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What a DIY kitchen cabinets project this was! When we moved into our house in the summer of 2022, I knew there were going to be a lot of projects for us to make the house ours. This was one we were excited to do. We like the countertops in the kitchen and they are in great condition so we decided to bring the cabinets out of the 80s. I started with some other projects like getting the walls painted and we had the flooring replaced. Once those were finished, it was time to prepare to paint the kitchen cabinets. 

This also was a huge mental load to take on because your kitchen is sort of torn apart for a while as you are doing the project. Please remember that if you want to refinish your cabinets, this is a huge project and will take time and patience. There are many steps to take before you even start painting. I’ll go through all the steps we took and any tips we learned along the way so they may help you when you DIY kitchen cabinets. 

1. Organize Cabinet Door

Before you take the doors off and start sanding everything down, number the doors to which cabinet they go. I used painter’s tape and put a piece on the inside of each door and the inside of the cabinet. Each one coordinated so we never lost which one went where. 

2. Remove Hardware

Remove the hardware, hinges, and knobs, place them in a baggy or bin, and number each to go with the door and cabinet they belong to. This helped us so much when it was time to put all the cabinets back together. 

3. Protect Contents Inside Cabinet

If you are removing items from the cabinets and will be painting the inside of them, I recommend getting boxes and placing each item in the box then numbering which box goes to each cabinet. If you are going to leave the items in the cabinets then get a plastic covering to put over the entrance to protect all the items. I used a paint drop cloth and cut it then taped it on the inside of the cabinet. It took a bit but it worked well when sanding and kept the excess dust away from the inside. 

4. Sand Everything

This is unfortunately true. We have a handheld sander that we got a lot of replacement sanders for so we could change them out when they were worn. Also, stock up on sand paper in different grits, and roughness. So you are able to get into small corners and areas on the doors and cabinets. I’m pretty sure it took me a full week to sand all the cabinets and the doors down. I did the doors in the garage so that I didn’t have to worry about the mess in the house. It was already going to be dusty enough with just the sanding of the cabinets. 

5. Wipe It All Down

Even if you have the sander that sucks up the dust while you are sanding, there will still be dust left on the wood. Grab a bucket of water and a rag and wipe down all surfaces. Not only what you sanded but counters, appliances, or decor. The dust will get everywhere! 

6. Plan the Best Way to Paint Doors

Will you hang the doors with hooks or lay them on the floor? There are a few different ways to paint the doors and you can research which would be easiest for you. I laid down a plastic sheet on the floor of the garage and placed plastic cups on the ground then laid the cabinets on top. This was easy to do and once I did a coat on one side of all the doors, I flipped them all over to coat the other side. 

7. Prime It

My best advice is that even if you have paint that has primer included, get a primer made for wood or cabinets, like this one. The paint soaks in a little more on the wood so I would recommend priming before adding your paint color. You can paint by hand or use a sprayer. Typical primer is thicker then paint so if you decide to use the sprayer for the primer then you will need to mix it with water. The primer can should have a ratio on the container because each primer is different. I didn’t want to worry about that so we primed everything by hand and used rollers and brushes. This didn’t take a lot of time but it felt like it. 

8. Paint

This was the fun part! Seeing the color come together on the cabinets was exciting. I knew the change would be worth it. It was easy to paint the cabinets in the house, we just used a roller and it went on smoothly. I used a sprayer for the doors and sprayed one side of the doors then flipped them all over and sprayed the back side. Make sure you change the angles of the sprayer to get all the corners and little detail areas in the wood. I did 2 coats of paint on each side of the doors. It took about 8 hours to get both coats on the doors so I was able to get the painting done in 1 day. It is recommended to wait 24-48 hours for the paint to fully dry before reattaching the doors to the cabinets. We painted on Sunday and then started putting the doors back on Monday night. Took 2 days to get all the doors back on since we still had work and a 4 year old running around at the time. 

9. Apply Hardware and Bumpers

 Either reattach the previous hardware or if you purchased new hardware, then attach those. We picked these out to update the look. Once they are all attached, I put bumpers on to the cabinet doors and drawers so that they wouldn’t slam into the cabinets. It softened and made it so they wouldn’t stick together being freshly painted. 

10. Put Everything Back and Clean

It’s time to put your kitchen back in order. This was great, I deep-cleaned everything to help get any messes cleaned up and put everything back that was moved. There were small drips on the floor but was able to use this to clean them up and didn’t scratch the floor. 

Once it’s all finished, it will look spectacular! This whole process took us around 2 weeks. I didn’t even start painting until 9 days in. There is a lot of prep work to do before you start painting, and that is important not to skip when you DIY kitchen cabinets. This was such an accomplishment to complete and we are overjoyed with the results. I know two-toned cabinets are not for everyone but I love how they look. Hopefully, these tips will help you on your DIY kitchen cabinets journey and alleviate any stress or anxiety surrounding the project. You can do it! Good Luck

Leave a comment if you’ve tackled a similar project and share any tips you have! Check out other posts here.