Remodeling Resource

I was excited to transform our old kitchen cabinets with a beautiful, professional looking  paint job. I consider myself to be a skilled DYI craftsman, but not a professional painter so I started my research. I read many different websites and decided to do it the right way and not take any short cuts.  Many days and hours later the jobs was done and my cabinets looked great!  Then about three weeks later the paint started to crack!  To say the least, this was heartbreaking after all the time,  the 3 coats and the compliments I had  received on how great they looked.  Please don’t repeat my mistakes!  Just a few extra steps would have made all the difference.

To start I removed all the doors and drawers and moved them out to my garage for prep.  I cleaned each of them thoroughly with TSP removing all the dirt and grease, especially around where the old hinges had left grease stains.  After drying, I  sanded both sides of the doors and drawer faces with 150 grit sand paper.  I used a shop vac to get up the initial round of sawdust and then went back with a tack cloth to remove all of the fine particles.

Then I started to prime the cabinets.  The salesman at the local paint store suggested I use one of the micro-fiber rollers with a low nap.  Bad advice.  It left a bumpy surface that would show through on the top coats.  I switched to a high density foam roller and a high quality brush and the primer went on great.

Now I was ready to paint.  I chose an acrylic latex paint that produces a hard finish that will stand up to the tough demands of cooking and cleaning in the kitchen.  Plus it looks great and gives the cabinets a professional looking finish.  It is more expensive (I paid about $60 a gallon) and I found it harder to work with than traditional latex paint. You have to keep a wet edge and not allow the paint to set up.  Don’t go back and try to fix an imperfection after a few minutes because it will make it worse. Fix it on the next coat.  I used a roller on the cabinet boxes but painted all the doors and drawers with a brush.  At first I was concerned that the brush strokes were going to show, but as the paint set up it filled in the light paint strokes.  Tip: I would ask about low odor or low voc paint because the paint I used made me lighted headed when I didn’t have really good ventilation.

On the doors and drawers, I lightly sanded them with 300 grit sandpaper between coats.  When I didn’t, I had a harder time getting the paint to go on uniformly with my brush.  I skipped this step on the cabinets boxes and didn’t have any problem with the roller going on smoothly.  Three coats later everything looked great so installed the new cabinet hardware and took a much deserved break.  As all the memories of the hard work were starting to fade, I noticed the paint cracking along the inside of one of the face frames.  Within two weeks the same thing happened on all the door fronts.  So what happened?

The cabinets doors I painted were not a raised panel, i.e. one piece.  Instead the center panel was a ¼” oak veneer that was constructed separately from the oak face frames. As theses door were exposed to the varying temperatures and humidity common in kitchens, the two pieces responded differently.  This created a moving  joint where the face frame and veneer met.  As the pieces expanded and contracted the paint cracked!

To avoid my costly mistake, use a high quality elastomeric caulk on all joints.  Sherwin Williams carries a line called Sher-Max Ultra.  This caulk will allow up to 70% joint movement.  Make sure you allow the caulk to fully dry before painting.  Also, prime first and then caulk. Don’t forget to do both sides.   If you add this simple step, you can avoid making the frustrating mistake that I made and produce professionally looking cabinets that will last.