Hi folks, I've been checking on here about the best way to paint my old oak crappy stained cabinets. So after reading here I went to Ace, my friendly neighborhood hardware store guy(no really, it's true)hoping to find Cabinet Coat or their equivalent but they didn't have it. He recommended a waterbased paint by BM. I already have Insl-x oil based primer so I want to use that if possible. He said sure, go ahead and TSP, lightly sand, and put a coat of Insl-x on it. Then he said to use Ben Moore Satin Impervo Waterbase for the topcoats. He said I should probably put a coat of Minwax waterbased polycrilic on top after I glaze the edges so that the finish is even, and not bumped up where I've glazed.

I've used the BM oil based Satin Impervo before and like the coverage very much but he said to go waterbased b/c oil will yellow. I think I recall reading that here too. I was planning to do 3 topcoats but he said 2 should do it and that it's not good to build up the mil too high anyway.

So I have a couple ?s:

Is the BM waterbased Satin Impervo a good paint for this? Do I have to sand where I'm putting the glaze after my last topcoat?

Do I need to sand the last topcoat before I polycrilic it? I'm thinking absolutely not but I think I read that you have to sand for the poly to bite but won't that mess up my nice topcoat?

Is Insl-X low odor oil based primer a good primer for this? Will 2 coats of primer be a better idea if I'd prefer to hide some or most of the grain. I did a trial run on hiding the grain by mixing joint compound into the primer but I don't like the look of it- maybe I didn;t sand enough but the finish looks like those fake white doors, almost like a very mild stippling.SO I was wondering if 2 coats of primer would be worth the effort. The Inslx Low Odor primer was supposed to be a high build primer but I don't think it is. Ideally I'd hide all the grain so I want to do this once and do it right. I tried sanding the extra door down to bare wood and primed and painted but the grain still showed. I knew when I was sanding that there was no way I could 'erase' the grain. That's when I tried the primer mixed with joint compound. I'll live with the grain but would prefer most of it not show.

Thanks for any advice!