Plastic laminate doors? With autobody paint? Not bloody likely. Maybe if you were dealing with St. Charles metal cabinets, but if you did find someone, they'd just be cheating you by taking your money.

Save your money and replace your doors at a later time. You can usually find MDF for around $15-$20 per door, and then you can DIY paint them yourself.

My husband and I have just purchased our first house. A really pretty Spanish bungalow that needs EVERYTHING fixed.
We are on a very tight budget but are hard workers and very resourceful.

Accept that your limited budget means you will have to live with ugly stuff that is still functional while you take care of infrastructure that you may never see again:

First make sure the roof is in great shape, no leaks, flashing checked, etc. If it leaks you are wasting money on any interior work you may do.

Then check things inside the walls - plumbing, wiring, insulation, etc. It's useless to decorate a wall you need to rip open in 6 months.

Furnaces? Water heaters? Take care of these so you don't have an unexpected failure wipe out your kitchen budget right after you have demolished it.

And the walls and windows and doors: caulking, repairs, hinge alignment ... it's ALL more important than ugly dark wood 1970s kitchen doors.

Those cabinets can be painted (not by an autobody shop) but by you with a brush and some "GRIPS" primer that is meant to stick to laminate and melamine. After that, you can use any good high-gloss paint.

Those cabs can be painted in a shop. I know someone who redid her bad-'80s, white melamine, oak strip handle cabs in a high gloss, and they're holding up great. Try posting on local lists--some shops are already familiar with painting furniture and such.

Thank you for the feedback everyone!
hollysprings: I should have specified that my sister uses melamine paint on her cabinets, but with the autobody shop's labor and equipment and yes, ugly, melamine and laminate cabinets. I've seen her do it in her own kitchen to carry her over until she got her new kitchen, and her laminate doors were unrecognizable. Truly. Trust me on this :)
lazygardens: thank you for the checklist! It's great and I wish I had joined here a month ago, because everything you listed came to pass! LOL! I am now finishing up the hole patching from the electric and plumbing gut jobs. The roof is good (thank goodness), but we did have to get a new water heater right after we closed.The windows and doors are secure and caulked and the termite damged floors have all been repaired (after the house was tented).
I am just now finally looking at the kitchen and I want to do what I can to make it livable for a few years until I can really fix it. I will look for that "Grips" primer. My sister called since I first posted and convinced me that I can roll up my sleeves like Rosie the Riveter and do it myself. Again, great checklist.I appreciate your help :)
marcolo: Thank you for the encouragement and proving I'm not in the twilight zone on this! LOL! Tried craigslist forums and just got a flood of other homeowners looking for the same thing, grateful that I even knew what they were talking about. Interestingly, most of them moved here from the great lakes, so I wonder if it's just more common up there and viewed as weird down here. Boy if I were going to open a business here in LA it would be painting ugly laminate cabinet doors for 20 bucks a pop!
Thank you everyone, I appreciate the feedback :)

As you can see, it will be a slog finding a professional versed in these things who won't be rudely dismissive, but when you find the right shop it'll all be worth it.

(I was told clearly on this forum that making my own copper countertops was ridiculous. I did it and they're fabulous.)

Alternately, you could pick up a used HPLV sprayer on CraigsList and set up your own booth in the garage or basement. (Outside the building envelope if possible to keep any vapor out of your air system and away from any combustion appliances.) As you continue to renovate, it will probably prove useful for many other projects too. We used a HPLV to repaint our castiron bathtub, spray stain on wooden trim, spray stained cabinet parts with pre-cat lacquer. We love ours!

Crossing fingers for you --

circuspeanut: Thank you for the sprayer tip! I was looking at them and wondering how useful one would be after I did the cabinets and you have confirmed their usefulness for me. We are planning on painting our house (stucco exterior) in the late spring so I will research a good sprayer I can use for both the cabs and exterior (hopefully) and then get one on craigslist. I was also encouraged by the amount available "pre-owned" :)
Good on ya' for that countertop too! Very encouraging to hear you met with resistance and still came out with a beautiful look.Would love to see a picture.
I will be installing an ikea butcherblock counter I bought with house warming gift money and a double bowl farmhouse sink I grabbed from craigslist for 125 bucks (they had it for two months and decided to go with a different look).
Again, thank you :)

That's wonderful! So glad it worked out for you and looking forward to the pics! Enjoy!

Fantastic! As my niece says, "if you can think it, you can do it!"

I want to do this to my little beach place but I can't figure out how to paint the boxes and the filler strips the same high gloss as what the auto body shop does.

Can't wait to see the pics.

Awesome, looking forward to seeing your photos!

On a somewhat related note, an autobody shop here in Portland, OR said they would paint any appliance I brought to them: refrigerator, oven, even a PC case. I never got around to it - I replaced the refrigerator instead - but I think it would be really cool to do some day. Think about a British Racing Green refrigerator with a white racing stripe...

I just had a body shop paint an oven door for me.
I bought the "base/color" only. They have all the other additives, thinners, hardners, clear, and supplies. I paid for those as well, but, I paid them for only what they used (in their estimate).
I bought the "base/color" ONLY, and took it to them.
1/2 pint: $70.00
Quality automotive paint is not cheap.

Crampon,

can you share the name of the autobody shop in portland who said they wold paint anything? Please?

Thanks

Hi,

I just wanted to give a few pointers on spraying... an HPLV sprayer is incredibly useful but please be careful (or do not use at all) to spray a house. While they are far better than siphon feed sprayers, they still create a fair bit of overspray. This is fine if you are spraying lacquer on cabinet doors outside- the lacquer is dry in seconds in the air - its just dust by the time its travelled next door. But when spraying house paint, any wind will end up painting the neighbours house/car/pet/laundry...it can be a tough conversation afterwards (and can be rather expensive.)

Use an airless paint sprayer for houses - much more direct spray and a heavier coat. They are cheap as well.

Also, for a DIY with an HPLV, you need a decent compressor to get the right flow - the little hotdog/pancake compressors will not normally/likely support the CFM's required by a spray gun.
just my 2 cents.
Caspian

Just have to post a few words. I live in Europe, Iceland to be precise and people here have been using Body shops to spray paint cabinets for years with fabulous results. The spray paint they use holds much better that regular spray paint.
Just my 0.2 cents .
Svava

Would you be able to share your plasterer's information?

did you ever post your pix? MrsBungaloonie????
I want to do the same with my kitchen cabinet door, auto body paint. would love to see what you've done. or get the name of your painter. I'm in LA too.
thanks!

My hubby restores cars and has a paint booth. He is NOT going to be happy when I suggest that he post his painting abilities on craigslist!

Mrs. Bungaloonie & petrossian:
Are you guys talking about Los Angeles or Louisana?
I tried to send an email to you both but you don't have email set up. If you are in the Los Angeles area, please email me or post the name of your painter! I would like to give him some business!!
Thanks.

Dear Bungaloonie & Petrossian,

PLEASE share pictures and name of painter for those of us in or near Los Angeles trying to accomplish same objective. If you would rather email them privately, please please do so. Definitely need the help.
Thank you

Ms bangloonie,

I would like to paint my cabinets in auto paint. Who did you use in Los Angeles

@MrsBungaloonie. I hope you will get a notification on this thread, as I realize it is from some time ago. We are planning to get our island fan painted at an autobody shop (it has not been a problem getting a shop to agree to our request). We live near to Toronto where your sister had success with cabinet doors. We can find an autobody shop to paint the fan, but most of their paint is so very glossy (metallic) as it is meant for cars of course. Someone on here mentioned buying your own paint. Is there an options for geting a less glossy paint than auto paint? Thanks.

Joseph: I don't know where you got the idea I was already complaining. When I leave reviews, they are almost always positive (I have left one negative review in my life and a ton of positive reviews). I expect to pay more than $200 anyway.