Repainting Kitchen Cabinets
By Sinjon Van Hammond
A lot of homeowners don’t realize that their kitchen cabinets take the most abuse out of any other pieces of wooden furniture in the house. This is simply because the kitchen is one of the most accessed areas of a home, frequented at least three times a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Kitchen cabinets are opened and closed so many times in a given day.
The activities in a kitchen also create environments that are simply brutal for any type of woodwork. Air temperature can jump up each time something needs to be cooked. When something is being boiled or steamed, you can also be sure that the changes in humidity will affect your kitchen cabinet.
In addition to this, these pieces of furniture are also very vulnerable to other liquids and solids which can damage their surfaces. There’s grease, blood, fruit juices, and even water to name a few. Therefore, you shouldn’t be surprised if you find the conditions of your kitchen cabinets to be on the edge.
This is why many people consider repainting their kitchen cabinets every now and then. However, painting this furniture isn’t exactly the same with painting other pieces of woodwork around the house. Here’s how you can do it without fuss.
The first thing you have to do is to clean up the whole cabinet. Take out the kitchen cabinet’s doors before you start to make the whole task a lot easier. Take some all purpose cleaner, apply it on a rag, and wipe and rinse off any grease, dirt, grime, and other residue. Leave the cabinet to dry once you have finished.
Once the kitchen cabinet is completely dry, take some sandpaper with 150 or finer grit, and lightly sand the whole piece of furniture. Take the sandpaper and rub it completely over the surfaces of the areas to be painted a few times. This would ensure that the primer that you will be applying would bond more effectively with the wood. A good sand job will mean a longer lasting paint job.
As mentioned earlier, once you’re done with sanding the whole kitchen cabinet, apply a primer. It’s important to apply a primer on an article before painting it, since it prevents chipping and peeling of the paint significantly. Take note, however, that if you plan on painting the kitchen cabinet the same color it was, you may go ahead and skip this step.
After priming your cabinet with the appropriate wood primer, you can proceed with actually painting the cabinet. You can go about this with a paint brush. Go for a 2 ½ to 3 inch brush for best results. Try to complete your paint job with as little coats as possible. A thinner initial coat gives a more professional finish. From here you can put additional coats on, and you can even have it look better by lightly sanding the dried first coat before applying the next one.
Most of the time two coats should be enough. After finishing the painting, wait for the kitchen cabinet to dry, and the resulting product should look like it jut came from the assembly line.
About the Author: Sinjon recommends Roof Bond Foam Roof Insulation and JCS Power Tools.
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