Sorry you're having these difficulties!! Yep...roller-lines AREN'T caused by the paint itself!! 99.5% of the time, it's purely "Painter error"! Causes: * Poor technique/equipment... * Overworking the primer & paint... * Pushing coats too thin. "Builders' painters" are used (USUALLY) solely for speed...NOT quality. Many couldn't produce a flawless wall if they were offered a new Ferrari! I'm not a pro painter, but work at an upscale Paint/Hdwr. store. The walls I've done at home are flawless. * I use only the best Roller-covers (Purdy White-Doves or Wooster Pro-Doozs). * Nice stiff-necked roller-frames ) Wooster green-handled Sherlock GT's, with the GT Pole. * Paints: I'm spoiled here! I tint my own C2, ACE-Royal, or Ralph-Lauren, with C2-One primer as my FAVE! * I've even used an FPE color. >>> I'm very careful with technique & prep! * On cleaned/primed walls, I paint a 2.5' wide column, using 4 roller-loads per 8' height. * After doing these 4 vertical "blocks", I bring my unloaded roller to the top of this column & do 3 REAL LIGHT downward "sweeps"...ceiling-to-floor-motion. * This "lays-off" the paint so all stipple is leaning the same direction, and thin-spots/roller-turns are smoothed out. * Repeat this "column-work" around the room. * Keeping your column width to ~ 2.5' ensures you're getting enough paint on the wall!! * Seriously...I cannot find a roller-line or sheen-variation in my jobs at home! Faron

I don't know that you need a painter specializing in cabinet painting....good painters usually do that. Depending on what suburb you are in, see if you can find a JCLIchts Benjamin Moore store around your area and ask for a few painters from them.

Well, I guess I should ask my DH, since he's the one that did the shopping around. He asked around for recommendations and looked into 3 different ones. They all did good work, but what it came down to was price and interest. By that I mean, were they even interested in doing the job. One guy that came highly recommended, came in at a good price, but he didn't think we should paint, but rather re-stain, because that's a look he prefers, and it's his specialty. They guy we went with had good references and we saw some of his work and liked it. Different people use different kinds of paints too, so you need to know what you want. We went with a lacquer, but I don't know much about that, hubby made that decision. We did all the prep ourselves, other than sanding. Cleaning with TSP, a good scrub and rinse, and all the dismantling of cabinets and delivery to the paint shop. I think that helped us get a better price as well. I think we paid about $2000 for the whole kitchen. It's not completely re-installed yet, but I am really happy so far.

Ellie, your new home is lovely. I looked into painting my current kitchen and pretty much what Live_oak_writes is what I found to be true in terms of prep, cost and quality. The guy I found here in Michigan ONLY paints cabinets and that is the kind of painter I would suggest or a cabinet shop. I am not trying to criticize house painters, but I would only want someone who specializes in cabinets (not a painter of rooms, exteriors, etc). He told me he would remove all the doors and spray in his shop (after sanding, filling in holes, etc.). The boxes would have to be sprayed on-site of course and you need to verify their prep for that. He was willing to paint a sample door for me (find an old maple door at Habitat, etc. and have them use that as a test). I liked what I saw. His Facebook page was impressive. My kitchen is not as nice as yours and I determined it just was not worth it. I recall a thread here recently in which someone painted professionally and it was absolutely wonderful. I am not as good as others at finding pictures/threads, but I will look.