Advice on painting kitchen cabinet doors?

[Jonesy_SA]

Hi

I'm painting some kitchen cabinet doors that are second hand. There is noticeable grime and oil on a few. From what I can tell they are painted water resistant MDF. Some paint has worn off in a few areas.

Firstly, what's the best way to clean all oil and grime off?
Secondly; what should I consider? (I.e. do I just brush and roll them or do I use spray gun, recommendations for paint?

Cheers

[China]

Sugar soap is a good old standard, I would spray them but the I have the required equipment, many renovators have had success with rollers and brush.

[Potts]

Sugar soap for me as well, then a coat of ESP surface prep which Acts as a binder and hardener of your topcoat, I did my kitchen this way approx 10 years ago and the doors and drawers have held up very well. Painted with roller.

[havabeer69]

i recently painting some kitchen cupboard doors.

after all the effort etc i wish i had just ordered new ones.

it was quite a long process. i think its tuabmans (and now dulux) have their own specific cleaner for washing the cabinets down with and it works pretty dam well. then it's sand, undercoat, and topcoat, but its a slow process trying to do both sides. as you need to wait for them to dry. before you can do the other side.

roller wise i used some from bunnings that mentioned cupboard doors on them, from memory they where a fairly short nape.

but the paint isn't cheap either, and you really need the melamine on the cupboards to be in good nice for it to stick.

ordering new doors from a kitchen would have been a much simpler and nicer finish.

[Chrisw27]

Hi, I am going through a similar project now, however the cabinet doors are 'oak' and i am painting oil enamel via a lvlp gun. I will try and do a write-up as it has been quite involved with many learnings, however i need to finish it first!

The first suggestion i have is to be honest about your expectations. How good do you want the final product to be? Is it in your kitchen or simply workshop furniture? How much work/effort/time do you want to invest? This is particularly relevant to identifying your paint application method.
Secondly, what equipment do you have available for use? For example a wide enough thicknesser can easily remove paint and leave a semi smooth finish with little extra sanding required.

In terms of initial cleaning, sugar soap has worked well for me, but slightly better is TSP - branded Tricleanium at the B store. A bit of elbow grease will work well and remove most grimes and marks etc.

Regarding painting, i trialled roller/brush/spraying and in the end spraying gave the better finish handsdown. Smoothest and most consistent finish by far, and no need to worry about brush marks. Note you would need access to an air compressor of decent air delivery, gun and some reading/learning how to spray for this to work.

Use a good quality primer, whatever top coat you choose. I went with a zinsser shellac base and it has been worth the extra expense and more tedious clean up. Compare water vs oil enamel finishes (the big stores should have samples available) to see which base and level of sheen you prefer.

Cheers, Chris

[P.W.H.]

I've painted mdf drawer fronts and doors in my old kitchen. Brush, well, depending on the paint it will leave a surface that is not entirely flat, although with satin it may not matter too much. Rolling also tends to leave a slightly structured surface in my opinion. The ladies did the side of a suspended cabinet with brushes and you could tell.
I've done it by spraying, but. The easy way is to get spray cans and do it in the garage, otherwise you're in for it. Spraygun, compressor, regulator&moisture trap, and, most of all, a really good respirator and a spray room. The slightest bit of dust can ruin a good spray job in my experience. So ideally you'll find someone with a spray room that has filtered air come in. Then you need to practice some .... I was fortunate enough to have friends who were building kitchens at the time and could use their spray room. Oh, and every bit of spray that goes past the edges of the job makes a mess ... I would not even attempt to do it now in my workshop or in my garage; in a dedicated room it doesn't matter so much .
In my younger days I've used spray cans on the car in the garage, and it worked, using lots of dropsheets and newspaper ... sure makes less mess than a spraygun. But if I wanted some furniture sprayed these days, I'd farm the job out.

[Robson Valley]

TSP trisodium phosphate wash as a degreaser. Roller base coat. Textured roller top glaze is a randomized look.
Light tones, warm cheerful colors.

Unlike my partner, number the damn doors and the holes they came out of so that everything really does fit back together again very easily with no dado trimming of the whole kitchen.

It was then that I noticed that there were three different kinds of door hinges.
No, the screw holes never match despite what you get told in the store.
48 hinges later and nobody notices but me.

[Mobyturns]

Do you have an idea of the age of the doors? The "paint" could be anything from a very wide range of products, including "pre-cat lacquer," polyurethane, etc, so prepping it for "repainting" will depend very much on what it actually is.