How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets With Velvet Finishes

Are your cabinets looking old and dated? Then let me share with you How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets with Velvet Finishes. It's a game changer.
I'll show you why. I'm sure many of you know Jenna from Rain on a Tin Roof. Jenna is an avid DIYer with a penchant for bold colors. She's a little crazy, ok maybe a lot crazy. And she does fabulous projects with Velvet Finishes! Here's one of my favoritesher liquor cabinet makeover.
This was done with Velvet Finishes Vivid. Gorgeous, right? Jenna and I live about 30 miles apart. Let the trouble begin. So we paint together.
I look a little wacko in this pictureno telling what Jenna had said. We shop together.
She is totally crazy/normal! We drink together. There will be no pictures of that. But earlier this year, we redid her kitchen together. So, here's how you Paint Kitchen Cabinets with Velvet Finishes! Jenna and her husband, a.k.a. Grunt Labor, bought a foreclosure that needed quite a bit of work. They removed the wall that divided the kitchen and the den to open up the space. They painted everything a neutral white to make it livable, knowing there would be style evolutions. This is the kitchen while it was white. Pretty, but not Jenna's true style. It needed color.
Enter Velvet Finishes. Jenna wanted to do two colors, Minimalistic (white) for the upper cabinets and Handsome (navy) for the lower cabinets. A quick note about Minimalistic: First of all it's gorgeous. And it's gorgeous because it is a pure white tint. There are no undertones of blue or yellow or peach or pink. It's true white. Because there are barely any pigments needed to create this, it is thin. Minimalistic usually requires 4 coats. Is it worth it? Yes. If you look at the before picture, you will see a slight blue tint on Jenna's white cabinets. That is not lighting, the blue is the tint of the white. Whites are tricky. And that is why I wanted a pure white. Because in paintwhite is never white. So how'd we do it?
Velvet Finishes is an easy 1-2-3 system.


READY - COLOUR - ENHANCE


Step one is to prepare your surface: READY. Ready is our cleaner and deglosser spray product. Spray it on, let it sit for a minute, wipe it off with a lint free rag. Can't get much simpler than that.


Sanding and priming is a thing of the past with Ready. Never say never, but I will say rarely. Sometimes, especially with old pieces, you might have to sand a little or use a primer if there is a stain that bleeds through paint, but 99 out of a 100 times, the Ready will handle your prep. We do recommend that you do this process twice for cabinetry.


Step two is to paint: COLOUR. Slap it on. Velvet Finishes is very forgiving. If I can paint with this paint, anyone can! Allow paint to dry thoroughly between coats.


Step three is to protect your finish: ENHANCE. I definitely recommend that you use Protect or Glaze on cabinetry. Cabinets take a lot of use and abuse. Protect is our polyacrylic and the Glaze acts like a sealer. Use one or the other. You can skip this for furniture, depending on the amount of use your piece gets. However, I use Protect or the Glaze on everything I paint because we are rough!


A little recap of the process: We removed the doors of the cabinetry and prepared them with Ready. We did not remove the food or pots and pans out of the cabinets so instead of spraying the Ready, we sprayed it on a rag, then wiped down the frames. We used Frog Tape to tape around the frames against the wall and floor. We painted the doors and frames.
These doors have two coats of Handsome. We then applied Protect. Using poly is never easy. It can streak. The Protect product is a slightly higher sheen than the paint so when I poly the darker colors, I always tint the Protect with a little bit of the paint. It makes it easier and allows me to apply the Protect as quickly as I do the paint.
Jenna is applying the tinted Protect. We changed the hardware and Jenna chose gorgeous brass pulls from D. Lawless Hardware.
We got Grunt Labor involved. And we laughed a lot.
I'm sure The Handler had said something completely inappropriate. That's Brandon, our video guy, in the background. AND THAT'S IT!!! This video shows the entire process of us painting Jenna's kitchen. Click the photo to watch.
Be sure to watch the bloopers!!!!! If you are ready for a change, I hope you are inspired to paint with Velvet Finishes!!
Kellie from Design Asylum Blog
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  1 question
Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 29 comments
  • Geana Geana on Oct 07, 2015
    Does this product work on thermofoil? Its is similar to laminate.
    • @Geana Hi there! I just did a kitchen last week that was made of this and it turned out perfect. I lightly sanded the doors with with a medium grit sanding block before I used the Ready product. Super easy. You can email me at hello@velvetfinishes.com and I can help you figure out paint quantity, etc if you like. The cabinet was 25 doors and we used less than $100 worth of product. They were white and we painted them light gray and glazed in a custom made black glaze. They turned out gorgeous. Thanks for reaching out!
  • Janice Janice on Oct 21, 2015
    Hi, Would this product work on pressed wood or fiber board?
    • @Janice It sure will Janice! Should be the same basic process. Email me at hello@velvetfinishes.com and we can discuss. Send a photo if you like. Thanks!
Next