Painting kitchen cupboard doors

[soxboy]

Just moved house and before we go to the trouble (and expense) of fitting new kitchen doors, we thought we'd have a go at painting the units.

We've seen spray paints that market themselves as specific for the job, however I wondered if there was any other way of doing it which would give a better finish?

The units are pine, we want white/ off white doors to give a shaker look. The carcasses are really strong, hence we would prefer to paint or replace the doors rather than the whole lot.

[herbialfa]

B & Q etc do a Melamine paint for doors!

I've did it before and never had any problems! Apart from you can see the brush strokes!

But it looked good!

[dtmpower]

Brushing won't look professional unless you spend lots of time sanding it afterwards.

Consider getting the fronts sprayed or buying a small spray gun and doing it yourself. You will need to thoroughly degrease and prepare the surface first. Do you want to keep the grain effect or have it high gloss ?

[RichB]

I had new kitchen fitted a few years ago and it was professionally fitted and painted. The units came in off-white. The artist (seems unfair to call him a painter) then gave them a rub down to make a key and two coats of magnolia base. Then he mixed a shade of pale yellow that my wife chose and painted a few more coats of that and then finally 'aged' them with a darker watery paint that was almost a nicotine colour. Then topped that lot off with a few coats of semi-matt clear glaze brush strokes are irrelivent because it is an distressed finish. A most excellent job and very impressive. I've since had him back to do rooms in my house he's a true artisan with a brush!

[Solitude]

its all about the undercoat !!!

[Eviltwin]

I used some of this stuff when I did our pine kitchen doors a few years ago,

http://www.diytools.co.uk/diy/Main/sp-44-11711-437...

Took the doors off and laid them flat to reduce the chance of runs, managed to get an almost glass smooth finish. Used a Dulux oil based satin finish in a cream colour, gardenia i think.

[soxboy]

Looking for not too glossy, perhaps more of a matt finish. Going to have a go on the fireplace first, if that doesn't work then may go down the professional route.

[freecar]

The problem with satin or matt finish on woodwork is it attracts dirt. Especially on drawers you'll get dirty hand marks and they tend to not be the hardwearing fully washable types too so repainting frequently is the key!