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Feedback on cabinet painting-spraying and brushing

11 years ago

After much indecision, we are going to have our upper and lower cabinets painted a warm white. The top cabs will be taken out, professionally sanded and sprayed and new Woodmode doors added.

Our bottom cabinets will also be painted, but because of the soapstone and backsplash the boxes themselves won't be removed.

The company where we purchased our cabinets will be doing the refinishing work and when I asked how we could go about having the lower cabinets painted, this is what they have suggested: remove the doors and drawers to be refinished by them and have a painter sand, prime and paint just the lower cabinet fronts minus the doors and drawers of course.

My concern is how will the sprayed parts look with the brushed parts? There is not much of the face that will be exposed because of the drawers and doors, but the brush painted part will be somewhat visible nonetheless. Has anyone had experience with this?

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Comments (4)

bahacca
11 years ago
I'd ask that they take the back of a door and treat it as they will your frames--so they sand, and brush it as they would the bottom frames. Then you can see if their work is up to par with how you'd want the finished product to look. Or ask if they have samples of brush vs spray to look at to see if the difference is really visible or something you can live with.
sixtyohno
11 years ago
They can spray inside the house if they use a good quality HVLP sprayer. I did my former kitchen myself. I am experienced with spraying because we had a piano shop. Here's a link to the very best spray system. HVLP sprayers can be used inside the kitchen because they are so efficient that there is hardly any bounceback.
http://www.hvlp.com/edu.php
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No I didn't sand because I didn't want to breathe any of the plastic particulates which might become airborne. I can believe that that particular primer might be difficult to find (it was stinky in addition to sticky) -- as California goes so goes the nation! (Yea for CA!) But do ask someone you trust (not that yahoo who "helped" your husband but didn't understand how to cut a paint formula) at a paint store which primer they'd recommend for a melamine surface. That's just what I purchased (first in CA four+ years ago and then again here in CO), but I'm sure there are other good, strong products out there. And I want to say THANK YOU! You totally inspired me to attack our main floor guest bath. (It, along with the laundry room and built-ins around the family room fireplace have been put on long-term hold as we figure out how to spend the least amount of money on our already over-improved house ....) It has a builder's grade oak vanity with a crazy laminate top. (It's the kind which narrows into a ledge running across the top of the toilet, and as we put in a comfort height toilet that means if we'd ever need to get into the tank we couldn't without removing the ledge. Fine by me!) My project this autumn / winter (when Li'l Bit naps) will be to paint the vanity, and after reading your post I called the fabricator who did our kitchen countertop / backsplash (we have a lot of marble left over). She told me that for My fingers are crossed you find a remnant you love for your bathroom.
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that's a beeee-autiful dresser indeed! :) i've painted furniture and accessories right out of the store too, so i don't know why cabinet hardware would give me pause. haha and CEFreeman, i love rub n buff, but i want a matte black finish, so that didn't occur to me because i've only seen the metallic rub n buff carried locally. A quick search shows it does come in black! maybe i'll spray paint black for coverage and then finish with some black rub n buff for protection. i'm liking that plan! gosh, i was looking to you all to prevent me from doing something silly and here you are encouraging me! :) and in case anyone is searching on this topic... here's a great blog DIY project on spray painting black and then using copper rub n buff in order to create a DIY oil rubbed bronze finish. Here is a link that might be useful: DIY Oil Rubbed Bronze finish cabinet hardware
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We won't have THAT many cabinets...the price blew me away. We will have a big island and there is a small desk area with bookcases that were included, and we live in the SF bay area which tends to have high prices, but still... Our kitchen will be gutted at the time of the painting. Though the painting will take a couple of weeks which will increase our time without a kitchen. Unfortunately, I love the cabinets that our cabinet place makes, I'm just not fond of their painted finishes. They have kind of a plastic look to me. So, now there's no turning back because the cabinets have been ordered so I'm stuck with having them painted. I'm hoping the other bids will come in lower. My husband has taken to calling this painter "Picasso" because that's the quality he'd expect for that price! Are there any issues with going sprayed? Thanks again for your help with this!
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Good afternoon, handyfrank! We have never used Cabinet Coat for finishing cabinets, however I know painting contractors that use it with good success. They report it goes on easily with a brush or roller and flows out very nicely. Spraying can speed up the process especially if you are doing multiple coats on a larger project. A suitable alternative to an HVLP sprayer would be a $300 Magnum X5 sprayer: http://magnum.graco.com/products/x5/ My professional painters use them for finishing trim and cabinets. They spray well and are very light weight and easy to clean up (and clean up must be done thoroughly if you wish to use it more than once). The machine comes with a reversing tip (to clean out clogs in the tip). You may wish to obtain a smaller, finer spraying tip for use on cabinets. Then practice a few times on a piece of cardboard.
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Bunny
11 years ago
sis2two, my existing golden oak boxes were spray-painted in place and my new maple doors and drawer fronts were spray-painted in their shop. Yes, they're both sprayed, but the woods are different and while the maple and MDF are smooth as can be, you can still see the grain on the frames if you look closely enough. Nevertheless, it doesn't matter. Even though the difference is technically discernible, the eye misses it, or at least mine does. Although my doors are full overlay, there's a lot of old box showing, esp. between the corbels of my peninsula overhang.

Anyway, although the circumstances of our cabinet differences, um, differ, I don't think you're really going to notice the the few areas where you have brush painted adjacent to sprayed. My cabs are also warm white.
sis2two
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you for your help. I am going to find out if the company is willing to spray the boxes in my kitchen. If not, I really want to be assured it will not look off using two different techniques.
linelle-- your post made me feel better since you had the same thing done.

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