Painting Kitchen Cabinets

[Glen Butler]

You can mix oil based primers and latex paint. The benefit to the oil primer is it won't raise the grain as much. I would stay away from latex in the kitchen though. As others have said it is gummy. I would use a pigmented solvent borne finish - lacquer or even better, conversion varnish. They are much harder and suited to the task. You should completely strip the old finish and sand the doors prior to refinishing. IMO stripping and sanding is so labor intensive, its almost better to just have new doors made, but if you have the time and not the money, then sand away.

[Sam Hamory]

Spraying with HVLP is the right way to paint cabinetry and latex is never an acceptable finish for any furniture or cabinetry. Oil base paint is fine but I would use a waterbourne poly tinted whatever color I need.

[John TenEyck]

Spraying with HVLP is the right way to paint cabinetry and latex is never an acceptable finish for any furniture or cabinetry. Oil base paint is fine but I would use a waterbourne poly tinted whatever color I need.

When you said "latex is never an acceptable finish for any furniture" I assume you mean latex wall paint, et al., correct? If so, I agree. But the term "latex" encompasses a lot more than wall paint. All latex means is a waterbased or waterborne emulsion or dispersion, which would include the WB poly you recommended. There are many fine WB paints available which were developed for cabinets and furniture. They spray beautifully with both airless and HVLP guns, and clean up is a whole lot easier than with oil based paint which will make a mess of anything it lands on.

[Rick Constantine]

I would agree that, if you secure the services of a competent professional, "hiring" someone to do the work is generally the best approach. However, I also understand that you are likely wanting to repaint your cabinets as a "project". Consequently, I would concur with many of the paints listed in the post of the other folks. I also would definitely recommend using "Simple Green" as this product will SAFELY clean just about anything. I use it for cleaning the deck, the wheels of my cars, etc.

Portland Remodeling