Unhappy with the shine on my painted laminate cabinets!

Make sure they are clean and dry. Remove the doors and hardware. Mark the doors and cabinets with tape where they go. Lightly sand the doors and cabinets to remove any gloss and roughen the surface for paint with 120- to 220-grit sandpaper. Use a tack cloth or damp rag to remove dust after sanding. Prime with a stain blocking primer like Zinsser 123, KILZ,or BIN and have it tinted to the color of the top coat. This will prevent dark or stained surfaces from showing through the top coat. Acrylic, or water-base, paints are low-fume and clean up easily with water. Alkyd, or oil-base, paints require good ventilation because the paint contains solvents that can irritate your lungs and make you feel sick. Alkyd options require mineral spirits for cleanup, but they provide a hard, durable paint finish. Whichever you use, buy the best-quality paint you can afford for a lasting kitchen cabinet finish. Seal with at least three coats with a water based polyurethane. Use a small foam roller and foam brush for a smooth finish.

Liquid Sandpaper? Wow, that's a new one on me. Now I will definitely check that out.

In paint, there is "flat", egg-shell, semi-gloss, satin, and gloss. I don't know if it is true for polyurethhane.

They do make a matte poly but I've never used it as its supposed to be harder to clean..... https://www.amazon.com/Varathane-262075-Clear-Finish-Polyurethane/dp/B00RZYBZ9Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1511372853&sr=8-2&keywords=polyurethane+matte

Maybe do a test with 2 small cans of satin and matte poly on one door to make the decision.

Something that might look real on trend is to do a black on black paint treatment using either a flat black for your design or some gorgeous black metallic/pearl for the design. https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Masters-ME700-06-Metallic-6-Ounce/dp/B01IU6U690/ref=sr_1_8?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1511373656&sr=1-8&keywords=black+pearl+paint

I would use frog tape to tape off your design so you can be sure to get real crisp lines with no bleed under the tape.

Hi Mary,

I felt the same way Mary, scared to death to mess up the already ugly pink cabinets. But I did a lot of researching on this and followed a recipe that was revealed on this site. For the most part (except for the shine) it was a success. First, I removed the doors (be sure and number them) I did not remove the hardware from the doors just from the cabinet base. First I cleaned the doors with Totally Awesome Cleaner from the dollar store. I am not sure what is in that product but it really does cut through grease and grime. I lightly sanded the laminate just to rough up the surface a bit and I painted on 4 coats of Black Chalk Paint (Walmart around $6.00). I let each coat dry totally which doesn't take that long with Chalk paint. I did the same with the base of the cabinets. Here is where I made the (shine) mistake... thinking that the shiny poly would be easier to clean I applied 4 coats of poly to each of the doors and the base of the cabinets. This took forever to do (or so it seamed). I live in Florida and due to the humidity it took awhile for the doors to cure before adding the next coat of poly, there were days when the surface was still a little tacky after waiting 24 hours so I waited 48 hours (I did the poly in the screened in porch due to the fumes.)

I used a sanding block (I don't know what the grit was but it was a soft sanding block) after each coat of poly I lightly and I mean very lightly sanded the imperfections before applying the next coat of poly. Sometimes dust or little particles of whatever would adhere to the poly so this was necessary.

After 4 coats of poly I used a straight edge razor blade to scrape off the paint and poly that got on the back of the doors. Fortunately the inside of the cabinets and the back of the doors were white so I only had to do the front of the doors (and the base of the cabinets)

Thank goodness I numbered the cabinets (this is so important) you want to make sure they all go back where they belong, otherwise it would have been a nightmare putting them back together. Hung the doors back up and I thought it looked great until night time when the lights were on, the shine on the cabinets are blinding and it does not look good, in my opinion - looks great during the day when the lights are off, but evening when the lights are on it looks awful. I did this project last Christmas so it has been almost 1 year and it has not grown on me at all. If I had it to do all over I would have used a satin poly or "dead flat" which I did not know even existed. I have included pictures so you could see the process I went through. This project took about a month to complete due to the drying time and the fact that I usually have about 5 projects going at the same time. It might be quicker if you totally devote all your time getting this done, but you can't rush the drying time. Now that I am armed with some solutions to the shine, when I get done with my paper bag floors in the bedrooms I will do something about the glossy look. Don't be afraid to paint the cabinets, it certainly can be done!

I just tried to pull up all the pictures I took of this project and much to my chagrin I only have five.