Difficulty: Beginner
If you found your way to this post there is a good chance that you already read about my first failed attempt at painting my kitchen cabinets. If not you can read about that here.

I royally screwed up the first time because I tried to take a short cut recommended by lots of other bloggers and that short cut created a lot of extra work for me. Why did I take that short cut? Because when it comes to DIY projects I tend to be impatient and lazy, bad combo.

I tried a product called Krud Kutter. Maybe you have heard of it, maybe you have tried it. I’m not trying to bad mouth the product or drag the company through the mud. I’m just trying to be completely honest. I tried the product after reading numerous blog posts recommending this product.

These other bloggers recommended it because it worked for them. At least I assume they recommended it because it worked and not simply because it was a sponsored post, but I’m not entirely sure. What I do know is that I used this product, followed the directions and at first everything seemed fine, but about two months later the paint started chipping, a lot.

The second attempt was going to be different. I was going to do it the right way and that meant replacing the so called miracle product with good old fashioned elbow grease. Hard work and proper preparation would ensure that I got a good paint job this time.

Prep

When it comes to any project I get really excited and want to just jump right in, but proper prep work always ensures a great finished product. No it isn’t fun or exciting to do the prep, but I’m here to tell you don’t make the same mistake that I did. Save yourself the aggravation of having to do it over and do it right the first time.

Clean

Start by cleaning everything really well. You can use a store bought de-greaser such as Greased Lightning. You can concoct your own de-greaser using common household ingredients such as dish soap, baking soda, borax or white vinegar. Check out Pinterest for a recipe. Another option would be to use TSP, a heavy duty cleaner available at your local hardware store.

I went with the homemade approach. I always have dish soap, baking soda, white vinegar and borax on hand, so I figured I would try that and avoid a trip to the store. I also figure that if I didn’t do a perfect job cleaning that I would be saved by sanding.

Clean all surfaces. Front and backs of doors, drawer fronts and the actual cabinet boxes. Even if there isn’t grease on all of those surfaces there will be dust and finger prints, so clean thoroughly.

Remove Hardware

You need to remove the hinges and hardware to get the neatest paint job. Even if you plan to re-use the hardware you should still remove it to paint. If you don’t plan to re-use the hardware just remove it and toss it in the trash or set aside to donate to a recycled building materials store.

Make sure that you already have replacement hardware that will work with your doors and drawers before you chuck the old hardware. Take an old hinge to the hardware store with you when choosing the replacement. Find a hinge with the same dimensions but with a new color or style.

Try out the new hinge before you get rid of the old and make sure it works. Trust me, not all cabinet hinges are the same. Just because you like the look of a certain hinge doesn’t mean it will easily work with your existing doors.

 

If you are reusing the hardware make sure to label every hinge, knob, handle and screw. Label which door the hardware goes to and whether it is the top or bottom hinge and keep the screws in the same holes. When removing the hinges put the screws back into the holes that they were in when attached to the door and tape them in place with painters tape. Then you can label the tape with all necessary info.

I planned to change my hinges, so I just put them all in a bag with the screws, but didn’t label any of them. Then I tried twice to buy hinges that I thought would work, but in the end weren’t either the right type or size. I ended up using my existing hinges and then came the guess work.

You can’t just put any hinge on any door in any position. It might work sometimes, but most likely things will be off kilter. A lot of trial and error went into putting the old hinges back on and things still aren’t quite right, but they are good enough, so I gave up.

I know it seems painstaking and unnecessary to label all the hardware, but trust me when I say that it will make putting things back together so much easier.

Label Doors and Drawers

As you are removing the doors and drawers make sure you label them. I don’t have a very big kitchen, but I have 16 doors and 8 drawers. They aren’t all the same size, but some are so close in size that if I didn’t label them I would be confused when putting things back together.

I simply number my doors working from left to right. I attach a piece of painters tape with a number and an up arrow to remind me which end is up. For my drawers I label the painters tape with the contents of the drawer such as silverware or junk. You could also use numbers to label the drawers, but for whatever reason I didn’t.

It doesn’t really matter the system you use to label the doors and drawers as long as it works for you. It may not make sense to anyone else, but if it makes sense to you it’s good. Make sure that as you are sanding and painting the doors and drawers and you are moving the labels around that you always keep them oriented the same direction so you always know which end is up.

Fill Holes and Sand

If you are changing from handles to knobs or knobs to handles you will need to fill the existing screw holes. And no you can’t use one of the existing holes with the new hardware. It won’t look right. Use a putty knife to fill the holes with wood filler. Press the wood filler into the holes with the knife continuing to add wood filler until it comes out the hole on the other side of the door. Smooth it out with the knife as best you can and let it dry completely, about a half hour.

Using a sanding block or a palm sander lightly sand all surfaces. You want to dull up the surface to make it easier for the primer to adhere to the wood. Make sure to sand the filled holes smooth. Sand the cabinet boxes as well.

This is a very dusty job, so your options are to remove everything from your kitchen counters, cover everything in your kitchen with drop cloths or have a helper follow your every move with the vacuum cleaner hose to suck up the dust as it is created.

I tried taping the vacuum cleaner hose to my palm sander with duct tape to clean as I went but it didn’t work. It was super awkward to use and I dropped the vacuum on my foot while trying to use my contraption.

I ended up also covering everything with garbage bags and it’s a good thing that I did since my sander vacuum combo didn’t work at all.

Now that you have done all of your prep work you are ready to prime and then paint. Coming in part 2 will be details on how to prime and paint to get a great paint job.