Kenzie you have the perfect kitchen for hand-painting kitchen cabinets. You are going to be amazed at the improvement if you follow Christopher's directions. Just don't skip any steps and take your time :). You will see a little grain since your cabinets are oak, but that helps eliminate the look of brush marks also. I am one of those people who don't mind seeing the grain of oak - at least they look like real wood. I have one question for Christoper: How does the BM Impervo and Advance compare to SW Pro-Classic as far as ease of applying?? My reason for asking is that I have used the Pro-Classic on a vanity and was very impressed with the quality of the finished product - just would like to know for future projects.

Perfect timing for me, this thread. We've replaced our 2'x11' kitchen bench seating area (termite damage -- caught early, but still...), and I just finished priming with Stix. In all my reading, I didn't anticipate how thick the primer would be, fresh out of the can -- my stir stick, jammed into the primer, stood at attention without issue! I contacted INSLX customer svc and was told I could thin with water. I did so, but it was still too thick to level well (I didn't want to exceed the amount of water recommended). I had to sand a fair bit to knock down the ridges. (I've repainted every door, spindle, baseboard and trim in this 26 y/o house of ours by now, using Lowes' American Tradition semi-gloss, and always got a smooth finish.) I have a can of Cabinet Coat at the ready, but am concerned about obtaining a flat finish: foam roller vs quality brush. How does one keep a wet edge when painting such a large swath, even if the paint levels well? (And I've read CC dries rather quickly.) I'm crossing fingers that CC will be the proper consistency (after a good stirring), so I won't have to worry about buying an extender (such as Floetrol or whatever INSLX might recommend). Whizz high-density foam rollers were recommended on one DIYer's site. Though, she was painting only cabinet door surfaces and wasn't dealing with the surface area of a wall-to-wall bench.

Fluffeebiskits1 Thanks! I used high density foam rollers, both a 2" and a 4". I also used a high quality 2" angle brush. I think it was 2". For my doors I brushed the edges and the inset of the raised panel piece and then immediately rolled the stiles, rails and flat raised panel section to blend them in. I also rolled around the outside edges a bit, but was very careful to not cause build up or drips to the underside. In other words, don't use too much paint or put too much pressure on your roller. I wish I had pictures of what it looked like at that point. It's scary- it did not look good. But don't overdo it and just walk away. I came back and it had leveled out very nicely. Of course the doors were able to lay flat, improving its ability to level. The vanity frame that I painted does show more brush strokes although I tried to use the foam roller as much as possible there as well. Upon very close inspection you cannot see any brush strokes and very little roller stippling on the doors. I did lightly sand with super super fine sand paper in between each coat. Overall it was not that time consuming, although I only did 2 doors. But the anxiety over wanting it to look as perfect as possible slows me down as I tend to overthink things. I have had all of my cabinets labeled for months and thought through the logistics of the job but still have yet to move forward. Now we're having an addition put on and I don't want to paint around dust!

Nice job. I finished my cabinets with Advance also, they will tell you it takes 30 days to cure max hardness; that is true for all latex paints. Also used Advance on doors and paneling with Insl-x Stick primer which may be better for cabinets advised my BM dealer. Prime or not. Probably safer to prime, peace of mind. Write back in a few months, it seems that after a few months the Advance is very durable and no problems. As always, touching up may be necessary, after all it is just paint. We learned that after painting our floors; got rid of our old vinyl and carpet floors and painted 2 coats of SW Porch and floor over bare wood. Good enuf so far, not sure whether paint or polyurethane is better. So we are testing both on various floors. Edit: your room looks so much brighter with the new paint!