Painting Kitchen Cabinets – Day 2

I spent about 6 hours today painting doors and drawer fronts and starting a new section of kitchen cabinets. I know it seems like it’s taking forever for me to do this project, but I am experimenting as I go along to see what works and doesn’t.

Something that works for me when painting the detail in the doors is to start in the corners first.

I mentioned in the Day 1 posting that I’m doing 3 coats of primer. The pictures below illustrate why.

After the 2nd coat of primer dries, the 3rd coat will completely cover the stain and fill the wood pores.

One thing that helps is to have a helper like mine. She does a good job of keeping birds away :).

Up through this post,

• the only power tool I’ve used is a cordless drill to remove the cabinet doors
• all sanding has been done by hand
• all painting has been done by either brush or roller

It has been about 13 1/2 hours and so far I’ve done the following.

• 3 coats of primer on 1/3 of the cabinets
• 1 coat of primer on another 1/3 of the cabinets
• 3 coats of primer on 2 doors and 1 drawer front
• 2 coats of primer on 6 drawer fronts

Next weekend I’m changing things up. I’m shifting over to using more power tools

• Use a random orbiting sander for prep
• Use an air compressor to clean drawer and door fronts
• Setup a temporary spray booth area
• Use a latex sprayer to apply primer and paint