Before you start repainting your kitchen cabinets, you need to make some preparations. The first and the most important step is connected with your old finish. You need to remove the old color and finish from your panels. Therefore you need to know whether your cabinet is finished with a lacquer or a stain. Depending on your design ideas, you need to decide which finish exactly you want to use. The second important decision you need to make is to choose the new color of your kitchen. You should choose a color that fits your personal style. If you want, you can exchange the handles in the kitchen as well. In this case, you should try to find new handles that require no new holes and modifications or only a few. Kitchen cabinet refacing is less time consuming than the replacement of the entire kitchen furniture but it still needs a lot of time. You have to make a complete list of things you need for the refacing. Especially for the painting you need to consider buying brushes in different sizes. Besides, for a successful cabinet refacing, you will need also primer and finish.

One day before you start working, you can start with the preparation. You should check whether you have all the tools and equipment you need. You can start emptying the cabinets and put paper on the flooring. If you want to paint them outside, you should listen carefully to the weather forecast. Everything should be prepared including some sandwiches and enough water for drinking during the repair. The work might go easier if some friends or family members help you. If you run out of time, try to be patient and continue on another day instead of making more and more mistakes. Always remember your goal – a new and good looking kitchen for you and your family.

The sanding of the cabinets is a time-consuming and important job. You need to make sure that all remains from the old colors are removed completely. This is easier for big flat surfaces but harder to achieve for all kinds of ornaments. If you fail in this step, the result of the re-painting will not be satisfying because the color will not stick perfectly on the wooden surface.

Before you start coloring your cabinets, you need to apply the primer. The primer saves the underlying wood and is responsible for a better sticking of the color. Especially for kitchen furniture, a primer is absolutely necessary. According to the instructions of the primer, you may need to apply it several times. There are different types of primers depending on the underlying material and the color that you want to use. In general, for an oil based color, an oil based primer is recommended. If you are not sure, you should contact your local do-it-yourself store. The primer should be applied only in rooms with good ventilation or in the open garage. Before you apply the color, the primer needs to dry.

After the primer, you should paint your cabinet with the new colors. Depending on the color and the type of wood, you may need to paint your cabinets several times. It is important not to apply too much color at once. Although the results when using a brush are very nice, you can obtain better results using a pneumatic sprayer.

For the best result you can remove some surface irregularities with a very fine sand paper before you apply the next coat. It is better to paint several times thin films and use the sand paper than making a big film at once. After the last coat you need to apply a finish. The finish has several functions. It protects the surface, the color, and the wood from environmental issues and makes your cabinets shinier. Afterwards, you can enjoy the result of your cabinet refacing – your new good-looking, shiny kitchen.