Painting Kitchen Cabinets!

Elizabeth Fencl
by Elizabeth Fencl
3 Materials
$200
5 Days
Easy

My husband and I have been busy since April doing some home improvements to our cottage that were long over due. These before pictures are from 11 years ago when we bought our cottage on a lake (the lovely table and chairs were included with the cottage). Our cottage is a manufactured home and was new to the property in 1999, we fondly call it our double wide on the lake. My first project upon moving in was to plaster all the walls in the cottage. I had never done this before, but the tedious hard work paid off and the walls turned out great.

Some manufactured homes are put together inexpensively and the cheapest products are used when constructed...ours is one of them. We found this out when our granddaughter decided to peel off the "paper/plastic whatever you call it" on the front of the cabinet door. The paper gave the cabinet its stained wood look. We had another door to replace that one to buy us time until I painted.

After cleaning all the cabinets then sanding and peeling little strips at a time, I came up with the idea to use a heat gun to peel off the paper.

I would heat the wood slowly and start peeling the paper. By staying ahead a little bit and continuing to heat the wood you can peel it all off in big strips. If you get to close to the paper you are pulling (with the heat gun), the paper will melt and rip. No big deal, you just heat and continue on.

This was actually kind of fun seeing how quickly it all came off by using the heat gun.

Twenty five doors and eight drawers to go...

This is the corner cabinet that I did a post on the "Pencil Shiplap Wall" back in February. It was called winter boredom in Wisconsin and I couldn't resist trying this and really did like how it turned.

Wow, what a darn MESS...I love it! Of course, once you take off the doors, spring cleaning kicks in and reorganizing cupboards starts...

Ignore the cord hanging down, that is for the twinkle lights up above that I forgot to push up into the cupboard for the picture.

I primed the cabinets with Zinsser first then used Benjamin Moore Advanced paint in White Dove and loved it. I would recommend this paint to anyone who is going to paint cabinets. It self levels, and is a strong paint, I love how easy it was to work with. I also replaced all the brass hardware. I will be doing another post with pictures on how I painted those awesome green counter tops to look like granite. Stay tuned!

Resources for this project:
Primer I had on hand
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 46 questions
  • Elizabeth Elizabeth on Jul 28, 2019

    What are the instructions to paint on glass (what to use and is there is primer)?

  • Lisaalley91 Lisaalley91 on Aug 04, 2019

    I love it, I'm getting ready to remodel kitchen and I'm not sure if it will peel but I'm going to try it,if it doesn't I have alot of sanding to do. My walls are white paneling and I'm not sure if white cabinets will look good!? However anything is better than the color of golden stain


  • Bev Bev on Jul 28, 2020

    Did you peel the plastic off the cabinets too? If so, did you have to empty the cabinets to do it?

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  • Sherry Sherry on Jul 29, 2020

    Are the cabinet boxes real wood? Mine are pressed board and I’m wondering if I just paint them after peeling the plastic “wood” covering, what would the finish look like? I’m thinking this would not work for my cabinet boxes. Thanks!

    • See 1 previous
    • Sherry Sherry on Jul 30, 2020

      Thank you! I’m going to get some paint and primer to try it!

  • Jen Jen on Feb 13, 2021

    THANK YOU! Not enough posts on manufactured homes here. I am finally getting ready to take on mine...Sadly the doors are wood but the base is some sort of melamine crap. Ratty after 25 years so wish me luck

    • Elizabeth Fencl Elizabeth Fencl on Feb 13, 2021

      Wow! Thank you! Good luck on your project, it's a lot of work but so worth it in the end!

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