Before You Pick Up a Brush

Painting your kitchen cabinets is one of the most satisfying jobs you can do at home. For the price of a few tins of paint and a couple of weekends, you can transform a tired kitchen without the cost, mess and disruption of a full replacement. But it is not quite the same as painting a wall. Kitchen cabinets live hard lives: they get splattered with cooking oil, wiped down with hot cloths, knocked by plates and exposed to steam on a daily basis. A slapdash job will start peeling within months.

The good news is that a proper job is entirely achievable with patience and the right preparation. Before you commit, take an honest look at your doors. Solid timber, MDF, and most vinyl-wrapped or melamine-faced doors can all be painted successfully. Any door that is swollen with damp, delaminating at the edges, or crumbling around the hinge holes is better replaced. If the frames are sound and the doors close cleanly, you are good to go.

Set aside a proper workspace too. A garage or a spare room where doors can lie flat is ideal. Painting doors while they are still hanging is possible, but the finish will never be as good, and you will spend half your time chasing drips.

Degreasing Is the Step Everyone Skips

This is where most DIY cabinet paint jobs fail. Kitchen surfaces carry an invisible film of cooking grease, and no paint will stick to it for long. Ordinary washing up liquid will not shift it.

Remove all doors and drawers, then take off handles, knobs and hinges. Label everything with masking tape as you go, and pop the screws into a labelled sandwich bag. While the doors are off, drop the metal hinges into a jar of white vinegar or a warm soapy solution to dissolve the accumulated gunge.

• Wipe every surface with a dedicated kitchen degreaser, paying particular attention to the areas around handles and the cabinets directly above the hob.
• Work in sections and change your cloth often. A cloth that is already loaded with grease is simply smearing it around.
• Follow with a rinse of warm water and a final wipe with a clean, damp cloth.
• Let everything dry completely before you touch it with sandpaper, or you will clog the paper instantly.

Sanding and Small Repairs

You do not need to strip the cabinets back to bare wood, but you do need to break the surface. Paint needs something to grip, and a glossy factory finish gives it nothing.

Use a medium abrasive, around 120 grit, to dull the shine across the flat panels, then go over everything with 180 grit to smooth out the scratches. Work with the grain on timber and in light, even passes on MDF. Finish by wiping away all dust with a tack cloth or a damp microfibre cloth.

Now is the moment to deal with damage. Fill chips, dents and old screw holes with a two-part wood filler, let it set, then sand it flush. If your doors have a decorative moulding, sand gently inside the grooves with a folded piece of paper rather than a sanding block, which will round off the crisp edges.

Priming for a Finish That Lasts

Primer is the bridge between your preparation and your topcoats, and it matters enormously on kitchen cabinets. On bare timber, a standard wood primer will do. On melamine, vinyl wrap or any factory-lacquered surface, you need a specialist bonding primer or a shellac-based primer, which grips glossy surfaces that ordinary paint slides off.

Apply primer thinly with a small foam roller for flat areas and a brush for the mouldings and edges. One even coat is usually enough. Do not be tempted to lay it on thickly to save time — a heavy coat will run, sag and take days to dry. Sand lightly with 240 grit once it is fully dry, then dust off again.

Choosing Paint for a Busy Kitchen

This is the decision that determines how your kitchen looks in three years' time. Kitchen cabinets need a paint that dries hard, resists moisture and can be wiped clean without dulling.

• Water-based eggshell is the reliable all-rounder. It dries quickly, has a low odour, cleans up with water and gives a soft, wipeable finish.
• Water-based satin offers slightly more sheen and a bit more durability, which suits busy family kitchens.
• Dedicated cabinet and furniture paint is formulated to be harder-wearing than wall paint and is worth the extra cost on doors and drawer fronts.
• Avoid traditional solvent-based gloss unless you are very confident. It is unforgiving, yellows over time and shows every brush mark.

As a rough guide, a kitchen of ten doors and four drawers will need around two to three litres of topcoat for two or three coats, plus a litre of primer. Buy slightly more than you think you need and keep the tin — you will want it for touch-ups.

Applying the Coats

Work in a warm, well-ventilated room, ideally between 15°C and 25°C, and avoid painting on damp or humid days. Lay doors flat on trestles or blocks so you can reach the edges cleanly.

Use a foam roller for flat panels and a good-quality synthetic brush for mouldings and edges. Roll in one direction, then lightly "lay off" with the brush to knock back the stipple. Two thin coats will always beat one thick one. Lightly sand between coats with 240 grit once the previous coat is properly dry, and wipe away the dust.

Handle times vary, but expect to leave doors several days before rehanging, and up to a fortnight before the finish is fully cured. Until then, treat the cabinets gently: no scrubbing, no harsh cleaners, and a soft cloth for spills. Once cured, a weekly wipe with warm soapy water is all they will need. Get the preparation right and your kitchen will feel brand new — for a fraction of the price of replacing it.