What are they on the inside? That could make a difference with the answer.

I would not paint the insides. Mine are painted and I am constantly getting paint chips in my pots and I have to rinse everything before I use it just to be sure. If it were me, I would get a nice shelf liner for the wood interior instead of painting. Good Luck!

We're painting ours right now and have left the inside the wood color. It was the outside that looked so bad - the inside was in fine shape. Also, it seemed like a lot of additional work for little beneift. Just my .02 :)

The insides are wood on the sides, and the back is that fake looking wood. I'll try to attach a picture. Almost like laminate flooring where it's a 'picture' of oak grain. We are NOT painting the shelves, and just replacing them with white melamine shelves to avoid the chipping issue. I'll throw a sheet of white contact paper down over the painted bottom to help. I think because we are spraying we figured it may just be easier than trying to mask off the insides.

Although, when we looked at new cabinets in white or off=white in the big box stores, most were surpisingly NOT painted inside and just maple wood. Unless they were white melamine.

Any more opinions are welcome!

Hopefully this LINK TO PICS WILL WORk?

[IMG]http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg42/stephski11/Cabinet%20project/DSC_1433.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg42/stephski11/Cabinet%20project/DSC_1414.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg42/stephski11/Cabinet%20project/DSC_1415.jpg[/IMG]

Here is a link that might be useful:

Provided that the interiors are in good shape, I'd stay with the wood interiors.
Our new white custom cabinets have natural maple interiors. Most cabinets have wood interiors unless they have glass doors in which case the interior usually matches the exterior.
Happy painting.

I think it would be a nightmare of a job to paint the inside. I had my cabinets professionally painted and he said he didn't think it was necessray. I put in a colorful shelf liner and it brightens things up. I don't even notice that they are not the same as the outside.

They look great as is. My old kitchen had blue cabinets with white interiors. I repainted the interiors when we moved in. It was a royal PIA! After a few years of use they looked like crap. We had the cabinets for the new kitchen made locally ... maple painted white with natural interiors.

I also don't think you need to paint the insides...

Painting the insides is unnecessary. It's not "expected".

If you are REALLY tempted, or you want to take the doors off or replace a couple with glass doors, a compromise can be to paint just the flat back surface of the cabinet that is visible. Sometimes people even paint this a contrasting color. It can look nice, but not necessary.

(Insides are often melamine or some other surface and the paint might or might not adhere as well, long term.)

But painting the whole thing, routinely, you don't need to do. Leads to mess and madness, and a cycle of more painting.

Only do it if they're really gross. Been there done that. Sometimes you have to. But if you don't....don't.

But since you're spraying, it won't hurt to do a test on the inside of a drawer stack to see how it works. The fake wood might require extra prep though.

I had the same question as well with my white custom cabinets, so this was helpful. Another question I have is, should the inside of the drawers also be painted white if the inside of the cabinets are going to be painted white?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Riva

I painted the inside of the uppers only. Thought I might get some glass fronts. OTOH, our cabinetry is small. If you have a nice, natural wood, I would leave it.

Yes - if you are really attempting to refurbish your kitchen, the entire kitchen should get a fresh look. Paint the insides by 1) removing any shelf paper 2) cleaning with a TSP/water solution and an abrasive pad 3) fill any apparent holes or blemishes 4) brush on a primer coat with Kilz or similar then 5) spray on a finish coat with a water based urethane paint with your HVLP sprayer. Of course you want to mask the face frames and surroundings. Extra work? Yes Life long appreciation for that extra work? Absolutely!

You can use painters touch spray paint can for the insides. Comes out great. Just mask off things appropriately. Quick and easy and it makes a difference.

Just reading through these comments as I face my own decision -- what was it, ten to one saying DON'T bother painting the inside!!?!

Trying to make the same decision...but my cabinets are cherry and I want to paint them robin's egg blue. I don't think this will look good, so I will probably have the inside painted.. What do you think?

Karen G -- I think it probably depends on the shade of stain used on your cherry cabinets. If it is that really dark red stain that totally covers the wood grain, then maybe it would not go so well with RE Blue. But most of the time cherry is a really pretty and highly valued hardwood with a pleasing grain, and its colors are quite compatible with the blue/green color family. Aesthetically, I think most people would find it a real treat to open a drawer or cabinet and find that gorgeous wood inside! Practically speaking, a wood finish doesn't chip and do all those other high maintenance things that painted wood will do, so I would keep it on the inside for sure.

Karenmo: It is was a natural cherry but has darkened over the past 20 years. I appreciate your feedback, thanks. the more I think about it, the more difficult I realize it would be to paint the inside of the cabinets. We have four that have glass in them, so the painter said he would paint those. Or, maybe I will get some opaque glass and skip that too.

Now, I am second-guessing my choice of Robin's egg blue.....

We have white perimeter cabinets and a fairly dark stained island so we had the interiors of the glass cabinets stained the same color. In our old kitchen they were white but I prefer the dark interior. Here's another really pretty option if you don't want to go all in with the blue cabinets. This would be easier to change down the road.

Residential interiors · More Info

Karen G -- Robin's egg blue is a delightful color -- and classic too! Check out Julia Child's kitchen!!! There are actually two subtly different colors going in her place (which is now in the Smithsonian!) with lots of woodgrain -- and naturally some gorgeous French copper :-). This for the woman who could have anything in a kitchen.

I am crazy about natural cherry myself, so aside from the practical advantages of wood finished cabinets compared to painted ones, I would want to keep that wood finish for aesthetic reasons, and then introduce that RE blue color in other ways. For example, to achieve the blue interior look in the photo above, you don't need to paint -- you can line the cabinet sides and backs with fabric or some kind of paper but use the wood shelves (assuming they are the adjustable removeable kind). That is easy to change later if you fancy another color.

Karenmo - I think you are right. REB is better as an accent.

I just had new kitchen cabinets installed and the maple interior color varies from cabinet to cabinet. I’m debating having them paint the interior white so that they would all match. What are the pros and cons of painting the inside?

Get a nice shelf liner instead. The paint eventually chips and looks worse

What about the doors. Do I paint both sides air just the fronts ?