Modern Country Kitchen: Painting Cabinets

The heart of the home. The gathering place. The kitchen. We all know kitchens sell homes and often take the most work when renovating. But when the work is done, it’s oh so rewarding!

I’m frequently asked about painting cabinets and removing backsplash tiles; both things I’ve done a few times. I’ll break those tasks into two different posts and focus on the cabinets now.

Our kitchen kind of has a country feel. Which makes sense, because our house is kind of in the country. We definitely wanted to go for the modern look, but keep some of the country charm. OK. That might not have been our original plan, but that’s how it worked out when the estimate for new doors came back. We had a very nice Amish gentleman come over and price out new shaker-style doors, crown molding, and a new kitchen island. We were quite surprised at the quote coming in just under $5,000! So our best bet was to paint the doors ourselves. And by “ourselves”, I mean myself. I figured I could at least update them with white paint and put off that expense for a few years. The good news is they turned out so well that we’re set for quite some time! And that’s when we decided we were keeping the arched doors and going for a modern country design, if that’s a thing.

To get an idea of what we were dealing with, here are a few before pictures. I know, so much golden oak!

This is where I insert my pre-blog disclosure. (Pre-blog disclosure: The home projects I share were not completed in the same chronological order as they’re posted on this blog).

By the time I got around to painting the cabinets, the long peninsula dividing the kitchen and the sunken living room had been removed. We hired a local business to add oak floors to the sunken living room, give the long step a finished piece, and stain the floors a medium dark brown. We could not have been happier with the way the floors turned out! Post about the floors and painted fireplace coming soon!

Here’s a peek at how the kitchen cabinets turned out, followed by my technique to get there.

I did not have the space to set up a huge work area and complete all the doors at once. If you do, go for it! It took me a few weeks, working in sections, to get the entire project done. I think the timeframe would have been cut in half if I’d had the space. I worked on two saw horses and long 2x4s. When I could be outside, I was, but I had to battle a little rain, running out of daylight, and those tiny little bugs that I swear love freshly painted surfaces as much as moths love lightbulbs! The rest of the time I moved this set up to the garage, where dust was an issue.

My first tip is to hammer a bunch of nails with small heads into the 2x4s. This will give your doors very small surface space to rest on without damage. If you place the doors directly on the 2x4s thinking your paint is cured, you may end up peeling some of the paint that has stuck to the board. Yes, I learned this the hard way. All of that being said, make sure you lift your doors straight up. You don’t want to drag them across the nail heads and scratch your surface.

After you remove the doors and hinges, I recommend using a sander deglosser to prep the surface for paint. I literally did zero sanding on my doors. Zip, zero, nada! My doors were in pretty good condition to begin with, so if you have some dinged up edges, I feel it would be a good idea to run over them with a piece of sandpaper. I was only dealing with stain and varnish.

This is the sander deglosser I used. I thought it would take a few bottles, but I got my entire kitchen done with less than one bottle, for under $6. It’s called Easy Liquid Sander Deglosser by Klean Strip. This was found in the paint department at Home Depot. The key is to use a lint-free (very important detail) cloth and to wear gloves. As soon as you begin to rub in a circular motion, the surface will start to get sticky. It’s almost fun to watch the surface change. Almost, I’m not a total weirdo. But I did get an amazing arm workout during this process. Follow the instructions on the bottle, then get ready for the fun part.

To paint the cabinets I used Behr Ultra paint. I usually use another brand for my interior paint, but I figured this was going to be a temporary fix and I wanted to keep the budget under control. I’m beyond happy with the results of this paint and now highly recommend it. The white color I use for all my interior projects is a satin finish and called Night Blooming Jasmine, number YL-W10, with base 7750. I like that it’s a soft white, but still looks clean. At certain times I can see the yellow undertones on my fireplace bricks, but I never regret using this color. The navy blue on the island is called Starless Night, number PPU14-20, with base 7753. This paint and color are so beautiful in person, and it’s holding up amazingly in a very high-traffic area. I know my paint cans are messy, but I recommend writing the month/year and room on the lids. It helps me remember which can to use for touch-ups or for purchasing more in the future.

Now this is where I wish I had taken more pictures. I was doing each part of the painting process in between running kids and keeping up with the house. I don’t have pictures of the doors being sprayed, but I will give you tips to do that successfully.

Tip One: Use a sprayer! I purchased a Wagner Flexio paint sprayer at Menards for under $150. I’m not sure which model, but I think it was the 3000. I loved it at first, but then it stopped working correctly. The motor seemed to overheat, and it would drip raindrops of paint onto the doors. I was getting frustrated with the extra steps to fix those spots. Dabbing and respraying seemed to work fine, but again, extra steps. Remember to wipe your nozzle with a clean cloth at least a few times for each side of the door you paint, because the paint will also build up on the nozzle. I got through the project, but since the sprayer was getting too hot and malfunctioning, customer service at Menards allowed me to return the sprayer. I haven’t decided on a new one yet, but will invest more than $150 on the next one. I may even try another Wagner too, just of higher quality.

Tip Two: Start on the backside of the door. This way if you need a few strokes to get the hang of it, it won’t show on the fronts. Also, your finished fronts will be the last part you paint, so odds are they won’t get messed up before going back on the hinges. Remember to carefully place and remove them from the nails on the 2x4s, if that’s the set up you’re using. You will want to spray a few coats on each side, but thin layers each time. By adding a little water to the paint you can create a finer mist. I didn’t go too thin. Just add a little bit of water and mix until it’s blended. You’ll want to see the consistency thin just a bit. I sprayed four coats of paint on each side. With the coats being a thin mist, I was able to wait just a few hours in between to move on to the next coat.

Tip Three: Keep your passes with the sprayer consistent! You’ll want to start with your sprayer nozzle off of the door, pull the sprayer trigger, then move onto the door, all the way across, and off the other end. I noticed if I started at the edge of the door then started painting, the edge was thicker. So start spraying and stop spraying when the nozzle is past the edges of the door, and probably spraying the grass or drop-clothe. Then repeat coming back the other way by starting the sprayer off the door and coming all the way across until you’re off the door again on the side you started. The passes should just overlap a bit so the thin sprays fill in with each pass. The first coat of paint won’t cover much, but it will all fill in nicely with each coat, I promise. Remember less is more, and it takes patience.

Tip Four: Arm angle is key! To keep those passes back and forth across the door consistent, I literally held my arm that was holding the sprayer with the other arm. I got a comfortable angle then locked my wrist and elbow into a hold. The reason for this is that I didn’t want the sprayer nozzle to move closer on one pass than it did on the previous pass. I wanted the same amount of paint to hit the cabinet door at the same angle with each coat. I even locked my upper body tight and shifted side-to-side at my hips and knees to keep the sprayer moving like a machine would work. It’s kind of the lower-body workout as compared to the deglossing upper-body workout from earlier.

Example for Tips three and four: Because I didn’t take pictures while I was working on the cabinets, I’ve used my “hello” sign and a can of spray paint to show you how I start on the outside of the door, then move across it and off the other side. I’ve kept my spray paint positioned at the same angle and distance from the sign. I also squatted a little and shifted from side to side. If I were painting a door, the paint would be pretty even.

Tip Five: Don’t paint the inside of the cabinets! I highly recommend leaving the insides the way they started. You can get new shelves if those need updated, but when I’ve painted insides of cabinets in the past, they get scraped up easily and it starts to look a little more beaten up. It’s also awesome not to have to remove all your items when you’re working on the kitchen. I did use a roller and a brush to run along the front of the boxes and the crown molding. Painting the fronts of the cabinets without cutting into the edges gives it a very clean look. I also used shelf liner paper to clean up the base under my sink. That was a very easy step to give it a clean, fresh start.

Finally: Have fun with the finishes! If you want to love your space change up your paint colors, or use two different colors, like I did, by adding navy blue to the island. Add some character with your hardware. Your cabinet pulls and knobs don’t all need to be exactly the same. I used hardware with the same finish, but two different styles between doors and drawers. This is your space; the heart of your home. You should love it and be proud of all the work you’ve done to make it special. And once the work is done, you won’t want to leave!

The cabinet painting was just the start to our kitchen renovation. As you can see we added new stainless steel appliances. Next I’ll show you how to give the wall microwave a finished look followed by a post on how to remove backsplash tile. I can’t wait to share our backsplash and new countertops. They were the exact character our modern country kitchen needed! Stay tuned…