I'm going to add to your question if you don't mind. Does oil based paints give your a tougher finish than latex paints? I used latex on my bathroom cabinets and the finish scratches easier than I like.

Laurie

I painted my kitchen cabinets myself and had the same fear as you! I wanted a really professional look but I HAD to do it myself! I researched and during my research I found this website. Beware this is a VERY time consuming project. My business was very slow and I had the opportune time to do the job myself. It took me about 8 to 9 weeks from start to finish, but I did alot of carpentry work too and painted the walls at the end.

I washed my cabinets with TSP, then sanded down with an electric palm sander and those flexible hand sanders to get in the curves. You must remove all doors and drawers to do the job right. I did not want to buy a paint sprayer - so I used a 4" roller to do the flat parts and a VERY good brush to dothe curved parts. I painted 1 coat of Zinsser (sp?) oil primer. I then painted 3 coats of oil based BM Satin Impervo paint. I was glazing my cabinets so the glaze coat came next (it was a hand rubbed effect and left some shiny/dull spots so I had to apply 2 coats of Polycrilic by Minwax in satin to give an even finish.)

You must sand in between coats and let the coats dry really good before painting another. I probably took longer than was necessary, but I wanted professional looking results and I wanted this finish to last a long time. Use a tack cloth to remove all dust particles before painting a new coat. I had one bay of my garage set up as my painting station and I kept it clean and the garage door closed. I didn't want stuff blowing in and sticking to the wet paint.

I'm attaching a link to my kitchen. This is the finished album, but you can go to my main album to find photos of my work in progress. Feel free to ask me any other questions!

Also there is another member who painted their cabinets and they started a blog about their DIY job. His name is David and you can probably search the UNDER $20,000 kitchen thread to find his photos too.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://s475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/downsymom/Final%20Kitchen%20Facelift/

I painted some oak cabinets a few years ago. A few memories to pass on:
1. It will take way longer and be more time consuming than you think. But then again, I had little kids and a baby..... For my smallish kitchen it took about 2-3 weeks of spare time to finish. Like the poster above, I used my garage.

2. I REALLY wished that I had bought/rented a paint sprayer, and if I remember right, I only had about 12 doors and several drawer fronts! So, if you have a larger kitchen, a paint sprayer might save you, and you will probably end up with smoother results.
3. I used zinser primer and 2 coats of white oil based paint. After a while the white oil paint began to yellow, so if I was going to do it again, I would purposely choose an off-white paint to begin with.

4. I only did a light sanding, tsp, and used liquid sandpaper before I primed. I felt that it gave me a pretty tough finish, and only had to do minor touchups once a year. That is with little kids terrorizing the kitchen too.

5. One thing I wish I had done was to use a caulking gun on my cabinets and doors before I started. You don't really see all the gaps and cracks when the doors are oak finish, but they sure seemed to stand out after the doors were painted. I wish I had taken that hour to fill in the gaps before I started.

6. Lastly, I was REALLY happy with the results, and looking back I would totally do the project again, just much sooner. It took me a long time to get up the courage and to overcome my husband's objections to ruining a 'nice' wood finish. :)

I'm attaching a link to my kitchen I painted. The picture comes from an album I did when the house was for sale, so I hope it comes up as just the kitchen picture - if not, just scroll thru until you find it.

Here is a link that might be useful: picture of my painted cabinets

I am painting my kitchen cabinets now and DEF going with oil based.

The reason: I read it goes on much smoother, and takes 48 hours to cure.

I painted latex on my bathroom cabinets upstairs...yes they were dry.

But they did not cure...so it sorta peeled some. I read online that latex paint can take up to 3 weeks to cure!

I am finished sanding and saw on HGTV and used that method.

I used one of the hand sanders (electrical) to sand the rougher spots that had varnish/stain on them, it seems to melt and create a goo!

then used the 120 grit maroon kind by 3m. Mine are nice and smooth now waiting on paint (after their cleaning and drying of course) That's what me and the boyfriend are doing after work!

Thanks for the great tips. Where did you put cabinet doors when you were painting them? I also set up in the garage when I was painting my bathroom cabinet. I had two saw horses and I kind of balanced the doors on the there, so that I could walk around it and get to all the sides easily. When my husband went to put the doors back on, he said that had warped. I'm trying to figure out what I should do different next time.

Laurie

You asked about how to do them in the garage - I balanced them on a couple of thick foam disposable plates laid up-side-down. That way the doors didn't 'touch' the ground. It was a little rickety for painting with the roller and brush, but would work well for spraying.

I'm also considering painting and thought I'd pass this along in case hiring someone to do it is in your budget. I called a company called Kitchen Tune up and they gave me the name of someone who specializes in painting cabinets. I have 16 - 18 cabinets to be painted and his quote is $800 - 1000. it will be completed in one week. He sands, primes, 3 coats and sands in between. I still haven't decided whether to paint at all but if I do, I think I'll pay him to do it to avoid the frustration, get a better finish and have it done in 1 week. Good luck!

I saw on a DIY about hanging the doors by clothes hangers so you can paint both sides at the same time. So far we have the frame in our kitchen painted. I'm sanding down the doors today so we can paint them this afternoon, then top coat tomorrow.

We are using a wagner sprayer we picked up at HD. Best 80 bucks spent on supplies for the reno yet!

I'm trying to recall an episode of "Ask This Old House" where they had a method of hanging the cabinet doors so you could paint both sides at once. I believe they drilled an "eye hook" (you know, hook and eye thing) to the cabinet top. Then they must have had a board, suspended between two ladders where the hooks were attached to accept the eyes & cabinets. Hope I explained this all right. They said it saved a great deal of time being able to paint all surfaces without waiting for one side to dry.

I painted mine with zinzer primer 2 coats. Finished with 2 coats of Cabinet Coat paint from Ace Hardware. It is waterbased and dried to a nice tough finish. I spray painted the old brass hardware with rustoleum white paint. I bought new hinges but could not get them to line up in the old holes. The project took me a 4 day weekend since i let every coat dry 24 hours and sanded inbetween. It's not a hard project, but it is time consuming. Michael on the paint forum talks about a little ebook he put together on this subject. of course i painted mine before i found out about his book. you may want to post over there too.

I posted this on another thread. Don't know if you saw it, so here it is again.

Here is a link that might be useful: painting cabinets