How to Update Kitchen Cabinets
Learn how to paint kitchen cabinets like a professional! It’s a big job so make it easier with these tips about using a quality paint sprayer.
Overview
A kitchen is the soul of the house, so updating cabinets to reflect your style is a high impact and budget friendly home DIY project. We gave this kitchen an amazing update by paint spraying the cabinets, updating the door hardware, and adding new pendant island lights. The cost to paint cabinets is much cheaper than a remodel, and it's time to give your kitchen the remodel look, without the remodel expense. And after staring at this wall of honey oak cabinets for years, this kitchen was due for an update.
*Please note, new island light install is not featured in this project
Before
After
SANDING
Clean with TSP or degreaser
The good news is you do NOT need to sand down to bare wood, a good rough up with 120 grit sandpaper will do for most cabinet paints. Sand in the direction of the grain or use an orbital sander and mouse sander to reduce the work by 80%. Make sure to wipe off all dust thoroughly before painting.
HOW TO SET UP THE PAINT SPRAYER
For this cabinet set, we recommend the Flexio series that comes with 2 nozzles and tanks like the Wagner FLEXiO 3000 Paint Sprayer. This sprayer comes with two nozzles – one for finer, detail work such as cabinets and one for larger projects like staining a fence or walls.
On this particular sprayer, and most Wagner sprayers, there are 3 knobs to adjust: the air flow, the paint flow, and the paint width. The detail nozzle does not have the spray pattern width. Both sizes have the option to spray vertically or horizontally.
Although this sprayer can handle most paints un-thinned, if you are getting a spotty finish or the sprayer is spitting, thin the paint with up to 10% water.
SPRAYING THE CABINETS
Beyond the setup, using the sprayer is as easy as it gets. Just point and shoot! However, there are a few quick tips to make the process go smoothly:
DRYING
After spraying, dry the doors raised off the floor to keep the wet sides from touching anything.
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