Painting Our Kitchen Cabinets: ORC Week 2
Hello All! And welcome back to my kitchen remodel series for the One Room Challenge hosted by Lina at Calling It Home. A bunch of bloggers are taking one room in their homes and completely transforming and remodeling their space. Go check it out if you haven’t yet! Otherwise, last week we shared all of the before pictures of my kitchen in the house my husband and I just bought. See all the pictures as well as our plan here ->
Kitchen Makeover: One Room Challenge Week 1
And the rest of our series here: Week 3 / Week 4 / Week 5 / Week 6 (The Reveal)
But to recap, below is what we are working with!
For your convenience in locating products we love and use this post contains affiliate links. See our full disclosure here.
To begin this project we thought we would tackle painting the cabinets first, since it was going to be a big job. Luckily Vicki and I acquired a paint sprayer for a great deal during the holidays, so we decided we would try it out on my cabinets! I put Vicki in charge of the cabinets since I am pregnant and unable to do the painting.
The first step was to label all the cabinet doors and drawers as we took them off the frames. This ensures there is no confusion when trying to put them back together. I actually drew my kitchen on a sheet of paper so I knew where I was starting and labeled everything as follows with a piece of painters tape.
- L1 = Lower Cabinet 1, 2, 3 etc…
- U1 = Upper 1, 2, 3 etc…
- D1 = Drawer 1, 2, 3 etc…
(Here you can see the shelves that need to be replaced. Almost all of them were warped and covered in icky contact paper.)
After labeling and removing all the hardware, we then sanded and cleaned the frames. We used a fine grit sandpaper and cleaned with a degreasing dish soap to make sure the paint would stick. Once the cabinet frames were ready, we assigned my husband to create a spray shelter in the garage (which luckily is heated since it is still a bit chilly here in Minnesota!). He laid down some painters paper on the floor and put plastic on the wall and over the workbench. He then brought all the doors and drawers to the garage to sand, clean, and lay them all out.
Tip: Use mini dixi cups to prop your doors up from the floor. This will allow you to paint the edges without the paint sticking to the paper.
While my husband was in the garage, Vicki and I finished taping around all the cabinet frames, including the bulkhead, the walls, the floor, the countertop; pretty much anything that would possibly be in the way of overspray!
After all of that prep work was done, we could finally paint! Well, in reality, Vicki could paint. It took 3 coats of paint to cover everything evenly. Vicki alternated between the cabinet frames and the doors out in the garage. She was also spraying the insides of all the frames, which was really time-consuming. All-in-all painting the cabinets took the whole week to finish.
If you don’t have a sprayer, no worries, a brush and roller works great as well. We have done both and the time was pretty much the same. We found there was more prep-work involved with the sprayer since you have to tape everything. If you are good with a paintbrush and can be careful, you wouldn’t need to tape.
We would say the key to painting your cabinets is in the prep work. Starting with a good clean surface is going to do wonders. Another tip, be very very careful with your freshly painted cabinets for at the very least a week after paint is applied. The paint needs to “cure” for quite some time.
What’s Next?
My kitchen is quite a mess but I am already seeing the potential here in those fresh white cabinets! Don’t they look so much better?! You can see that blank spot on the wall where we took down a couple upper cabinets. We are putting them back up, but my dad needs to access the wires in the wall there for my pendants! (Gosh am I lucky to have such a handy family who is more than willing to help me!)
I can’t wait to get all that paper off and start cleaning everything up. But in the meantime, make sure to continue to follow along. We will have another update for you next week!
Wow- the paint makes such a big difference already!
What a great post! You guys are rockin the kitchen cabinet thingy! You go, girls! Susie from The Chelsea Project
We painted our kitchen cabinets before we moved in…wish I had known about the Dixie Cup trick! We used the big chunky kid’s legos to prop ours up for the sprayer.
That white paint is going to make all the difference. It already looks so good. You were ambitious for sure. I’m going to use the dixie cup trick when I paint mine over the summer. Thanks for the tip.
Nancy
Thank you Nancy, I agree, the white brings a lot to the space! The dixie cups work well, but keep them more towards the center of the door or they could blow from the spray when you are painting the sides of the door next to it!
Painting cupboards makes such a big impact! We did ours too and it totally transformed our kitchen. Can’t wait to see the rest!
Painting seems like such a big job. Your kitchen is definitely a nice size. Looking great so far! Good luck with week 3 coming up.
Seeing everything taken down and line-up for painting is daunting! You ladies are rocking this though.
Ah, white cabinets! My favorite. It’s going to looks so good in there.
WOW! way to knock it out! amazing!
Painting the cabinets white is going to be such a change! They look great so far!!
Your cabinets are looking fantastic! I’m planning on painting our cabinets someday, so I love the comparison of spraying vs. rolling. Looking forward to seeing more progress!
Mmm. Freshly painted white cabinets! Gorgeous! Can’t wait to see the rest.
The paint makes SUCH a difference! Great idea to label all the cabinet doors, I could totally see us taking them off, not labeling and having no idea how to put it back together again!
The white does make it so much brighter! And I agree, prep is key!!
I am always amazed at the pier of paint! Cant wait to see what comes next!
Thank you Lesli! Paint works wonders!
What a big difference already — and what a big project! I haven’t painted cabinets before — but even with a paint sprayer, it’s a big job, I’m sure.
It really is a big job, but totally worth it! Thanks for visiting Lora!
Great tip about using dixie cups to prop up cabinet doors for painting!
Haha thank you Carrie!
Can’t wait to see the final cabinets painted. Great tip about Dixie cups–we have some paint pyramids I use for smaller projects, but that’d be really expensive for all those cabinet doors!!
Thank you Brittany! the dixie cups worked pretty well!
Holy cow! You have done a ton of work so far. That kitchen has great bones and I also painted my kitchen cabinets over 4 yrs ago and still love it today. I can’t wait to see this all come together. What a huge transformation.
Cheers. xoxo
Thank you so much Sue!
I so wish I was brave enough to do this! I hope to try it some day! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
You definitely should! The hard work is totally worth it!
Kristen! You must be so excited!! The white is going to look so fantastic in here!!!!
Thank you Lisa! The white looks so great already!
I’m loving the dixie cup trick… we painted ours by hand but when we laid the door fronts out it took tons of time to do a side at time so they didn’t stick! I can’t wait to see how your whole makeover turns out! The white looks gorgeous so far!
Thank you Betsy!
Such a great tutorial! Thanks for sharing. I am looking to eventually tackle painting my cabinets and can’t decide if I should use a paint and roller or go for the sprayer! I tackling my home office during the ORC, and this is my first year so I am loving following along with everyones progress!
Thank you Holly! Just depends on what you prefer. Timing is roughly the same! Good luck on your ORC room!
It’s so good – I can’t believe you’ve finished the hard part (painting the entire kitchen cupboards inside and out!) already. And I LOVED that you compared spraying to brushing and found they take roughly the same time – really invaluable information for me so thankyou very much! We’re all cheering for you ladies ? xx
Thank you so much Kate! We appreciate you following along!
so much potential here! but what a big job!
Ugh, it was a big job! Thank you Jessica for visiting!
The white looks so much better, but you’re taking on a huge project! I’m a diy person, but we hired someone to paint ours. I love your idea of using the mini dixie cups. I’m always looking around for scrap wood or jars to set my items on when painting.
We use scrap wood all the time as well, but didn’t have that much for all the doors we had! Thanks Carol!
Great job! I have painted my bathroom cabinets and that was a huge job! I am afraid of undertaking the whole kitchen.
Don’t be afraid! You could totally do it! Lol, just know it is a lot of work, and have your plan in place. If you are only doing the outside and not the inside, leave everything in your cabinets. We have done that too and isn’t a problem at all.
woo! this is our project this week! i am painting our cabinets with roller/brush but have always wanted to try a sprayer! good to know the time was about the same!
Hope your painting went well Colette! Such a big job, but totally worth it!
Oh I’ve been there and done that, it is quite a job isn’t it? Mine were already white but a poor job that needed to be redone. I used a roller and paintbrush. You ladies are doing a wonderful job and it is already looking so much better!
Thank you so much Mary! We appreciate the support, definitely is a lot of work!
Great progress!! We painted our kitchen cabinets for the fall ORC and it makes such a HUGE difference in the space! Can’t wait to see your finished kitchen! And congrats on the new little one on the way! 🙂
Thank you so much Nicole! Painting cabinets really does make a huge difference, we agree!
It is looking good, can’t wait to see more! Have a great day 🙂
Thank you Christine!
Wow, what a big difference painting the cabinets makes in your space. Lots of hard work there, but so worth it!!!!
Thank you Jennifer! So worth it for sure!
That was quite a big job. But I’m sure it was worth it! Anything is better than those dull brown cabinets.
Haha! We agree! And definitely worth it for sure 🙂
What a huge job but so worth it!! White kitchens are my favorite!
Thanks Kendra! They are my favorite too! (obviously 😉
The lighter color makes such a difference! Can’t wait to see your finished kitchen!
I can’t wait to show everyone! Oh my gosh, lightening this kitchen up improved the place SO much!
I have been wanting to paint my cabinets for quite some time. This has given me the inspiration to get started! Thanks so much! Found you through Totally Terrific Tuesday.
What a fantastic transformation! I’m happy for getting the best information from you. Keep posting.