I think you should wait. If you paint prior to installation, then you run the risk of marring the walls, you will then have to repaint or re-touch, depending on the sheen of your paint.
Not all paint finishes can be re-touched due to flashing.

My husband is a painter and he would tell you the same thing.

jujybean, thanks for the advice. What do you mean by 'flashing'? I guess I'm a little more worried about the cabinets being splatted or dinged in the course of painting if we wait till after installation.

Its much easier to paint before cabinets are installed and touch up later if possible. More labor intensive to do so after. Its done both ways all the time. Since your contractor is doing this, he may have based his price on painting before hanging the cabinets and if you ask him to paint later when you decide on a color, he may consider that a change order at an additional cost. Its hard to give you good input without knowing this.

Now we painted ourself during our remodel and I prefered doing as much as possible without cabinets installed. There were no real issues with walls getting marred or nicked up afterwards and only a few minor touch ups necessary that blend in perfectly

There have been a couple of discussions lately about this. Here's one (I searched using "paint + cabinets + wall + before + after" and found this one on the first page of the hit list)

Here is a link that might be useful: Did you paint after kitchen was completed

See if you had my husband as a painter, you wouldn't have to worry about paint splattering your new cabinets. The guy your contractor is getting is probably not someone who paints on a daily basis. Talk to him about the painters experience

Flashing
http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/painting_techniques/painting_problem_solver/fading/Flash_UnevenGlossRetention/

Buel, thanks so much for the link. Sometimes I forget to check ahead before posting ...ha, I shoulda realized that I'm not the only one with this dilema! Are you still waiting for installation to finalize your paint choice?

Yes. My DH talked about painting this past weekend and I reminded him that we wanted to wait to see if our choices will really work. He's now talking about hiring a finish painter to paint our kitchen since he's now worried about having to cut around the crown molding. I've made it very clear that I do not want paint on my cabinets, including crown molding! He wants to DIY to save money but I think he's being penny wise & pound foolish--spending all this money on cabinets and then doing our own painting and ruining them! (We both have very limited experience w/painting!)

Buel, I think I'm on your wavelength here. I just can't envisage feeling 100% about how everything is going to come together to have a color picked out at this point. The cabinets are in the basement (securely wrapped and staying that way till we are ready), the floor tile has not been delivered yet, the countertop choice is not 100% finalized (not granite) .... so I guess until I see these things in the same room, not just samples, I can't commit!

I may decide not to have my general contractor guys do the paint, but hire my regular painter who knows how picky I am and I could trust to be careful around my new installation.

Good luck.

I would try to get the right color done before the cabinets if you can. I have painted my kitchen 3 times in the past year and it is tiring doing all the cutting in. Although I don't have a lot of wall space, it takes a good 4 hours to cut in with all the crown, etc.

Take everything you have to the paint store (cabinet door, counter, floor, fabric samples etc) and try to get the best color. A lot of paint stores have color design consultants on staff to help you narrow it down. If you live in S Jersey, there are some great ones in Somers Point.

As far as paint goes, the new Aura paint by Benjamin Moore is the best paint on the market, especially for touch up painting. You can touch up part of a wall without any marks (I touch up my prep area in my kitchen every other month until I figure out the backsplash). It may be expensive, but it is the only paint I will buy now that I have tried it. It is also self priming, low VOC, high hiding,1 hr dry time and scrubbable at every sheen level. And no, I don't work for BM. I just painted my whole house in February and finished the stairwell yesterday so I am in celebration mode. This paint is phenomenal!

I waited for cabinets, granite and wood floor before choosing a paint color. However, had I known the color that I'd love, I would have painted first, at least along the outline of the cabinets. I've still got to buy a teeny-tiny brush to get into the lovely niches in my trim. I did have a couple of areas where the paint loaded against the edge of the tape and I have to fix those too (no sanding).

On the other hand, I did become pretty good with the masking tape (did the family room and 1/2 bath too)!

I'm almost ready to tackle my slate backsplash.

Thanks.

Cleo that's interesting to hear about BM Aura paint. I'm already a BM fan. The guys primed the drywall today and it's come out pretty nice. Given how much yo-yoing I am doing on the backsplash, choosing a paint color is not looking feasible prior to cab install.

While we haven't painted yet, we did put a couple of primer coats on the walls before the cabinets went up. However, I seem to recall reading on the Painting Forum that if you wait more than 2 weeks you may have to prime again b/c the finish paint won't "stick" to the "old" primer. Has anyone else found this to be true?

(We primed (2 coats) & finish painted the ceilings in two consecutive weekends, so it wasn't an issue then. But, it has been more than 2 weeks since we primed the walls.)

I'm waiting till I get the backsplash up so I can pick up one of the shades in there for the walls.

Our GC likes to paint before cabinet install. We are continuing with the same colour that is in the DR, so a paint decision was easy. If I wasn't sure, then I would wait too.

The painter is doing his thing as I write. The cabinets will go in after he paints. With as many cabinets as we're using, there will be little place for actual paint. However, I am also using BM Aura paint in eggshell finish. I have used this in matte finish in two bedrooms and love it. Easily scrubbed where the dog sleeps next to the wall. The paint store owner said he used eggshell Aura in his kitchen three months ago and his wife scrubs up "all the time." But because Aura is self-priming, we should not use just any primer--had to be good quality 100 percent acrylic--and had to dry really well---at least 48 hours. Otherwise, he had has at least one customer who had the Aura paint strip off the wall soon after using it. So I rushed home and, thank goodness, the painter hadn't got to priming yet. After much discussion, because he wasn't familiar with Aura, we decided to use two coats where the finish coat will show and his cheaper primer where it will be covered by cabinets. I could not justify using this expensive paint ($55 gal) where it would not be seen. Hope it all works out!

My KD/GC do the paint after the cabinet installation. He says the paint would get dinged by the cabinet install.

It seems harder to me this way, but I'm glad because I honestly have given very little thought to paint color. I really want to see how all the different finishes look together before I can decide what color I want to paint the walls.

Seems I'm not entirely alone with my not being able to choose a paint yet problem!

Saskiasmom, I'm interested in BM Aura paint. What kind of primer did you use? Wouldn't self priming mean that you don't have to use a primer? I've just had our guys use a BM primer especially for drywall so wondering if we can use the BM Aura line for the finish coats.

Ok, My painter husband will be painting one coat before and one after. He will only have to cut in once. My bad for my earlier comment a few days ago. Color will be Sherwin Williams Duration in Camelback

We decided to wait for the same reasons covered above.

We didn't want to risk painting ahead of time only to find out we weren't happy with the colors after the cabinets and granite went in.

I think it's damned near impossible to come up with the right colors due to the major variations in lighting.
We wanted ALL of the lights in, AND the granite in, so we can light everything up and then look at color swatches and go from there.

Jim

tartinhabit - any good latex primer will work with the Aura paint. I like Bulls Eye Zinsser 123 primer (it also gets great reviews on the painting forum).

While you don't have to prime with Aura - Aura costs $54 a gallon - 123 costs $17 a gallon. Depending on what you are covering, priming first makes a lot of sense.

I liked Aura - and only cut in once (it gave good single coat coverage over primer). However, where I rolled, I found it best to do 2 coats of Aura for the best look

After doing two gut job remodels, I can safely say you should have everything picked out before you even demo. It's pretty easy to get samples of your cabinet doors, countertop materials, flooring, and paint chips and make a board that you can check in the various lighting conditions of your kitchen area.

I'm also a stickler for detail...after spending that much money on a renovation, I want the paint job and tiny details to be as clean and exact as possible. Cutting in paint against a line of cabinets is iffy at best. Painting the wall before installation guarantees you a perfect line at the wall/cabinet interface, without a speck of paint on your cabinets or a hint of primer or background color sneaking in at the interface.

As for knicks, scrapes, and other things after installation...any good painter or homeowner can completely cover those mistakes with good painting and patching techniques. They've been discussed to death in here and they work. I freaked out about that during our last renovation, but ended up being quite proud of the totally invisible corrections I was able to do to the drywall and paint. No extra sheen or flashing to reveal where the patches were.

Generally, the more you plan and purchase ahead of time, the more efficient and economical your renovation will be.

I spent the day doing venetian plaster BEFORE the cabinets go in. It's so much easier to do a touch up job than to cut in, and I say that being a very comfortable and experienced painter (and plasterer). It's a much more finished look to have the paint creap into the cabinet line a few inches as well if there is any texture at all to deal with.

I can see that yes, it would perhaps be a more finished look, and I too am reasonably experienced in painting and quite nifty with the brush. But given that even today, we were looking at backsplashes and considering 2 pretty different colors I think we want to wait and see how the cabinets look in 3D. Maybe I'll just have to hire jujybean's husband!

I've at least bought the ceiling paint (BM White Dove) which I know will work just fine with whatever we decide for the walls.

Igloo, how on earth do you find the time to do venetian plastering?!

BE sure to paint the ceilings before you have cabinets in! Even the neatest painter often dribbles with ceiling paint (and with that pretty color you can't go wrong!)

LOL I often ask myself those types of questions tartan. I am VP'ing the kitchen, powderroom (done), master bath, master bedroom and interior halls. I find the time...because my quote was almost ten grand per room to have it done LOL

DH had baby yesterday all day. Poor thing looked more tired than me at the end of the day (and I was beat! I haven't spent that much time on ladders for a while).

You know, the whole thing about "before paint or after" is probably not really an issue. Think it through...you'll probably repaint in a few years anyhoo and at that point...no one is going to remove cabinets and paint, so what's the difference :)

I was thinking that yesterday as I was plastering a horrible corner between the wall and hood (less than 11" wide at the base of the hood and I have to squeeze in and do the back). That freaking kitchen will be the same VP color in 20 years if I live there LOL what a PAIN to get that stupid corner done!