Thursday, November 19, 2015

First Cabinet Painting Tip: Supplies

My advice to those wanting to paint their cabinets is, DO NOT buy cheap paint first and for most! This applies even more if you are planning on doing white. Cheap paint will look dirty faster, be hard to clean, start to yellow, and chip easier. With all the hours you are going to put in with painting your cabinets, why not do it right. I did a lot of research for over a year on and off. Very quickly I knew I would want to use Benjamin Moore because they are one of the best paints on the market. Sure they are a little over $50 a gallon but is it worth saving $25 give or take on cheaper paint if I am just going to want to redo them all over again because of all the problems I am having? I don’t think so. I can already tell this is going to be a huge project and I won’t want to do it again! I also don’t want the person who buys my house in the future to curse my name. I found that the Benjamin Moore Advance was made specifically for cabinets and the paint covered all the problems I worried about with the draw backs of painting white. It also comes out smooth so you don’t really see any brush marks. I talked to one of the professionals at my local paint store and they recommended a mohair blend roller as the next best thing instead of spraying the cabinets and using a finer brush for the detailing on the molding of the cabinet. Those two items cost me about $20 but again it’s really not much more than going the cheaper route. I really didn’t want brush marks to show and it really worked! Also don’t go with any primer, do your research and talk to a professional to find what works best for your project. Don’t go to places like Lowes, Home Depot, or heaven forbid Walmart. Most of the time they don’t know as much information and don’t carry enough brands to give you very many options.  To get the best results don’t skip doing all the prep work. Clean your cabinets with 50/50 water and denatured alcohol, mineral spirits, or TSP and sand with a 220 grit sandpaper sponge or 400 grit sandpaper. To get all the dust off after sanding use a tack cloth or a damp rag. Can’t wait to show you all my final results and anymore advice that I find will help those wanting to tackle a project like this. My last word of advice that comes from my grandpa is “think and go slow”!