I recently started painting my interior hollow doors white. This all started after I painted my oak cabinets gray and then got new hardwood floors installed. The faux wood color looking doors I have just don't match and I was dreaming of white doors to match my new white trim.

I thought I could just go to a local store or big box company and buy new white doors (saw them for about $40 on HomeDepots site) but I hit a major snag - none of my doors are normal sizes. Everything I found was even numbers like 28" wide or 30" wide - my doors are like 27.275 or 30.25 so nothing would be an easy fit. I would need new casings or have to have my doors custom made. It was too much money (or so I thought). My husband also said "no" because we just spent a bunch of money on the new floors. He told me to paint the doors.

I thought painting would be easy (after painting my kitchen cabinets) but I was wrong. Each side of each door needs about 4-5 coats each and I'm finding the paint chips easily. It sucks. Here's my biggest concern, since my doors are hollow, I didn't sand them. Now I'm thinking this is why they are chipping so easily. Should I go back and lightly sand and then paint? And, if I should be sanding, do I just sand once or do I keep sanding in between coats?

I'm using CabinetCoat (paint and primer in one) ..

Any thoughts?

Should I try lightly sanding first or just save up for new doors? I have about 15 doors to paint. It could take years at the rate I'm going and who knows how many gallons of Cabinet coat (which isn't cheap).. Ugh..

Thanks in advance...
Heather

Kitchen area before any paint

Cabinets painted

New trim, new painted walls, and newly painted door

Here is a link that might be useful: More pics