A DIY Guide to Painting Kitchen Cabinets!
The question I probably get asked the most is “how in the world did you get your cabinets to look like that?!” No joke. I get it at least three times a day. So today, I wanted to answer that question and share how we turned some BORING BUILDER’S GRADE cabinets INTO CUSTOM LOOKING cabinets! My DIY guide to painting cabinets is only 7 steps! And believe it or not, it is truly DIY-able:)
My DIY Guide for Painting Cabinets
- Remove doors and hardware
- Paint with primer and leave for 24 hours
- Paint with first coat of paint and wait 24 hours
- Repeat step 3
- Lightly distress edges /clean dust off
- Wipe Jacobean stain on with a rag and then immediately wipe off in the same direction with a different rag.
- Hint: stain will take stain off so don’t go back over same spot with stain rag and don’t go in another direction.
- Another Tip: wet wipes clean stain off of anything!!!
- Wait 2 weeks (I know, I know but do it) before getting cabinets wet. After stain is dry you can add doors back on:)
Please 
Don’t 
Judge
After removing the doors and painting with primer 
My farmhouse sink!!! 
That awful 24 hour waiting period
This is the paint that we used. The color I used is called Drifting Snow. (Don't you just love paint names? lol) It's an off white color by Glidden paint. We got it at Home Depot I think. Nothing fancy. :)
And this is my kitchen now! I know! Can you believe those are builders grade cabinets?! A total 360, right?! And all it took was a fresh coat of paint! My kitchen is now the place where me and my family want to spend all of our time. We spend a majority of our quality time gathered around the kitchen table (as I’m sure most of your families do as well), and so I really wanted to make it a space you wanted to be in.
As I’ve mentioned on here before, I have a tiny house. Besides just being our kitchen, this space also serves as the main entryway for our friends & family. So, painting these cabinets not only made our kitchen more comfortable but made our guests, and our whole house, a little bit brighter, too:)
One last little tip…
swap out the old hardware! This isn’t completely necessary but is a very nice finishing touch. Our new hardware was provided by the SUPER GENEROUS LOVELY people over at D Lawless Hardware! I loved working with them and had to give them a little shoutout. 😉 Go check them out on Instagram or at: www.dlawlesshardware.com
And that is my simple DIY guide on painting cabinets! Thanks for reading!!! I hope this was helpful! Always feel free to reach out!!:) I hope you come back and see what’s happening on our little hobby farm Down Shiloh Road;)
7 Comments
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Jaymie
Very pretty! Lots of good tips I’ll keep in mind when we aren’t in a rental!
downshilohroad
Thank you, Jaymie!! And I hope that it can help you whenever you do get “your” place! You can definitely do everything I did
Janine
Beautiful! I was one of those people bugging you about your cabinets before the blog!
I have 2, 14 year old boys who are in the kitchen constantly and eating and they aren’t neat! I am concerned about sealing the cabinets after the stain. Did you use anything and if not, how are they holding up?
Thanks!
downshilohroad
Thank you, Janine! I have 5 kids, so I feel ya about the state of the kitchen!! The stain sells them though! You may need to be a little careful the first two weeks, but after that, let the boys be boys
Marie
Thank you Jenn for this DIY info. It will help when we get around to painting out cabinets at the cabin. Yours are a true inspiration .
downshilohroad
Oh, thank you, Marie!!! I really hope it makes the process less daunting for you! You got this