They are essentially a pressed cardboard with a photograph veneer. They will not paint well. White would be fine but the oak grain will telegraph thru even with the hours and hours of prep work. You may be better off saving your time, effort and dollars up for new cabinets as they are an inexpensive builder grade at best.

I have painted Sauder furniture which is basically the same type of material. Sand lightly and use an oil based primer first, then apply your latex paint

N

Check for paint adhesion. I bought a cheap oak vanity for a house I was selling and tried to paint. The latex paint just beaded up on it. I had to sand and used a primer to get paint to stick at all.

Maybe put some color on the walls and let the cabinets be.

You can paint, but, you do need to use oil based primer. Cabinet painting is a whole lot of work to do it right, if you are doing it yourself. If you are hiring it done, it is also a several thousand dollar job to do it right. Prep, is most of the work, and there is a lot of prep and a whole lot of sanding. You also need to paint with paint that is meant for cabinets, not the type you would use on a wall. I actually think your cabinets look fine the way they are, but, the wall paint color is horrible. I would concentrate on repainting the walls, instead. Everything in the room, will then look much better.

I just did cabinet painting with similar cabinets about 6 months ago. I used a shellac primer and SW cabinet and trim enamel. While both products were a bit pricey, I was very happy with how it turned out. Everything has held up really well and we are hard on our cabinets. Make sure you do a rough sand on those panels before priming.

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/products/white-pigmented-shellac-primer

Thank you guys for the replies! I hear you guys on the kitchen paint. We recently moved in and I absolutely hate it. Only reason I haven't painted the walls yet is because these walls seem to be sponge painted, so I would need to sand down all the walls before painting 😭 A lot of my family advised me to first paint the cabinets and see if I can live with the paint color, otherwise change it. I know painting the cabinets is a lot of work, someone even said it might take me 4 months of weekends to do them. All I know is this kitchen needs a lot of work. More feedback or advise is highly appreciated!!

My plan to paint the cabinets so far is sand them all, fill the oak grain with wood filler, sand again, couple coats of primer then paint. I watched a lot of tutorials and videos on painting cabinets, and I feel prepared to tackle it. Only thing I am unsure about is the sides.

You can paint over sponge paint. It will leave a slight texture on the walls, but, with a coat of good quality primer and 2 good coats of eggshell finish paint, it should actually look decent.

My husband and I spent about 60 hours painting our kitchen cabinets, and did not do interiors. We have slightly less cabinetry than you. That was without wood filler. It produced just okay results, an obvious diy job. I can’t recall if the 60 hours included remounting the doors, which was much more of a task than it seemed like it should be. It’s a lot of work. Painting your kitchen would be a tiny amount of the time and trouble that painting your cabinets would be.

So my curiosity got the best of me and I started peeling the paper above the stove. The stuff behind it does look and feel like some kind of wood, but definitely not oak. Looks like oil splatters made it through the paper.

@Fori that's a good idea. I will look more into that. I just started diy'ing. My first project was sanding and staining + painting oak banisters and spindles. I actually did good! But I haven't worked with wood paneling yet.

I attached more pics of what I see behind the paper. Do you think I could paint that? Also any paint recommendations for the walls? You guys have convinced me! I might paint the walls first after all.

Looks like particle board or MDF or similar. You might be able to seal it and then paint it. But it won't look nice without a lot of work. But somebody peeled it so you have to do something with it now. :)

I would do the walls anyway. I would do them yellow because that's who I am. I'm sure you will get better color suggestions.

It's like a type of Masonite, or pressed cardboard as I mentioned earlier.

@Fori lol I only peeled it because it was already loose from the stove heat. Good thing is this was the only one side in the entire kitchen that was peeling. Atleast now I know what's underneath it! Thanks for the suggestion I will check how I can seal it and paint it.

Yes definitely gonna paint the walls first

I also am considering your thin wood paneling suggestion for those mdf sides. That sounds like a better idea than just painting over it

I would get the drywall texture paint stuff and add a layer rather than sanding the current texture off. But I'm a weirdo that enjoys skim coating (not that you could tell it from my walls though!).