Learning How to Repaint Kitchen Cabinets – is one of the least expensive, and most dramatic transformations you can do for your kitchen. Painting kitchen cabinets is a simple and inexpensive overhaul for your kitchen – and our DIY Guide below can help you complete this project in 3 days.
Within the “Do it Yourself” category – painting kitchen cabinets or painting bathroom cabinets – can be one of the most rewarding home projects you will ever take on – and in the process, you will save a lot of money.
Professional painters can charge between $2,000-$5,000 to repaint cabinets, depending on the size of your kitchen – making this project one of the biggest cost-savers most homeowners can take on themselves
And Great News – With these simple steps below, you can paint kitchen cabinets without stripping them first!
Let’s get started!
How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets
Assemble Paint & Materials
Allow a budget of $300-600 for all of the materials needed to paint kitchen cabinets, depending on the size of your kitchen, grade of materials chosen, and any new hardware selections.
We Recommend Buying the Following Paint and Materials For Repainting Kitchen Cabinets:
- Best Type of Paint For Kitchen Cabinets (see suggestions below)
- Primer – Buy the best Primer for all types of wood surfaces (see tips below)
- Paint Brush – We recommend a high quality 2 – 2 ½” Nylon Bristle brush
- Foam Roller – 3” mini foam roller with refills for smooth flat surfaces
- Painters Tape – 1 roll of painter or “Frog” tape should be sufficient
- Drop cloths – to protect floor and countertops.
- Have plenty of rags for quick clean-up.
- Sharpie pen
- Screwdriver or drill with bits to remove hardware
- Portable Workbench
- Shop Vacuum
- Wood putty and putty knife (if you have damage or knicks to fill)
- Ventilation masks
- Tack cloth – If you plan to sand, buy tack cloth to remove dust from cabinets
Quick Tips: Before Painting Kitchen Cabinets:
- Allow Sufficient Time: While many people claim repainting kitchen cabinets is a 1- or 2-day project, we recommend allowing 3-4 days for this project. Just pick a time when you can set aside 3-4 days to just this one project.
- Buy the Best Paint for Kitchen Cabinets: Choose the best paint for kitchen cabinets that you can afford. This is a time when the saying… “You get what you pay for”… comes into play. A lousy brand of kitchen cabinet paint or primer will doom your project from the start.
- Buy the Best Primer for Kitchen cabinets you can find. Equally important to the paint you use, is buying the best Primer for cabinets available. The best-rated primer for kitchen cabinets, in our opinion, is KILZ Adhesion bonding primer.
- Good Lighting: Be sure to have sufficient lighting for your kitchen. This may require the use of additional lamps or Jobsite lights to brighten up your space while you work.
Without trying to sound too much like a commercial…..Kilz is a Water-based Primer for easy cleanup, it does not have toxic fumes like oil-based primers, and will adhere to laminates, glossy surfaces, metal, and existing latex or oil-based paint. It dries in one hour, so you can quickly get right onto the next step – painting kitchen cabinets.
Keep in mind that no matter how great your paint is, if your kitchen cabinet primer doesn’t adhere permanently and the primer coat fails – the paint will peel.
Day One: “Prep” Kitchen Cabinets for Paint
Step 1. “Sketch” Your Existing Kitchen Cabinet Layout
Make a quick sketch of your kitchen cabinets, numbering every door and drawer on the plan, and save the sketch in a safe place to reference later. Many times doors and drawers are made to fit one specific opening, especially true in custom kitchen cabinets. it’s important to return each door and drawer to its original location.
Step 2. Label Kitchen Cabinet Doors and Drawers
- Using a small piece of painters tape and a sharpie pen, label each door on the “hinge pocket” located on the backside of each cabinet door. The number will be concealed after the door hinge is installed.
- So for just the doors, you can write the door number right in the hinge pocket on the door without painters tape.
- For the drawers, use painters tape and label the inside of each drawer box. Do this according to the number or letter is shown on your sketch.
- I like to number the doors and assign a letter to each drawer, as shown above, to keep everything separated and simple.
Step 3. Remove Cabinet Doors and Drawers
After you have labeled all the doors and drawers in your kitchen (or bath), remove the labeled doors and drawers, and carefully set them aside, and move onto Step 4.
Step 4. Remove Kitchen Cabinet hardware
Remove all hinges, screws, knobs and pulls from doors and drawers and separate the hardware into separate small boxes of screws, hinges, pulls, and knobs. (Note: leave sliding drawer glides in place unless you are repainting the inside drawer “boxes” – which is a very big job).
Step 5. – Prep Kitchen Cabinets, Doors, and Drawers, for Paint
- For old wood cabinets with “varnished finish – Use a good de-glosser such as
- For old wood cabinets with a “painted finish” – use an excellent de-greaser first such as Kleen strip
- Fill any small nicks or dents with wood putty
- lightly sand all surfaces of doors and drawer fronts with 200-220 grit sandpaper.
- Wipe off any dust and residue from wood surfaces with a clean, soft rag.
- Use painters tape to tape off the inside of cabinets, shelves, and drawer boxes (not to be painted).
Step 6. Protect All Surfaces
Before you begin applying Primer and Paint, be sure to cover appliances, countertops, and floor with plastic, drop cloths, or paper, to protect from paint splatters or spills. You will be very glad you did!
Step 7. “Prime” Kitchen Cabinets
Use the Best kind of Primer to paint your kitchen cabinets – We recommend using KILZ – as the best adhesion primer for all types of cabinet finishes.
Day Two: “Paint” Kitchen Cabinets
Step 1. “Sand” Kitchen Cabinets – First
- Lightly Sand all exposed primed surfaces with an extra-fine – 220 grit sandpaper.
- Note: While sanding kitchen cabinets is optional; It is an excellent idea to do a light sanding on all exposed surfaces between the primer, paint, and final clear-coat finishes. Sanding provides a smoother finish and a much more professional looking job.
- Tip: Sanding is much easier and quicker if you use an extra-fine “Sanding Sponge” for flat surfaces.
Step 2. “Paint” Kitchen Cabinets
- Our choice for the best paint for kitchen cabinets would undoubtedly be either Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, or Dunn Edwards. Each manufacturer has stand-alone paint stores and a vast array of color selections.
- However, if you don’t have a good paint supplier near you, and plan to paint kitchen cabinets white, we recommend INSL-X Cabinet paint, which you can get shipped from Amazon, along with your primer.
- If you’re looking at spicing up your kitchen with Color – Check out Nuvo’s Warm Greige or their other many color choices.
- Proceed with Cabinet Paint: Follow the same steps used for applying the primer and apply Paint to all primed surfaces, including doors, drawers, and cabinet boxes.
- We recommend waiting one day (minimum 8 hours) before proceeding with the final finish coat and hardware.
Day 3: Complete Cabinet “Finish & Hardware”
This is the “fun day” – the day you wrap up your kitchen cabinets painting project!
Step 1. Apply “Clear Coat” For Kitchen Cabinets
- Select one of the Best Clear Coats for Kitchen Cabinets, and apply a final “Clear Coat” Finish after allowing the Paint coat to dry overnight – or for a minimum of at least 8 hours.
- We recommend Rust-Oleum Polyurethane Clear coat finish, because It’s water-based, easy to apply, and dries quickly – in about 2 hours.
- Apply one coat of polyurethane to the painted finish, easiest applied with a foam roller. The clear coat finish is critical to protect and maintain the beauty and the paint of your painted kitchen cabinets.
- The Clear Coat is Essential for protecting the painted surfaces from wear, knicks, and stains, and makes it much easier to clean painted cabinets daily.
- Most clear coat finishes dry to the touch in 2 hours or less. Read the instructions to be sure it is dry enough to re-assemble the cabinets and move on to step 2 below.
Step 2. ReInstall All Kitchen Cabinet Doors and Drawers
- Install all of the hinges back onto the finished doors. (install drawer slides onto the finished drawers if previously removed).
- Using your previously numbered kitchen layout sheet, re-install all kitchen cabinet doors and drawers back to their numbered correct kitchen cabinet.
Step 3. Install Kitchen Cabinet Hardware
Finally, Install your New or repurposed door pulls and drawer pulls or knobs onto your refinished cabinets.
Step 4. Clean Up!
Remove all the Surface Protection from countertops, floors, and appliances, vacuum any dust, mop floors, etc.
Step 5. Enjoy Your Beautiful New Kitchen!
Now you know “How to Repaint Old Kitchen Cabinets” – And more importantly – How to Do it Yourself! While your kitchen may not look exactly like the Kitchen below, this should give you some idea of how great white painted kitchen cabinets can look!
