Refinishing Kitchen Cabinets

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One of the ways budget-conscious builders keep costs down when building houses is to use the least expensive kitchen cabinets that they can find. And that is why we see so many plain, white, melamine cabinets in today's kitchens. There is nothing inherently wrong with low-cost items, of course, and most people will agree that melamine is easy to clean. But all of that whiteness does strain the eyes after awhile, and the Miami homeowner in this house wanted desperately to do something about it. Fortunately, Doug had a plan. First, paint the doors, drawer fronts and sides of the cabinets. Second, embellish them with some painted molding. Painting offers the opportunity to bring color into the kitchen, while the added molding offers the opportunity to make the flat-faced cabinets assume the appearance of more traditional frame-and-panel doors.

Shopping List
Degreaser, such as TSP
Sandpaper
Tack cloth
Molding
Glue
Primer
Paint
Paintbrush

Design Options

Doug's plan called for painting the cabinets and then dressing up the doors with three separate rectangles of attached trim, each painted a different color to create the tropical fruit color scheme he was after. But there are many alternative strategies that you could take. Painting alone may accomplish everything you feel you need in your own kitchen. Flat-faced cabinet doors, after all, are quite common in upscale, contemporary kitchens. On the other hand, you could choose to add some molding, but then paint it the same color as the rest of the door.

Design Options (cont'd)

If you like the idea of adding more colors, you could use just one, or two. Every additional color and molding treatment adds time and money to the budget.

Often, one of the most important upgrades you can make to kitchen cabinetry is to install new pulls or knobs to the drawers and cabinets. Knobs are usually held in place by a single screw, and pulls by two screws. With careful shopping, you will be able to install new hardware using the existing holes.

As is always the case with Trading Spaces projects, time and budget constraints placed strict limits on what could be accomplished. In this kitchen, only the outsides of the cabinets were painted; even the insides of the doors and drawers were left white. You could take this a step or two further, by painting the entire door, for example, and maybe even painting the insides of the cabinets. Think twice, however, about painting the bottoms of shelves and drawers. Latex paint dries to the touch in a couple of hours, but it doesn't fully cure for a few weeks. If you paint the bottoms of your shelves one day, then put your dishes back in them a day or two later, you can almost be assured that some of the paint will stick to the bottoms of the dishes.

Develop a Color Scheme

If you want to use several colors in your refinishing project, you can take a clue from how Doug developed his color scheme in this episode. The homeowner conveniently left a magazine open to a photograph as a "hint" to her neighbors and their designer. Doug found a painted candleholder that included all of the tropical colors he decided to use. Home decorating magazines are a great source of inspiration for mixing and matching colors. Paint stores are another one. They are usually full of brochures and pamphlets containing all kinds of ideas on how to coordinate colors. In most cases, you will want to choose a primary color, and then add one or two accent colors.

Plan the Molding

If you want to embellish the cabinets with some molding, you will need to decide on both the style and size. Thin, flat molding will suit most design plans just fine. Lattice and screen molding are the most likely choices. Both are about 1/4-inch thick. Screen molding is usually 3/4-inch wide, while lattice can be found in widths between 1 1/8 and 1 3/4 inches. If you are not sure how you would like to arrange the molding, buy strips of each size you can find, take them home, and play with several different arrangements. Once you find a design you like, prime and paint the molding before you start cutting it up.

Molding will only look good on a door frame if the corners are mitered. Plan to buy or borrow a power miter saw or, if that is too much trouble and expense, a decent miter box to use with a handsaw.

Prepare for Painting

If you try to paint over melamine without proper preparation, you will almost certainly be disappointed with the results. Professional painters will tell you that the biggest part of their job is preparation, and that attitude is definitely required for this type of project. First, remove all cabinet doors and drawers and take them to a room where they can be painted and left to dry undisturbed.

Kitchen cabinets are often coated with a layer of grease, and grease does not mix well with paint. So begin by scrubbing all surfaces with a strong detergent, and then rinsing thoroughly. Trisodium phosphate (TSP) is an old standby for this purpose, but be sure to use it exactly as directed (including the part about wearing gloves and eye protection).

After everything has dried, use some medium-grit sandpaper to scuff up the glossy surface and remove any bumps. Then wipe the surface with a tack cloth.

Prime and Paint

Plan to use an alkyd or good-quality latex paint over a compatible primer. Talk to your paint dealer about the best choices for your cabinets. Make sure that the primer is suitable for use on melamine. Semi-gloss paint would be a good choice.

If you are using latex, consider mixing it with some paint conditioner. Latex dries quickly, which results in more prominent brush strokes in the finished surface. A good conditioner will lengthen the drying time some, giving the paint more of an opportunity to level out. This difference in drying time is one reason many painters prefer to use alkyd paint for trim and nice woodwork, and you might want to do the same.

Another way to ensure a smooth finish is to use a good-quality paintbrush. I would not use a paint roller or foam brushes for this type of work.

Apply one coat of primer, then lightly sand and wipe the surface again with a tack cloth. Apply several thin coats of paint, sanding in between coats as necessary to remove any dust or debris. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly.

Add the Molding

If you are planning to add some molding to the doors, drawer fronts and perhaps even to the sides of the cabinets, you will need to decide how best to attach it. Melamine cabinets usually have a core of 1/2-inch or 3/4-inch particleboard. Particleboard is not particularly good at holding screws and nails, and the thinner it is the less effective it is at this job. So the best approach would be to use some yellow wood glue. Coat the entire bottom surface of each piece of molding with some glue, and then press the molding into place. The wood glue will bond best if you keep some pressure on the molding for about 30 minutes, either by carefully placing some weight (evenly distributed) on top or by driving a few small brads through the molding. Glue that seeps out beneath the molding can be wiped up with a moist rag right away, or scrapped away after it has dried. In the project featured in this Trading Spaces episode, Doug used a simpler molding pattern on the drawers than he did on the doors, and he carried a similar pattern to the visible sides of the cabinets.

Finishing Up

When all the paint and glue have dried, replace the doors and drawers. If you used brads to attach the molding, countersink the heads, fill the holes with wood putty, sand the putty when it dries, and then touch up with primer and paint.