Questions You Should Ask Before Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets

Have you been dreaming of a new look for your kitchen, but feeling hesitant about spending money? If so, maybe you’ve been considering painting your kitchen cabinets.

On the face of it, painting may sure seem like the easy way to go. It certainly costs less to buy a couple gallons of paint than to invest in replacing all your cabinetry. Plus, chances are, you probably already have experience doing paint jobs in other spots around your home, so how much harder could it be to just paint the kitchen cabinets, right?

Let’s be clear, for some homeowners, painting their own cabinets probably is a good, viable choice. But, unfortunately, many homeowners don’t realize that painting their own cabinets may not be the cheaper, easier way to get a kitchen renovated.

If you’re considering painting your own cabinets, here are three questions we recommend you ask yourself before you start:

Is It Actually Cheaper?

When you’re comparing the costs of buying paint vs. investing in a kitchen renovation, certainly the first choice comes with a much lower dollar amount. The thing is, if you’re going to paint your own cabinets - and do it well – it’s going to take time. And, as they say, time is money.

Some homeowners aren’t aware of all the work that’s required to paint kitchen cabinets – because, unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just brushing on a quick new layer of paint.

First, there’s significant prep work that must be done: you have to remove all the cabinet doors and all the hardware, you have to remove the old paint or stain (which sometimes even requires sanding), and you have to clean the surface thoroughly before applying the new paint. Then, the actual paint job work itself can be more complex than people first think. (We’ll talk about this point more later.) Then, once the painting is done, you have to put everything back together.

And don’t forget – you’ll need to have space set up to do all this work, and your kitchen won’t be fully functional until it’s done.

Do you have the time for such a project? If not, you’ll have to hire someone to do it for you, and at that point, there may not be so dramatic a cost difference in just getting new wooden cabinets.

Will It Last?

A paint job is an effective way to give your kitchen a new look. But it may only be a temporary fix. A paint job will change the color, but it won’t give you a fully updated aesthetic, nor will you get any new functional benefits as you would from a true kitchen renovation.

For example, if your cabinets went up in the 90’s, they’re still going to have that now decades-old design, just in a different color. If your cabinets have been warped, chipped, or otherwise damaged, a simple paint job won’t fix them. Not to mention, you might be lacking contemporary amenities, like extra drawers and shelving behind doors. Plus, there may be ways to take better advantage of the available space in your kitchen if you upgraded to a more modern cabinetry set.

If you paint your cabinets now, will you still need to replace them in just a few years anyway?

If so, maybe it makes more sense to just hold off until then, or make the bigger investment now.

Do You Have the Painting Skills?

If you’re not an interior designer or a construction professional, you’d probably pick up a paintbrush as the obvious tool to paint your cabinets.

However, most professionals would recommend a spray technique for cabinets instead. A paintbrush often leaves unwanted brush marks on cabinets that would give them a cheap, amateurish look.

Also, your current cabinetry may not even be able to be painted, at least not easily. If your cabinets are made of stainless steel, or laminate, or vinyl, or a non-solid wood material, then even if you apply a good coat of paint, it will probably end up chipping or peeling off.

Once you consider all the factors that are involved, you may still decide that painting your kitchen cabinets makes sense for your situation. However, maybe you’ll want to consider other options instead… 

If you want to find out more about an affordable, ready-to-assemble cabinetry solution that will give you a full upgrade without needing to break the bank, give our team at RTA Wood Cabinets a call at: 800-788-7575.