want to do it.

I have no complaints about the current colors, but if it is fairly easy to make everything match at almost 100%, I wouldn't mind doing it.

any suggestions would be appreciated.

thank you.

 

[Square Eye]

I've refinished and painted a LOT of cabinets.
The best way for me is to remove the doors and lay them flat to paint them. Clean with a degreaser and sand, clean again, prime, sand again if the surface is the least bit rough, clean again and paint. May take several coats to get the finish you want. Sanding lightly and wiping down between coats.
I have actually used Kilz2 latex sealing primer on bare sanded wood then glossy latex for the finish. An alternative is a stain killing primer like zinsser brand then an oil base paint that hardens. The problem with hard oil base finishes is chipping and checking. But it would be years before you realized any problems.

The manufacturers often use laquers for extremely hard and durable finishes but these are difficult and expensive finishes for a homeowner to try to tackle. The equipment required alone is enough to convince the average homeowner to go another route.

Matching is a tedious thing. You can only get close. Even the same manufacturer will recommend mixing cans of the same paint together before painting large surfaces. Take a small piece of trim with you or bring several white color cards home from the paint store and match it the best you can.

 

[fireguy]

Painting a fireplace isn't that bad of a job at all. I recently did mine with a fireplace painting kit from a site called Brick-ANew. If you needed to get an exact color match you could always take a sample of the existing paint down to Home Depot or something similar, but sometimes its nice to get something slightly different but complimentary. I have to warn you though, it will look so much better it will get addictive. I just installed one of their wood fireplace mantles too. Hope that helps.

 

[Daryl in Nanoose]

Everything Square Eye said but I would like to make one suggestion, use a tack cloth after each time you sand so there is no dust particles.