I live in a doublewide my kitchen cabinets are chipped. What can I do?

Ronda Eudy
by Ronda Eudy
  4 answers
  • William William on May 09, 2017

    Paint! 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. Prime with a stain blocking primer like Zinsser 123. Then paint with your color. Seal with at least three coats with a water based polyurethane. Use a small foam roller and foam brush for a smooth finish.

  • Victoria Victoria on May 09, 2017

    I also live in a double wide. When I moved in it was a mess! Faux wood cabinets with real wood doors. I removed all cabinet doors in the house and scrubbed them . I painted with chalk paint, no sanding needed! replaced all knobs and hinges with new ones. The faux wood cabinets were ruined with water that made them swell, I sanded them, painted with primer and then chalk paint. Then I paste waxed all cabinets.

    I removed some of the doors from the kitchen cabinets and made open shelving. I added a narrow trim to the edges of the shelves. I used bead board wallpaper on the ends of the bath cabinets and on insets.

    Three years later they still look like new and I am very pleased.

    Good luck, you can do this!

  • Cynthia Cynthia on May 09, 2017

    all of these ideas are great, but to fix chips, use paintable wood filler and sand thoroughly. New paint will make the old new again! Good luck!

  • Debbie Debbie on May 10, 2017

    Good luck with your project!  We live in a small 1995 doublewide with those infamous "vinyl laminate" cabinets. They aren't really laminate....they are actually are thermofoil, which is a type of vinyl or adhesive paper-like wrap applied with heat. To remove it, I took a blow dryer to a loose edge (a heat gun would have been MUCH better but you work with what you have) and removed the thermofoil, with the heat and a scraper, off the doors that had the most damage. Luckily, the cabinet boxes were still in good shape, so I only lightly sanded them to give them some tooth for the primer to hold on to. It's not a fast process, but I am completely over the moon happy with the results! My steps were as follows:

    1.Remove thermofoil . (If you choose not to remove the thermofoil, use wood glue to glue down the loose edges and let dry thoroughly or in the case of deeper damage use paintable wood filler as Cynthia (above) suggested.

    **2.Sand, Sand, Sand; remove dust with damp cloth and let dry. If you leave the thermofoil on, sand only lightly so that you don't do further damage.

    3,Prime with Zinsser primer (blue label)

    4.Sand lightly; damp cloth and dry

    5. Prime again if needed

    6.Sand lightly; damp cloth and dry.

    7. Paint with latex or good quality cabinet paint. I couldn't afford it so I used latex semi-gloss.

    8. I chose to apply a coat of Polycrylic (blue label). It's been a year since we moved in and I don't have to scrub hard to wipe down spills and handprints---just wipe.