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Help - Paint or Spray Bathroom Cabinets? And Which Paint to Use?

7 years ago

I'm having my wood bathroom cabinets painted white by a professional painter. They are currently maple (or another light wood, not 100% sure) with some sort of shiny coating on them. My painter plans to sand them, prime them, and then paint them with several coats of water-based paint. However, before I give him the go ahead, I have two questions for anyone out there who has experience:

1) What kind of paint and finish should I choose? I want them to coordinate with my doors and trim, which are Benjamin Moore OC-17 (White Dove), semi-gloss finish, so I'd prefer to stick with Benjamin Moore. But I'm not sure whether to go with their Aura line in semi-gloss, or Aura "Bath & Spa" in Matte finish. Any advice?

2) The painter will be removing the doors and drawers and painting them in his shop. So he can either spray them or hand-brush paint them. However, he has to paint the edges/frame of the cabinets on-site, so hand-painting them seems like it will be less messy than spraying them. Is it worth it to do the whole job using a spray? How about spraying the doors but hand-painting the surrounds? Or should I just have him hand-paint the whole thing? I think he will do a nice job hand-painting, but I have heard that spray-painted cabinets look fresher and a little more upscale. The rest of the bathroom is more traditional looking than I would like (dated 80's-era marble countertop, shower and floors, etc.), so I'm hoping that the cabinets will freshen it up!

...

Any advice you can give me would be great!!

Thank you!!

Featured Answer

MongoCT

7 years ago

I'd recommend a semi-gloss on bathroom cabinets and trim.

I'd recommend all parts of the vanity be painted the same way; all by brush, or all by spray. You might end up seeing a slight visual difference between parts if different methods are used.

I'd recommend moving things as little as possible; prep and paint all parts at the same time on site instead of prepping and painting some on site and carting other off site.

Comments (8)

millworkman
7 years ago
"I'm having my wood bathroom cabinets painted white by a professional painter. "

If he is a professional painter whom you have done your diligence in hiring trust him to paint the cabinets the way he suggests. Why reinvent the wheel and tell him to do his job?
vbe11
Original Author
7 years ago
Hi! My painter is lovely and he did a great job on all my walls, but he is quiet-natured, and there is also a bit of a language barrier. As a result, I haven't been able to get him to offer me a strong opinion one way or another on how I should proceed - he simply said that both spraying and hand-painting will look nice, and he will use whichever paint I want. So I am hoping to get a little extra advice from others. Thanks!
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millworkman
7 years ago
"and he will use whichever paint I want."

Then he probably would not be a professional painter. Painting in place in my opinion brush would be the easiest. More important then the paint method is the prep.
odin08075
7 years ago
We will be using Benjamin Moore Advance on our new custom painted bathroom vanity. It will be probably painted with a roller. The key for this self leveling paint will be sanding,cleaning and priming at the right ambient temperature and humidity levels. Takes a while to cure.
Jancy
7 years ago
My personal opinion is the vanity looks fine as is, the sink looks much more 80's to me. I'd change out the sink before painting the cabinet.
abbycat9990
7 years ago
We undertook a similar project last summer. We ordered new doors and drawerfronts, and the cabinet company spray painted them using Cabinet Coat paint. I removed all hardware, filled holes with bondo, sanded, primed, and painted (with Cabinet Coat) using both a small foam roller (on cabinet interiors) and a small brush (on frames). Worked great, and no sticking (like you get with latex paint). We are using BM Aura / Affinity line colors/paints on all walls and trim throughout the house. The un-tinted white Cabinet Coat looks fine with the Frostine (AF 5) trim. So, my advice would be to use an appropriate cabinet paint - not trim paint!!!
User
7 years ago
If you like BM, then use their Advanced paint - it's water based and levels beautifully. I used CabinetCoat as my primer and Advanced as my regular paint on my kitchen cabinets over five years ago and they still look great. I have literally scraped dried food off my cabinets (who knows old long it was there lol) and the paint has never chipped. I did sand and prime (prep work is important). If you're hiring a "pro" he should know what he's doing... No guarantees lol but he should be able to paint.. When I tackled my kitchen cabinets I hadn't painted since 6th grade... and everything turned out fine. I used quality paint, nice brushes and took my time.

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