Painting Kitchen Cupboards - Specialist Co?

A

amrb

Registered User
Messages
10
Can anyone recommend a company who maybe specialises in painting kitchen cupboards? I am reluctant to try it myself and would like to get someone who has experience doing it. thanks.
 
Hi amrb,

I got someone to do mine about 3 years ago and he did a fantastic job. The paint has not chipped once on the kitchen doors in that time. The chap I got has city and guilds in interior decorating paint. It was about E800 3 years ago but I got a completely new kitchen - I could pass on the number - where are you based? it sometimes is hard to get him
 
This is a difficult painting job to perform, unless you are very confident in your paining skills, i wouldnt attempt it. Get a qualified and recommended painter to paint them for you if your not going to tackle it yourself.

If you decide to have a go at it, then especially if they are fairly used cupboards. Wash them thouroughly with sugarsoap so that the surface is free from grease, grime and dirt. Then apply some 'esp', which will allow the paint to stick to the surface correctly and reduce chipping and flaking on your cupboards. This is a must, here is a link to the product i am [broken link removed] talking about.

It will prob take 3 coats anyways to cover depending on the colour.

Goodluck!
 
Hi amrb,

This chap is based in carlow -it'd probably work out too expensive for him to travel but as philboy says I think it is a specialist job - your average painter and no disrespect to any of them but I know of people who got it done like this and the paint all chipped away. The guy I got had a girl helping him and he was here for most to the week between sanding, sugar soaping undercoat several times then several overcoats.

best of luck
 
Hi angela,
Not meaning to hijack the post but I will be looking for a painter with similar skills, and I am in Carlow so I wonder could you PM the painter's contact no. to me please.
 
The reason that paint chips off is because it has not stuck to the old finish which is usually cellulose thinners based. If it`s just your doors you are painting and they is made of wood not a composite. You could strip all the old finish (varnish) off the doors with a paint stripper then get a painter to paint them or paint them yourself ensuring that you apply a proper base coat to the raw wood. My experience has been to use oil based paints are best for a long lasting result and if you get bored with the colour you can change it easily
 
I am just about to start painting a kitchen. It is made from pine, looks like it was hand made, has a pine frame. I have just taken all the doors off and am about to sugar soap. The finish looks like some kind of ronseal type stuff. Should I strip it or just sand, prime and repaint ?
 
If its just an old based varnish on the doors you should be able to key the surface then re paint but if its one of those funny spray on finishes then you`ll have to strip the old finish off then paint from scratch. To save time and energy its best to just do the fronts of the doors and leave the backs. Masking tape around the outside edge of the back of the door stops any over spill. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for that S.L.F. I took one of the doors to the paint factory in celbridge today and they gave me something called "e.s.p". They thought that the finish had been sprayed on. I have sugar soaped and put this stuff on and am about to start painting with an undercoat, Does this stuff work? It seems to be something similar to what philboy mentioned earlier in the thread. I was just going to paint the front of the doors first off to see how it looks, most painted furniture seems to have just the outside painted.
 
The problem is that it can take just as long to strip a door as to apply esp the difference is that stripping a door of the old finish guarantees a result. Although I have used esp in the past to do jobs its just as fast for me to strip a door then repaint.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Once you are sure that ALL the dirt and grime is removed from the suface, then it is ok to apply the esp and then paint. It works well, once the surface is clean it seriously reduces the chances of chipping. Follow the earlier mentioned advice of masking off around area of the cabinets that you are not painting. This early prep work is time consuming at the beginning but well worth it, especially since it will prob take 3 coats. Dont forget to go back and look over the previously painted areas after about half an hour and check for areas where the paint has run and brush these back in.
I disagree, stripping the door takes a lot longer than applying esp, which is fairly simple and straight forward. Just follow the instructions
 
The esp took very little time to apply. I washed the doors very thoroughly with sugar soap (twice!) This was also easy enough. Have now started undercoating, decided to do back and front of doors in the end as I had cleaned and esp'd. Painting is definately the most difficult and time consuming bit. Took me 2 hours to do the front of 5 doors, and not really any satisfaction from it as the doors were a very dark colour to start with and the undercoat hasn't completely covered. It will probably need more than 2 coats of eggshell.
 
Do not over-paint the doors, The first coat may look cr*p. Thats natural with such a dark colour underneath, just apply a regular amount of paint and then allow to dry, give a day between each 'oil-based' coating. To allow for proper drying time, over-painting the door will also cause runs of paint and un-even application so even though its boring and highly time-consuming. Taking your time and applying it coat by coat will achieve the best results.
 
Thanks for that, I'm aiming to just to do one coat on four or five doors per day, if you stay at it too long you get bored and start trying to rush it. The undercoat does indeed look cr*p but I've managed to avoid runs. Do I give it a light sanding before going on to the next coat? I have a 2" brush at the minute but think it might be better to use a smaller one for the eggshell.
 
If you find it easier with a small one then i'd get a small one, you can try it out anyway and see if its any easier. If there any lumps in the wood or little 'nips' then you can sand it. If it feels very rough then you can sand it, otherwise there is no real need. Ya if your not in a rush, then take your time and do it bit by bit. Tedious job alright.
 
I think this thread gives some great tips, does anyone know if this process would work with non-wood doors at all?
 
Yes, it should work on most surfaces.

My preferred primer is Zinnser shellac based BIN primer (not 123), two coats of that and you should have an excellent base on which to apply your two coats of an oil based eggshell paint.

I reckon any decent painter should be able to paint wooden doors... if the paint is chipping off a repainted kitchen then it hasn't been done correctly.. if it hasn't been done correctly why assume the doors were the problem and not the painter?

Painting isn't rocket science... if there are no contaminants on the doors (i.e oil, grease, dirt etc) and you use a specialist primer designed for the purpose and a high quality top coat I can't see what the problem would be... (although there are good and bad techniques, and wrong ways to paint a door... center panel done first vertically, then horizontal 'rails', finally vertical 'stiles'... when using oil based paints you can bate on the paint and then do a final light brush over in the order I've described to leave the correct brush marks, not possible with the BIN primer as it dries too quickly, don't rebrush it)

It is of course good advice to check back on previously painted doors at intervals.. i.e after second door, check first one for runs... after third door check previous two etc etc... it only takes a few seconds to look them over and it is time well spent if you can rebrush out a run before it dries...

Tesco are selling very cheap brushes which work well and don't lose bristles. Only 2 euro for a 3 inch brush which is fantastic value.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top