repainting already painted flat white kitchen cabinets

[skcarey]

I want to repaint my kitchen cabinets - they are painted with a flat white paint which shows everything and they are hard to clean. I would like some suggestions on how to repaint them, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Distinctivescenes]

Well you didn't mention what the cabinets were made of. If they are wood you can give then a light sanding to make the paint take. Fill and nicks and dings there might be with wood putty, and sand that. Then clean with tack cloth and paint them with regular latex paint. To make them cleanable, I would go with the minimum of a satin finish. The higher the gloss, the easier to clean. But if there are more imperfections and they are not filled and sanded smoothly, the higher the gloss of the paint, the more they will show too.

If the cabinets are made with formica, they need to be sanded considerably to get any shinyness off of them. The paint won't stick if they are shiny. You will need to clean them as above but also need to prime them before painting. You can still use latex paint. Whatever color you dicide to use, ex. Black. Then have your primer tinted a similar color. You won't need to tint the priment only if you are going to paint your cabinets a light color. Good luck.

[tom_matthews]

I greatly prefer oil-based paints and primers for kitchen cabinets. They create a hard, durable finish. Plus, if the material is something like MDF, then any water-based product will raise the grain. Plus, latex paint can take a long time to fully cure to a hard coat. In the meantime the latex can be tacky and if the doors are re-installed, then where the paint surfaces meet, the uncured paint can stick and damage the finish. If you do go with latex, use an acrylic-based latex rather than vinyl latex.

before painting, sand everything down to a fine finish. Remove the old finish with a 100- to 120-grit paper in a random-orbit sander. Gradually use finer paper and work up to 180 or 200-grit paper. clean with a vacuum and tack cloth, then apply primer. allow to dry, lightly sand the primer coat, tack cloth again, then paint. I prefer spraying cabinet doors for a uniform finish and brushing on the cabinet carcass (if painting it in place in the kitchen).