Although painting your own kitchen cabinets is a pretty tempting DIY project, it is best left to the pro’s. Here are some of the most common questions we get.
We hear it all the time… Someone with ugly, scratched, dated pickled-oak cabinets thinks they can DIY and paint their cabinets. They might even say, “How hard can it be?” This happens often with someone that is pretty handy around the house. They might even do household projects all the time, but then we get a call to fix their mistake.
If you’re thinking about painting your kitchen cabinets, you have probably watched every YouTube video or tutorial out there. You get the basic tutorial for the homeowner on a budget. Some of the tutorials might even tell you to clean your cabinets and protect your floors and surfaces. They tell you to get brushes and rollers and to not forget to sand between coats. What they don’t tell you is that professional cabinet painters typically spray the cabinets to get a smooth finish.
The process professionals use to paint kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets is very different from what you will find on a YouTube video or a tutorial. We will tell you how we paint cabinets doors, drawers and your cabinet boxes step-by-step.
Watch this video if you would like to learn more about our cabinet painting process.
What is the difference between DIY-painted cabinets and a professional painted cabinet?
Here are is how you can tell an amateur cabinet painter vs a professional cabinet painter:
- Visible brush strokes
- Visible roller marks
- Visible cracks, dings, dents, holes that didn’t get fixed
- Chips
- Uneven color
How do the professional cabinet painters produce such smooth cabinets?
Professional cabinet painters spray the cabinets, drawers and boxes so they are free of brush strokes or roller marks. This makes it difficult for a DIY project. Professional paint sprayers are expensive, and it takes skills to use them without drips. WIthout professional spray equipment, it’s almost impossible to get a smooth factory finish like you get with new cabinets.
Professional cabinet painters also use products that are designed for cabinets, doors and boxes and not walls. Our cleaners are designed to cut through kitchen grease and allow our color and finish to adhere. Our paint is applied in multiple thin coats to get an even coat. Our finish coat is durable enough to be on your floor. You get the picture.
How do professional cabinet painters prepare your cabinets doors and drawers for painting?
- We remove hardware such as knobs and pull
- We disassemble your kitchen by removing the cabinet doors and drawer fronts from the cabinet boxes.
- We label each cabinet and drawer so we can put it back in the same place
- We take your cabinet doors and drawers to our shop
- We clean your cabinet doors and drawers
- We repair any cabinet doors or drawers that need to be repaird
- We abrade your cabinet doors and drawers for adhesion
- We seal or prime your cabinet doors and drawers
- We apply multiple coats of our color to your cabinet doors and drawers
- We apply multiple coats of our finish to protect your cabinet doors and drawers
- We cure our finish coat with a UV light which makes them instantly cured
How do professional cabinet painters prepare your cabinet boxes for painting?
- We clean your cabinet boxes to remove grease and dirt
- We mask your cabinet boxes to protect walls, interior of cabinets, countertops, fixtures, and appliances
- We abrade your cabinet boxes for adhesion
- We seal or prime your cabinet boxes
- We apply multiple coats of our color to your cabinet boxes
- We apply multiple coats of our finish to protect your cabinet boxes
- We cure your cabinet boxes with our finish coat with a UV light which makes them instantly cured
Does N-Hance of Wilmington ever leave the cabinet doors on and just paint them in place?
N-Hance of Wilmington does not leave the doors and paint them in place. Only an ameteur leaves the doors on cabinets when they paint them.It’s almost impossible to get a smooth finish without getting paint on your hinges. Professionals never do it this way. Here at N-Hance of Wilmington we remove the doors and drawer fronts and take them off-site to our cabinet spray shop for spraying. You will get a smooth, professional finish on BOTH sides of your cabinet doors.
How does N-Hance of Wilmington mask off the kitchen to protect your countertops, walls, appliances and floors?
N-Hance of Wilmington covers everything that will not be getting painted. We use masking paper, tape and plastic. We tape paper or plastic over the openings protecting the insides from any overspray. We then tent off your kitchen with plastic to contain any overspray while we’re spraying. .
How does N-Hance of Wilmington pre the cabinet doors, drawers and boxes for painting?
Most kitchens get pretty beat up with use! Everyday cooking grease accumulates over time. Surfaces can get chipped or scratched. We clean your cabinets with our proprietary cleaners and lightly abrade them to remove the glassiness of any existing finish. This will help the primer bond to your cabinets. This step is often missed by amateurs. We also do any repairs, such as dings or deep scratches in your cabinets.
You can see that getting professional results for your kitchen remodel is more difficult than the weekend DIY project. If you are looking to have your cabinets painted by a professional, give us a call at 910-541-1633 or fill out our online form www.nhance.com/wilmington/get-an-estimate for a free consultation. We will go over all your questions and let you see all of our options.