As you can tell from the picture above, we’re priming and painting the kitchen cabinet doors (and drawers)! Most of the doors are old with new paneling inside but a few are new. (One of the old ones had to be replaced because of mildew, for example.) We used the same bare wood primer as before it seems to work well. But want to know my super awesome trick for painting doors?
These things are amazing!
You can see from the pictures that I used them for most of the cabinet doors but I didn’t have enough for all of them (and I’m too impatient to wait for some to dry then steal the pyramids and reuse them). I ended up grabbing stacks of index cards and other things around the house that were a similar height to prop the doors up. Why is this the most super awesome trick? It prevents drips from forming on the cabinets, it allows air flow (so I think they dry faster), and you don’t get any primer on your dropcloth in the outline of the doors because it’s separated. Then when the doors are dry and you lift them up, they aren’t kind of stuck to the dropcloth. Needless to say, I’m a huge fan.
Now we’re ready for the actual painting to begin.
FYI: I’m still in love with the color “Capitol White” by Benjamin Moore (above) but I’ve been struggling to determine if I should use latex or oil-based paint. I’ve done a ton of research, and there are lots of pros and cons to each.
Latex Paint:
- Doesn’t take long to dry
- Water-based, meaning you can rinse off your paint brushes/ paint drops with water
- Not particularly durable
- May fade over time
- Lower in VOCs = more environmentally friendly
- Brush strokes are more forgiving and hard to see
Oil-Based Paint:
- Takes longer to dry
- Paint thinner or mineral spirits required to clean up
- Lasts a long time/ fade resistant
- Not particularly environmentally friendly
- Adheres to various surfaces more easily
- Pretty glossy finish = looks great on kitchen cabinets
- Shows every mistake
As you can see, it’s not an easy call to make! I decided to let Benjamin Moore make it for me, determined to go with whatever the guy at the store told me was best. He recommend a new kind of paint named Advance. It seems to be a win-win! (And no, I’m not getting paid by Benjamin Moore for this, haha.)
Benjamin Moore Advance Paint:
- Water-based (meaning easy clean-up!)
- Alkyd (the property of an oil-based paint that make it adhere to various surfaces easily)
- Low VOCs = environmentally friendly
- Takes longer to dry
- Lasts a long time/ fade resistant
- “Self-leveling” according to the paint guy at the shop
- Available in any color Benjamin Moore carries!
So, after we finished priming all the cabinet doors, we sanded each one down to get out any bumps or drips then used that magical tacky cloth I was telling y’all about to get all the dust off. Then we started the first coat of Benjamin Moore Advance paint in Capitol White in a semi-gloss finish!
BTW: I recommend painting cabinet doors in a space that’s away from the hustle and bustle of the house. We chose the guest rooms upstairs because we don’t ever go in them (and our dogs aren’t allowed upstairs at all, which helps too).
So far, I LOVE this paint! It goes on really thickly and reminds me of melted ice cream in its consistency. It doesn’t have an odor like most paints I’m used to and it does a great job covering. We’re definitely going to need 2 coats but I see what the paint shop guy meant about “self-leveling.” There are next to no drips… it kind of melts into itself (like ice cream would I guess).
Looking forward to getting this phase done– I now have a ton of callouses on my hands from so much priming and painting! Haha oh well, comes with the territory!
-Lynne
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