A couple weeks ago we outlined our Spring project lineup. One of the biggest buckets of work is home renovations and DIY cabinet painting is for sure on the list. We can’t afford to tear out all existing cabinets and why would we? With solid construction and a little wear, our cabinets will be revitalized with a pop of color & new top coat.
Homework is good for you
The DIY community loves to share projects and How-To guides. Odds are whatever your project is, someone else has tried it and either been successful or had a few hard learned lessons. I like to read both kinds. Tips for a successful project are great as well as finding honest DIY’ers that choose to share ‘oops’ moments so I don’t have to repeat them.
DIY Cabinet Painting plan
There are two different camps of cabinet painters – those that spray and those that hand paint with brushes and rollers. I will be in the second group and hand painting the cabinets. I have three different rooms the cabinets are in – kitchen, baths and laundry room. To make the process most efficient, I’m using the same technique for all three sets. Even though the kitchen will get the most use, we’ll ensure the highest level of finishing is done to hold up to all levels of usage. Better to have a stronger finish than damage and rework needed sooner than later.
Learn from others!
Find examples
The first thing I did was head to the internet and look for articles on DIY cabinet painting. Wow – there are lots! I read some fabulous ones and others that were more pictures and little insight to the actual process. The articles that really detailed the steps as well as shared some ‘what not to do moments’ were the ones I zeroed in on. To help keep them all in one place, I chose to add them to one of the nluv Pinterest boards named DIY Renovation Tips, Tricks & Ideas. This way I can easily find them once I get started and others can utilize them as well for their DIY efforts.
The game plan on paper
You have to start somewhere and there’s no better place than to sketch out your initial game plan. These steps will be your guide as you start but make sure you take notes on how each step goes in case you need to make corrections. Anything you learn along the way will help someone else if you choose to share your DIY cabinet painting experience with others. We will be sharing for sure!
Our rough nluv Studio game plan:
