Repainting bathroom cabinets…. Questions

Hand sand at minimum to scuff up previous coats. If you have a good random orbital sander to really get it back to the bare wood, it doesn't hurt. On top of sanding, I still do de-glosser, or liquid sander to help prep the nooks and crannies I can't reach well with sand paper. I have a cheap paint sprayer (you can buy this primer in a aerosol can if it's a small job) and used white shellac primer as the base coat and sanded lightly with 220. Then followed up with a hard urethane paint. Sherwin Williams Emerald goes on pretty flat with a good brush from what I've seen, but I've always sprayed it.

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Hand sand at minimum to scuff up previous coats. If you have a good random orbital sander to really get it back to the bare wood, it doesn't hurt. On top of sanding, I still do de-glosser, or liquid sander to help prep the nooks and crannies I can't reach well with sand paper. I have a cheap paint sprayer (you can buy this primer in a aerosol can if it's a small job) and used white shellac primer as the base coat and sanded lightly with 220. Then followed up with a hard urethane paint. Sherwin Williams Emerald goes on pretty flat with a good brush from what I've seen, but I've always sprayed it.

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Exactly what I was going to say. My wife got into painting cabinets a couple of years ago, and that is almost her exact process. She usually brings the doors and drawer fronts home, or if the drawer fronts aren't removable, she brings the whole drawer home. Uses a combo of our mouse sander or random orbital sander to sand off any stain or paint, then uses some degreaser spray and wipes them all down prior to priming. She uses the Zinsser BIN Shellac primer, and it hardens up pretty well. Sometimes you can find it at Lowe's or Home Depot, but you can pretty much always find it at Sherwin-Williams. If you're using their Emerald paint, just get the primer while you're there. We have a couple of Wagner HVLP sprayers, one with a fine sprayer which is great for detail work like cabinets. She sprays the primer on, lets it dry a day or two, then lightly sands it to get it smooth. Then a coat or two of the paint, using a fine grit between coats, then she applies a wax after the final coat. In one house, she did two bathrooms and they turned out great. Mostly she does kitchen cabinets, and sometimes paints walls too if the people want them painted.

ETA: This is the detail sprayer we have. It is only $90, so by the time you buy brushes, rollers, pans etc you can spend just a little more and save tons of time. And then you'll have it for any future projects. It pays for itself after a couple of projects.

LINK

Good brushes aren’t cheap. Plus if it saves me time…. I didn’t realize they were that cheap. I was thinking $200-$300 at a minimum.

Does she use that for the primer and paint?

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Good brushes aren’t cheap. Plus if it saves me time…. I didn’t realize they were that cheap. I was thinking $200-$300 at a minimum.

Does she use that for the primer and paint?

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Yeah, the shellac primer sprays pretty well. She does use Flotrol when spraying the paint. Whatever the recommended amount is for how much paint is in the sprayer. I've used that one and our larger one, and the little one puts out a nice thin coat with less splatter and drips. The key is cleaning it well afterwards. A little brush cleaner, or denatured alcohol, goes a long way. I typically rinse the sprayer and canister out, pour enough brush cleaner in the canister to fill it 1/3 of the way, and then spray that through the sprayer. Helps to get it cleared out fast. Then I'll rinse it all out and spray a full canister of water through it. Takes about 5 minutes but is the easiest way to clean it. My wife is horrible about cleaning up after painting, so I try to make sure she doesn't just leave it sitting in the basement utility sink full of brush cleaner overnight.

Rob, your wife sounds 1000 times handier than I could ever be. If you say that she is also a good cook, I will really hate you.

You have good advice here.

Especially definitely sand it before you repaint and use a good oil primer or something like Ben Moore STIX primer regardless of whether you spray or brush on the final coats.

One thing to note: When you say it's currently a bad job does that mean it's peeling? or just sloppy?


I'd only follow the recommendations you've gotten if the current paint job is just sloppy but not if it's peeling when you sand it. That's an entirely different problem.



If you want to just brush it:

Buy a good $15 Purdy sash brush and 6" roller with sponge naps and tray. Apply the paint with the sponge roller to quickly get an even coat and brush it smooth with the Purdy sash brush. A lot easier than trying to evenly apply the paint with the brush if you don't paint all the time.

You can buy an "extender" for the paint you're using to give it more drying time. Totally worth it. I'd just tell the person at the Sherwin Williams shop what you doing and mention the extended.

To do it right will take a little more time than most people think, which is why it's not cheap to have it done by a real professional.

pretty easy - if not oak

1) sand -
2) look for imperfections
3) putty imperfections
4) sand again
5) damp cloth - to raise grain - very lightly sand again
6) clean - dust - blow off - tack cloth (get it all off somehow)
7) sanding seal if oak - will not solve open pore grain problem - but will help
8) prime twice - very lightly sand 180 grit in bewteen - knock down rough
9) another knock down sanding something in 280-300 grit range
10) couple coats paint (doing step9 in between)

If it was me I'd look into upgrading hinges to a nice slow close style - before painting of course.

My bathroom cabinets I just repainted. Kind of a rough texture. Probably should have sanded them but not sure that would have helped much. The paint adheres. Theyre just not great quality. I use high qualify paint though.

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Does she use that for the primer and paint?

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I spray the primer and paint, but note that shellac is an alcohol based primer. Spraying it gives off some fumes. And it dries super fast. Like 20 minutes if you don't coat it super thick. It's awesome in that you can prime and paint in the same day. But you have to be diligent to clean your sprayer right after you are done. And it doesn't clean all that easy with water. You really need to use denatured alcohol or I guess any solvent. Shellac will re-desolve in alcohol, so it should come off. It's just a bit of work with all the little parts in some sprayers.