[DaveAndHolly]

Hi all! We recently bought and moved into a home and at the top of our priority list as far as renovations is the kitchen. We plan on painting the walls and baseboard, replacing the applicances, and painting the cabinets.

Here's a picture of the kitchen:

I have two questions.

1. What's the best way to go about painting the baseboard without getting any paint on the laminate floor?

2. This is the big one. What we want to end up with on the cabinets is a distressed/antiqued dark turqoise color. As you can see, the cabinets are "builder grade" oak with some sort of clear finish (not sure if it's shellac, polyurethane, etc). How do we go about removing the old finish, and properly doing a distressed/antiqued paint on the cabinets?

Thanks!

 

[joecaption]

If I was painting the baseboards I'd clean them go over them with a sanding sponge cheaking for old paint runs and flaws, wipe off again and just use a 4" wide foam hot dog roller and do the details with a 2 1/2" sash brush.
Any paint that does get on the floors will just wipe right off.

A new DIY may use 2" wide painters tape. To me it slows me down.

 

[Gymschu]

To keep paint off the floor I would use 2" blue painter's tape and mask the floor below the baseboards. You may have to double up on the tape and make it 4" if you're not totally confident in your painting skills. Then lay a dropcloth down JUST IN CASE. A quality 2" sash brush is all you need to paint the trim......preferably a Purdy or Wooster brush.

As for the cabinets I hope you realize it is a huge undertaking. Those are oak cabinets so be prepared for some grain to show through any finish you put on them. I really wouldn't strip them.......I don't think that's necessary. Take the doors off, clean them and degrease them thoroughly. Sand to scuff them up, remove the dust and apply a bonding primer. Allow to dry, lightly sand and you are ready for paint. As for distressing them after the paint has dried, well, that's your personal preference. You will have to experiment to see what looks best to you. Distressing can be done in many ways......sandpaper, scrapers, etc. It will be up to you to test and find a look that you want.

P.S. There are literally dozens of posts about painting cabinets on here. Do a "search" and plenty of good reading to fill in the blanks on how to do this.

 

[ToolSeeker]

The only thing I would add is you may want to put aline of the blue painters tape above the baseboard also, just in case.

 

[Brushjockey]

I honestly think you are a bit over your head to try and do a distressed on cabs if you haven't even painted cabs before. Lots to think about and do.
CLEAN !!
remove hardware- keep it all straight. Keep doors numbered so you know where they go
sand for adhesion
prime for adhesion
2 high quality enamel coats
figure out how/ with what you are doing the distressing finish
do that
maybe top coat with clear depending on finish
Put it all back together so it works right

Other than that, good luck!
( maybe hire a painter..)

 

[housepaintingny]

I agree with others post for the prep work with the cabinets. To antique-distress your cabinets you could use a crackle glaze.

 

[Matthewt1970]

How come every time a house gets sold with stained wood cabinets they want to paint them? Then every time a house is sold with painted cabinets they want to rip them out and put in nice stained cabinets?

My honest opinion is paint over that green and you might start to like the look of those cabinets.

 

[ToolSeeker]

I think there are a lot of people that cry every time oak cabinets get painted. I know I do. Why don't you remove those cabinets, sell them on Craigs List. Then go buy some really cheap cabinets give them a couple years and they will look distressed.

 

[joecaption]

Just changing those counter tops with a below mounted sink would make a huge differance.

 

[chrisn]

I personally do not like oak in a kitchen, but that's just me.
I would do as suggested though, change wall color, update counter tops and back splash and see what it looks like then.
Painting and distressing all these cabnets is a HUGE job that most likely will look like crap( IMO)

BTW, I have seen the "distressed" look done with beating them with a big old tire chain

 

[Gymschu]

I think we scared DaveandHolly off.........no sign of them anywhere.

 

[pinkfloyd43]

Painting kitchen cabinets is a ......tough job for DIY'er! I have a large kitchen and had an entire summer to complete the job. I practiced brushing, rolling and ended up purchasing a HVLP system for about $300. It was a British made product. I had the best luck with that system on the practice boards.

In the end they came out OK, the wife loves them, but there are not perfect and certainly not a professional finish. When you are doing it yourself you can only paint so much, wait till dry, do other side, etc and it ends up taking a long time. During the time the kitchen is a mess to say the least.

After all said and done I was ok, wife loved it and went to a buddies home where he had had the cabinets done for $1500 and if I was do do it again would pay someone else.

If you do it
Clean, clean, clean, sand, sand, clean, clean, blow off dust, tack cloth
Get good paint from a paint store, no HD and such
Purchase decent tools, no $1.00 brush and such
Take your time, watch videos online where pro's give you tips
Painters tape is your friend from baseboards and places required
Give time for the paint to dry
If you go the HVLP way practice on stuff so you are 100% ready for cabinets
Keep you tools clean
Have fun!

 

[chrisn]

Painting kitchen cabinets is a ......tough job for DIY'er! I have a large kitchen and had an entire summer to complete the job. I practiced brushing, rolling and ended up purchasing a HVLP system for about $300. It was a British made product. I had the best luck with that system on the practice boards.

In the end they came out OK, the wife loves them, but there are not perfect and certainly not a professional finish. When you are doing it yourself you can only paint so much, wait till dry, do other side, etc and it ends up taking a long time. During the time the kitchen is a mess to say the least.

After all said and done I was ok, wife loved it and went to a buddies home where he had had the cabinets done for $1500 and if I was do do it again would pay someone else.

If you do it
Clean, clean, clean, sand, sand, clean, clean, blow off dust, tack cloth
Get good paint from a paint store, no HD and such
Purchase decent tools, no $1.00 brush and such
Take your time, watch videos online where pro's give you tips
Painters tape is your friend from baseboards and places required
Give time for the paint to dry
If you go the HVLP way practice on stuff so you are 100% ready for cabinets
Keep you tools clean
Have fun!

in about a years time of practicing every day for a couple hours each and every one of those days



maybe:whistling2:

 

[jsheridan]

I avidly encourage DIY'ers. That's part of the reason I'm here. However, I think tackling kitchen cabinets is a project best left to pros, and by pro, I don't mean just anybody who says they're a painter. They're a tedious, multi-step, time consuming job. And if not done right, they can not only look crappy, but you could have failure issues as well as functional issues. And once they're done badly, it can be a significant, if not impossible, task and expense to correct.

The kitchen is usually the largest selling feature of a home, and if you have a crappy looking set of cabinets, it tells a prospective buyer that they're going to have to replace cabinets. Not a saleable feature.

A true pro can deliver a set of factory looking finished cabinets, and ones that will hold up to wear and tear and function fully. It's an investment, not so much an expense.
I'm not alone. I know a paint store manager who says the best advice he gives HO's seeking advice on painting cabinets is to hand them the business cards of some pros that he does business with.