My kitchen cabinets are about 15 year olds and quite worn! I'm not in love with the color anymore (they are bright maple (wood) with a strong yellow tone that has gotten darker witih time) and we are need of a new floor which is also 15 years old!! We need to replace our floor and the cabinet color makes it hard to find wood floor that works with the tone of the cabinets. We looked into refacing the cabinets and were told it would be almost as expensive as replacing them. I would love to replace my cabinets and have a more modern kitchen, but would it be wasteful if I do!? My cabinets are only 15 years old! Our other option is to paint the cabinets, which leads me to this question: Has anyone ever painted their cabinets and how has it turned out. Let me know if you have any advice :)
R.
We painted ours two years ago. We used a paint from Benjamin Moore that is supposed to be more durable than enamel. It was pretty time consuming(you'll see why it's so expensive to have them refinished!). Changing the hardware also makes a big difference. If you want to send me a message I'd be happy to email you a picture.
A close relative had painted their wooden cabinets white. You have to use a sealer so that the stained cabinets do not bleed through. The cabinets turned out beautiful. Stick with white semi-gloss, put on new hardware. With a hardwood floor and a butcher block countertop, it is very appealing.
I would suggest painting them or restaining them if you want the biggest change for the least amount of $$. We moved into a new house and I hated the cabinets but we took one of them to a cabinet expert and an expert told us our house was actually worth more $$ with the OLD cabinets in then buying a brand new kitchen full of cabinets because the originals were such good quality. What I ended up doing was cleaning them all with denatured alcohol to get the 30 years of grease and grime off and then re-staining and re-varnishing them myself. It was time consuming but I love the cabinets now! If you cabinets will have lots of varnish on them you will probably want to sand or strip them.. that will be the worst part of the project for you and the most time consuming.
If you have a locally owned hardware store in your area you can usually find someone to give you good advice as to how to do the work and which products would be best for your situation. I would definitely test the colors of stain or paint that you will use before buying a large quantity.
Good luck!
I would strip them down and then restain them. I did that w/ an oak wall/bannister of mine in the house we're currently in and it turned out fabulous :) I have pics if you'd like to see the before and afters.
My mom had a similar problem with finding new flooring. She has the same yellowing cabinets and wanted a wood floor. They ended up going with a cherry floor and it looked good with the cabinets.
I'd skip painting them, it would look much nicer if you stripped them and re-stained, though it would have to be a darker color or the yellow will still show. My inlaws painted theirs, and it turned out nice, however its harder to keep clean, and not as nice as stained ones. But was a huge improvement on what they had before, as it wasn't a pretty wood at all - so staining them was not an option.
Technically it is wasteful, but you could definitely donate to habitat for humanity and get a tax write off, and help out someone who NEEDS something in good condition. Its annoying to spend the same amount for fixing up an old kitchen as replacing it with a newer one. :)
Best wishes!
Hi!
We painted our kitchen cabinets when we moved in (they were horrid). It is a BIG job. We took all the doors off and layed them all out on make shift tables (saw horses and planks) in the garage so we could do entire sides at one time to ensure consistency. Wood puttied the center pull holes (we wanted
more modern ones in the lower corners), sanded and primed. Be very diligent in your priming! We did two coates and they have held up beautifully. We then chose a semi-gloss finish so we could wash them without concern (also has held up fine). But here is the one tip we didn't do that I wish we did ... Mark which cabinet front face went to which base. Over the years the wood settles with that base and when you match incorrect.partners they actually don't close right! They end up being ever so slightly crooked. So mark well. I love our cabinets now. Oh and make sure you have quality brushes because every little mis-drag does show. If you have access to a sprayer ... Use it! Oh and definitely do the back of the face before the front so you don't scuff the front while doing the back. That's everything i can think of - Good luck!
M.
I am the assistant of a Kitchen Designer in Rochester, you wouldn't believe how many people replace their cabinets within 15 years - especially if they've just moved in. I couldn't afford to replace my cabinets so I painted them and it worked great! 2 Coats Latex primer and 2 coats of Latex paint. Please keep in mind that you must be in love with the layout of the kitchen if you replace the flooring only. Because the new flooring won't be under the cabinets if anything changes the flooring will need to be patched in later when you get new cabinets. #1 - Do NOT change your flooring based on the color of your cabinets now - alter the cabinets like you plan on - the flooring is semi-permanant. Hope that helps.
When we purchased our first home 16 years ago it had the old 50's style cabinets with finish wearing off. Since money was tight, we just painted the cabinets a nice bright white. My husband used a good primer and a good quality of paint. The cabinets looked nice, but eventually (7-8 years?) the paint chipped by the hinges and any place that a plate or cup may have dinged it over time. In our experience, painting would certainly be a nice temporary fix.
I repainted and put new hardware on; very time consuming but worth it. Also, make sure you label where everything goes:) I have older cabinets so I have to buy special handles to match the holes (fillling the looked bad, I couldn't get it smooth). Ifyou have the time and energy to do it, it is worth it in the long run. I actually got creative and did my doors and drawers one color and the cabinet part itself a different and it looks awesome:) Make sure you use good primer and paint though, that is worth the money.
Hi R.: I am a kitchen designer. I have not painted my own, but I know quite a few people who have painted theirs, whether doing it themselves or having it done. I would suggest that you go to a good paint store and talk to them, first of all. You want a very good quality paint - this is not a place to save money! If you look online, I'm sure that you can find many articles/videos on how to approach the project, but This Old House website always has good, informative articles http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,783875,00.html. You are going to want to remove all the doors and drawers (you will have to key them to where they go) and set up a system for painting the doors in particular (it's best if you can hang them to dry, in a garage perhaps). This articles gives you a list of materials you will need. I would definitely go with an oil-based paint - it takes longer to dry, but you will get a really smooth finish that will last. Also, something this article doesn't mention is using rottenstone (buy from a paint supply or online), which is a powdered rock for polishing. If you use this inbetween coats of paint, you will get a really, really smooth finish which will look almost perfect. As with any painting job, preparation is key. You might want to invest in some new hardware, too, to give your kitchen a whole new look. Good luck!
We had light oak cabinets in our kitchen for about 8 years. We are the original owners of the home, there was NOTHING wrong with the cabinets other than me growing tired of the color. We had ours refaced to a cherry color and I LOVE them!! It was "only" $5000....mind you the company also replaced the Hardware and added some crown moldings to the tops of the cabinets. We were looking at over $10,000 to replace the cabinets. No way were we going to spend that and again, there was nothng wrong with what we had. I am even more pleased with the refacing than I thought I would be. We had them done 1.5 years ago & they are holding up perfect!
Called out a company that sprays new color on & called a couple of their customers to get their feedback. They were pleased for a while, but they started to notice chips over time and behind the new color the old color was showing....no thanks!
Good luck!
we re-painted ours and it looked great! we went from this god-awful pink color to a white with blue trim. we also replaced the carpet (carpeted kitchen... great idea...) with linoleum... just make sure you strip the old paint off, prime them with a neutral base coat, then paint them the color you want. It's easiest if you take the doors off the hinges and paint them separately.
i painted my cabinets last week, mine are from the 70s though, and i tried staining them, but they are not really wood, they are wood laminate so the stain started to look cheap. Anyway, i bit the bullet, and bought a paint color that matched my daughters eye color, turned out nice, it will need a double coat, and a quality paint that has a primer already in it
We painted our oak cabinets two years ago and love them! It's a lot of work, but the best bang for your buck. We sanded, filled the screw holes, primed w/ Kilz, and then painted w/ semi-gloss Behr paint. (The sheen makes them easy to clean.)
Someone else also mentioned: make sure to mark which door goes where. Good luck with your kitchen re-do!
