Adding a new coat of paint to your kitchen cabinets is easy and affordable to drastically upgrade the look. This will help your room to pop and will pull out other colors in your décor. At the same time, it will make everything look newer and better maintained, as fading colors and stains disappear and you’re left with bold, clean, colors.
What Kind of Paint to Use for Your Kitchen Cabinets?
But while this is true, it’s also very important that you choose the right type of paint to cover your cabinets. Get this wrong, and it can quickly look damaged and untidy. Moreover, you might find that the paint never takes in the first place and is left looking streaky and thin. Or what if the paint does take… but it looks awful!
To prevent any of these scenarios, read on and we’ll take a look at some of the best ways to improve your kitchen cabinets with the right paint job.
Finish
The finish you choose for your paint describes the way it looks in terms of shininess or matte, but it also impacts on the durability. A gloss or semi-gloss finish for example will have a slight sheen that reflects some light and makes your kitchen look a little newer and a little more vivid. A sheen is a great choice for the best type of paint for kitchen cabinetry. A matte color can risk looking a little faded and flat, which makes the kitchen look dated and older. The same is true for the eggshell finish.
Not only that, but the sheen that’s included when you use gloss or semi-gloss paints is going to provide your paint with an extra layer of protection. That’s particularly important, as it will prevent the paint from scratching so easily or fading. Otherwise, you will risk rubbing through the paint job when scrubbing on the surface.
Finally, gloss and semi-gloss paints work better in rooms with high moisture and high humidity. This is because they will
Remember, kitchens are subjected to a lot of wear and tear – more so than perhaps any other room in the house – so you need something tough!
Finally, think about the brand of paint you use and the range. These can provide very different levels of durability. For example, the “diamond range” from Dulux has an extremely durable finish that
Oil vs Water Based
You should also pick a paint that is oil-based for your kitchen cabinets. These paints are much thicker and stickier, but they work a lot better in the woods. Seeing as most cabinet doors are likely to be wooden, this is very important.
The problem with water-based paints is that they can get absorbed by the wood in the kitchen. That means you’ll need a lot of coats to achieve the same effect. What’s also important to consider is that this can prevent an even coat. This means that some areas look much darker than others. This not only makes the kitchen look streaky but might also mean it looks faded in areas.
Colors
Finally, you need to consider the color paint that you want to use. There’s no right-or-wrong here, of course, it’s ultimately up to you how you want your kitchen to look! But some good rules of thumb are:
Use lighter colors that will make your kitchen look more spacious and reflect more light.
Think about the other colors in your kitchen. In particular, how do the cabinets work with your choices for the flooring, the countertops, and the walls?
Think about the current fashions – what’s on-trend right now?
Consider the possibility of selling! While you may have no plans to sell your property in the near future, you never know what is around the corner. Ideally, any work you do to your home should increase the value and make it easier to sell. That means you should avoid anything too “bold.”
Think about the mess! You want a color that will hide mess well and not draw too much attention to the fact that there is tea stain splashed up the door! Avoid anything that is going to look dated quickly, or that is too “contemporary.” You want your kitchen to look good ten years from now!
Superb Painting Omaha, NE
At Superb Painting, LLC we start by sanding & vacuuming the trim, crown, or cabinets using a trim brush attachment for our shop vac. Cabinets may require more work removing hardware and laying them flat to spray so that you don’t get any paint runs. We then use a tack cloth to further remove any sanding residue. Next, if the wood was previously stained, we apply an oil-based primer to help keep the stain from bleeding back through the paint. After that, we do a light sanding/scuffing of the primer to make sure the first coat of paint gets good adherence to it.
Then we spray (or could brush) the first coat of trim paint such as Sherwin Williams Pro Classic. After that, there is another light sanding/scuffing of the 1st layer of paint and then the final finish coat is sprayed (or brushed) on for a beautiful finish that lasts! Contact us today for a FREE Estimate.