As you may know, one of my favorite things to do is brighten up a room with white paint. I just finished bringing my dark kitchen cabinets to life, and am so happy with the results! It’s important for a kitchen to feel bright and inviting because it’s a center for entertainment and a central hub of the home. For this reason, I wanted to transform mine into a space that I genuinely loved to be in. Plus, our countertops stand out so much more with a white background!
So how did I transform these dark wooden cabinets, you might ask? Well, first I removed the cabinets and sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper. Sand them just enough to remove the top layer of sealer and give the primer something rough to adhere to. Remember to sand with the grain.
Then I took them outside to spray paint them with a layer of this primer. As for the actual paint color I used one of my favorite paints, Benjamin Moore OC-149, Decorator’s White. I placed the cabinets on a tarp to spray them with my trusty HomeRight paint sprayer linked here. This is my absolute FAVORITE paint sprayer and can be used for all sorts of projects.
To be completely transparent, removing the cabinets and spraying them outside did not work out for me. The tarp actually came off on the cabinets, so I moved them onto cardboard boxes. The cardboard boxes stuck to the paint. I ended up hand-painted the cabinets from this point on. I recommend leaving the cabinets up and hand-painting them, or using a dropcloth if you remove them to spray outside. It’s definitely less work to hand-paint the cabinets without removing them, and the end results are pretty much the same. If you do it by hand, you can use a paintbrush but roller on top for a spray-painted look. Hey, everyone makes mistakes, and it’s all about learning and improving! Was it frustrating? Absolutely. Was the work still worth it? Absolutely. I would just skip taking them off and hand paint next time.
SPRAY GUN TIPS:
If you do choose to go the route of using a paint sprayer, when using regular paint, add a bit of water to the gun. If the paint looks too watery coming out, add some more paint. Make sure the gun is pointed backward. Sometimes, the nose of the gun gets stopped up with paint, but I just use my finger to clear it. The gun is fantastic and saves lots of time with painting, but cleanup may take a bit longer.
We could not be more pleased with the progress we are making in our kitchen so far! Our pendant lights can be found at Wayfair and our stools at World Market.
Thank you for joining us on this fun renovation! On to the next project!
Love following your progress on transforming your new home!