Painting kitchen cupboard doors.

[Thandeka]

Hello,
Considering offering on a house which has a new kitchen but don't like the cupboard doors at all. Since it is new we ain't about to rip it out and replace it. (Trying to find out if cupboard doors are solid wood or laminate as guess this will affect the question!).

I have seen some fantastic efforts for brand new looking kitchens simply by painting the doors (and I guess any woodwork that shows on the carcasses) with special kitchen cupboard paint (after proper sanding prep and priming). Has anyone done this? Is it a complete ballache to do? (I will have a newborn from feb so probably completely wrong time to do it!) is it something a painter/decorator could do?

I guess it depends what you don't like about the doors. If it's the shape, trim etc., then it will prob be easier to change the doors (usually standard sizes). If it's just the colour then you could paint them.

shape, trim etc is fine it is just it is the wood colour I can't stand. I did think about just changing the doors but the trouble is the dividing wall of some of the carcasses is in the same wood colour (which can be seen at all times too) so how would I solve that?

I think I would like them in a matt white or cream. Or maybe I particularly hate them becuase they are one colour and the laminate floor the current owners put down is another wood colour and the kitchen is a sea of wood and I don't like it! We would probably get rid of the laminate floor at some point too.

Am pulling up a chair and observing with interest - we're stuck with an awful 80s orange pine kitchen that isn't worth spending 'new doors' money on, as at some point in the next 2 years we'll be ripping it out and starting from scratch. Only I spend a lot of time in here, and at the moment it feels like I'm on the set of 'Butterflies'.

Is it worth getting a decorator in to paint the units, or can someone with minimum DIY skills get a reasonable finish with the right paint? And what is that right paint? And how much will it cost?

We changed the doors on our old kitchen cupboards. DH made some from MDF and we painted them with an eggshell finish. The actual painting was easy if rather time-consuming.

I've done it twice. once on a laminate kitchen and onc eon a horrid yellow pine kitchen. The key is absolutely in the preparation and here are my handy hints:

1. Remove the doors and the handles - if you try to paint rond the hinges/handles it'll look crap.
2. Clean them really thoroughly and sand lightly to get a key
3. Prime them using an oil-based primer. You could probably get away with a water-based one on pine, but not on laminate.
4. paint them using eggshell/gloss. You don't need to use special kitchen cupboard paint. I've used both B&Q colours and F&B eggshell so both ends of the price spectrum.
5. Give them a coat of clear varnish over the paint (you can get it in matt, silk or gloss, so whatever finish you want). This step is quite important IMO as it makes them much tougher and less likely to scratch or chip.

And yes, it is a bit of a ballache - depends how big the kitchen is really.

Yes, I did this with solid oak kitchen doors. It was v time consuming as I took them off, laid them on the floor & did a thorough preparation job plus two coats of oil based paint (F&B). It was worth the faffing though, they look really good and won't need doing again for at least another 5 years (did them 2 yrs ago).

Dunno about laminate, that may be a bit dodgy

Wildfig, you can certainly do them yourself. If you're replacing the kitchen in a few years anyway, I don't think it would be worth paying a professional to do it.

Just do maybe 4 doors at a time.

I did (counts)24 doors over an Easter fortnight.

we mini rollered some GREEN solid wood doors
just mini rollered in situ but with handles off

just had a new kitchen painted by professionals and they kept the doors on

i would do it again - transformed out kitchen

Agree with Midnight express. Pine paints up beautifully. I repainted the doors from a kitchen my parents took out from their house. IIRC I used some kind of special primer - Easy Surface Prep? followed by F&B undercoat and 2 coats F&B eggshell. that was after taking the doors off and cleaning them with Cif to get the grease off. I didn't varnish over.

There is a very good kind of primer called Zinsser B.I.N. which goes over anything, which might be a good starter for melamine. You can paint anything over it too. Probably need to get it from a trade decorating shop, also get yourself a good quality brush.

I really think it's a false economy to get cheap paint, expect to spend £50-£100 to get a result which is cleanable.

I am stuck in orange pine kitchen hell again in this house but the doors are so fiddly and moulded I don't fancy them even painted. Do you think they will come back into fashion soon?

blimey, thanks - that's food for thought. Might see if I can persuade handy M-i-L to do it for me show me how it's done.

I had a kitchen painted yellow (oak carcasses underneath) that we had redecorated in blue. The decorator cleaned, sanded and painted a couple of coats of Dulux satinwood paint (matched to a F&B coulour) as you would a normal door. Was recommended by F&B not to use oil based paint - not sure why. It is pretty fiddly because of drawers, cupboard doors, skirtingsm,cooker hoods etc so I wouldn't want to have done it myself. Would also have worried about getting as smooth a finish if I had done it myself. Then put new handles on and it looked like a new kitchen. We didn't varnish, in fact were advised not to as it could get a yellow tinge over time.

Lucysmum you were recommended by F & B not to use oil eggshell, because they are not going to sell/make oil eggshell after the end of 2009. They now have Estate eggshell which is water based.
Painting wooden doors is fine, as long as you give them a good clean and a light sand to give a key, the best effect is achieved by doing several (at least 2 maybe 3) thin coats of paint and using a primer/undercoat first.
A good quality eggshell should not need a coat of varnish on top, but if you wanted to be extra, extra careful you could do this.
Your kitchen will be transformed, so it is worth the time and effort.
I work in a shop that sells paint, so get asked this all the time.