# Need Advice for Repainting Cabinets, New to Forum Please Help



## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

Clean, rinse, scuff, Prime with a solvent based primer. BIN is the best, cuz it dries fast, sticks to anything and blocks any stains from bleeding through. You can use green or maroon scruffy pads instead of sandpaper. They work great. 

Go to a PAINT STORE (NOT LOWES OR H.D.) and buy some good paint, suitable for a cabinet. Benjamin Moore sells ScuffX, Advance, or Cabinet coat that are all very good and waterborne. Scuff-X is the easiest to apply. Advance is great, but its harder to work with, and darker colors will take much longer to cure. Both Cabinet Coa and ScuffX will be super rock hard and ready to be put back a few hours later. Get some extender. Put a capful in your paint. It makes it lay down sweet. Get a nice soft brush (I recomend Corona Vegas 2 1/2") and a 1/4" prodooz mohair weenie roller. I like to lay it off with a brush after putting a very thin coat with a roller. Sometimes I will load the roller with paint, and take a peice of cardboard, and roll some of it off, so I dont overload the surface. For me, thinner is better... Sherwin sells Proclassic or Pro Industrial Multi Surface Acrylic that are both good, but SW sells crappy brushes and rollers. OR, if theres a Kelly Moore in your area, they sell Durapoxy which is a very good, durable and very friendly product as well. 

I dont recomend stix simply because it doesnt block stains which may or may not bleed through. BIN is the best and easiest as far as splvent borne. Its alcohol based, but it sands very easily. Use a cheap brush and roller for it. I throw the brush away after I use it. Or, you can clean it with ammonia. You can sand it baby butt smooth. 

After you prime, lightly sand, and caulk the cracks. SOem peopl eon here might rocomend Grain filling. Its not necessary, and very time consuming, but if you want the oak grain to go away, you can do it. I personally wouldnt. I dont think theres anything wrong with seeing the wood grain, but its a personal preference. 

Some people take the route of putting a thicker coat on as it will self level better. Thats great, except it can run on vertical surfaces. I put it on thinner coats myself, so theres less brush strokes to see. It takes another coat or two to cover properly though.


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

@woodco covered it nicely (pun intended). Also, use your "search" feature on here as we have this question several times a month and there's some very good info in some of the older threads.


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

Cherry is beautiful wood. Have you considered stripping and staining instead of paint?


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

I didnt catch the part about them being cherry... Yeah, thats a shame to paint them, but a daunting task to refinish...


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## lpvasam (Jun 24, 2019)

Thanks for your reply. it is very good info form me.

i have fixed it to use primer (bin).

but you gave me more choices now

Scuff X, BM Advance,Duraproxy (i have all available near me). which one do you suggest for using brush and roller method ?
i'm willing to pay more for the best quality.



Also you mentioned cherry cabinets are good by them self why not stain

Can this be stripped and re-stained to dark gray stain? my kitchen got a all modern stainless steal appliances and white+grey counter-top (Granite). All other furniture is bought modern in the kitchen except his cabinets.

see attached picture recent but not current.




woodco said:


> Clean, rinse, scuff, Prime with a solvent based primer. BIN is the best, cuz it dries fast, sticks to anything and blocks any stains from bleeding through. You can use green or maroon scruffy pads instead of sandpaper. They work great.
> 
> Go to a PAINT STORE (NOT LOWES OR H.D.) and buy some good paint, suitable for a cabinet. Benjamin Moore sells ScuffX, Advance, or Cabinet coat that are all very good and waterborne. Scuff-X is the easiest to apply. Advance is great, but its harder to work with, and darker colors will take much longer to cure. Both Cabinet Coa and ScuffX will be super rock hard and ready to be put back a few hours later. Get some extender. Put a capful in your paint. It makes it lay down sweet. Get a nice soft brush (I recomend Corona Vegas 2 1/2") and a 1/4" prodooz mohair weenie roller. I like to lay it off with a brush after putting a very thin coat with a roller. Sometimes I will load the roller with paint, and take a peice of cardboard, and roll some of it off, so I dont overload the surface. For me, thinner is better... Sherwin sells Proclassic or Pro Industrial Multi Surface Acrylic that are both good, but SW sells crappy brushes and rollers. OR, if theres a Kelly Moore in your area, they sell Durapoxy which is a very good, durable and very friendly product as well.
> 
> ...


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

Advance is the best to use, but you can only put one coat on per day (9 hour recoat), so it adds days to your project. Scuff-X doesnt look _quite_ as good, but thats by a small margin. Honeslty, scuffX looks damn close to an oil base, and I've just about gotten any brush strokes to dissapear. It can be recoated a lot sooner, and he doors can be flipped a lot sooner. Sometimes advance will stay soft for several days. 

Advance is more difficult to apply, and will sag VERY easily, but you do have a bit of a window laying it off. Brush strokes will dissapear if done just right. I like to roll it on very thin, but lay it off gently with a brush with the grain. I think that looks better than micro roller stipple.

Durapoxy is pretty much the same thing as scuff X. Scuff X looks a little better, so I'd pick it over a primed surface. Durapoxy is very high adhesion, and is really good for going over oil base paint without a primer, but NOT over old clear coats. 

I havent had the best luck with cabinet coat using brush and roller. Its great sprayed though...

You dont want to push advance recoat times, because it cures through oxidation like a real oil. It'll be dry to the touch pretty quick though. If I were you, I would use scuff-X. 

One word of caution. They dont give scuff-X a full recomendation for cabinets, though a lot of painters have been using it with great success. I think this is because BM wants to sell more advance and cabinet coat, myself. Take that however you see fit.


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## lpvasam (Jun 24, 2019)

Thanks for the help. 

i'm going to go with Scuff X and BIN.

Will update if i get good results and post some pics


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## ron45 (Feb 25, 2014)

I would sand with 100 grit sand paper and steel wool 

Just take the sheen off.

Clean really well and tack rag.

Use a good brand name Enamel paint.

Two coats of your favorite color.


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## cocomonkeynuts (Jan 12, 2018)

ron45 said:


> I would sand with 100 grit sand paper and steel wool
> 
> Just take the sheen off.
> 
> ...





Clean first with a mild detergent.
100 grit is very aggressive and will eat the finish very fast.
150-180, vacuum dust and wipe with denatured, tack rags can leave residue.
Prime with BIN or oil based primer.

Advance applied with a good brush and prodooz ftp 3/16 can look very good and durable cabinet finish.


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## ron45 (Feb 25, 2014)

cocomonkeynuts said:


> Clean first with a mild detergent.
> 100 grit is very aggressive and will eat the finish very fast.
> 150-180, vacuum dust and wipe with denatured, tack rags can leave residue.
> Prime with BIN or oil based primer.
> ...


Okay..

The old pissing contest.

I don't suppose you know why I mentioned "" steel wool ""??

100 grit is not aggressive when done by hand.
You only need to take off the gloss not down to bare wood.

But 150-180 will take you all day 
Too fine of sandpaper and the paint won't adhere as good.
You don't need primers for something that already has a coating.

Maybe this video will explain why even if it pertains to stain.


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

Its not a pissing contest. Its universally accepted that the proper way to do it is a clean, light scuff (NOT with steel wool, because it can rust, but artificial scruffy pads work just fine) prime with a solvent based stain blocking, bonding primer, sand smooth with 220 or something, and topcoat. I often go the extra mile and spray an additional undercoating primer just for build and to give it something to sand smooth. 

Everyone has variations of that, but thats the basic model. 100 grit and no primer?? I find it very hard to believe anyone can make a cabinet look good with that method.... And even if it did, I doubt very much it hold up, especially around sink areas. Not to mention, theres nothing to keep stain from bleeding through the paint. I've seen 220 grit sanding marks show right through coatings like advance.


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## Timborooni (Apr 16, 2011)

I think everything has pretty well been covered. My 2 cents....

I think sometimes people make a mistake in following sanding they might wipe the surface down with a damp rag, thinner, denatured alcohol, or whatever. It is important to get absolutely as much of the sanding dust off before wiping down the surface. Otherwise that sanding dust will just turn into sludge, pushed into recesses and gaps, or just plain contaminating the substrate once dry.


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

I like to blow the dust off, myself. (I sand in a different area than where I spray)


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## Timborooni (Apr 16, 2011)

Sorry, just read some of the more recent posts.

It's most often not necessary to aggressively sand. You're trying to dull the surface, and create a _microscopic_ "tooth" for good bonding. It is important to get a good even sand, and possibly a little extra consideration to places that might get a lot of _traffic_, such as around handles and pulls, the edge of the wood where people might open the door there rather than using the handles/pulls(I actually in a semi joking way might advise the customer "handles are our friends", as in take care not to scratch the paint off, especially until it fully cures). Even if you don't aggressively sand, you might still sand through the finish and expose bare wood. Wood tannin can bleed through water based coatings, whether primer or going straight to paint. Therefore it is wise to prime with a solvent based primer, or something like BIN.


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## F250 (Feb 13, 2018)

An alternative to the Advance would be the PPG Breakthrough, but you cannot get the older (higher VOC) product in CA any more, and the newer (low VOC) version on the shelfs today has a problem with fisheyes. My local PPG store won't even carry the low VOC product, and I'm getting ready to spray our cabinet doors and drawer fronts and end panels this weekend with the Breakthrough (has a phenomenal drying rate).


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## cocomonkeynuts (Jan 12, 2018)

woodco said:


> Its not a pissing contest. Its universally accepted that the proper way to do it is a clean, light scuff (NOT with steel wool, because it can rust, but artificial scruffy pads work just fine) prime with a solvent based stain blocking, bonding primer, sand smooth with 220 or something, and topcoat. I often go the extra mile and spray an additional undercoating primer just for build and to give it something to sand smooth.
> 
> Everyone has variations of that, but thats the basic model. 100 grit and no primer?? I find it very hard to believe anyone can make a cabinet look good with that method.... And even if it did, I doubt very much it hold up, especially around sink areas. Not to mention, theres nothing to keep stain from bleeding through the paint. I've seen 220 grit sanding marks show right through coatings like advance.



On my samples I use 320grit and sometimes the green sponges, sanding marks do show through with alkyds like advance. Acrylics like cabinetcoat will bridge over them though.


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## ron45 (Feb 25, 2014)

Some people just get caught up in the moment.

Advice starting at 16:00 into video.
But definitely look at the end result.


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

ron45 said:


> Some people just get caught up in the moment.
> 
> Advice starting at 16:00 into video.
> But definitely look at the end result.
> ...


What does that have to do with painting cabinets? Totally different wood, products, system, and finish...


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## ron45 (Feb 25, 2014)

woodco said:


> What does that have to do with painting cabinets? Totally different wood, products, system, and finish...


I said the very same about the comments that was directed toward my comment.

That a surface that was already coated doesn't need priming.

Only the sheen needs to sanded off by hand with 100 grit sandpaper.

The edges done with steel wool because it will form to the wood and not take too much off.

Then the final step before painting to be tack ragged.

Two coats of a good enamel paint.

In 38 years I have never had to sand a piece of wood finer then 120 grit.
Never had to prime a piece of wood to paint.


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## woodco (Jun 11, 2017)

Well, doing things wrong for 40 years doesnt make it right. Tell yourself whatever you want... The rest of us know...


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## ron45 (Feb 25, 2014)

woodco said:


> Well, doing things wrong for 40 years doesnt make it right. Tell yourself whatever you want... The rest of us know...


What do " us " know.?

I never had any problems at all.

I think the " us " has drank the Kool-Aid.

But, its your money.


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## RonRon (Jan 12, 2021)

I had older oak kitchen cabinets. Five years ago I got tired of looking at them because they just looked old. The layout was good and the cabinets were solid. Painting seemed to be a good solution that was a lot less expensive than replacement. I used a good bonding primer, tinted to the paint color, and then painted the cabinets with the help of a sprayer reviewed by https://indoor2outdoor.com/best-paint-sprayers-for-cabinеts/ . There was no preparation such as sanding needed. I also changed the hardware and had granite installed. They look fine to me and it has held up well.


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## snic (Sep 16, 2018)

Did you sand them first, and if so, how?

Did you fill the grain? Oak grain is quite deep and will show through the paint.

I did the same with oak veneer cabinets in my bathroom - but sanded and filled the grain first. Then BIN from a spray can, sand with 400 grit, and two coats of Advance using a flocked foam roller and very light sanding between coats. They look great. Only odd thing is that drops of water that run down the cabinet face leave very pronounced trails which can't be wiped away - but they disappear when the water completely evaporates. Really strange.


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