How to Create a Nightmare Fast: Paint Your Own Cabinets

Precatalyzed lacquer requires a specific sprayer, protective gear and a paint booth.

Cabinet painting is where people try to do it themselves and most of the time, wind up calling in a professional to fix the mess they’ve made. The quality of the paint, using a brush instead of spraying, or not prepping the surface correctly are the main pitfalls. 

Painting the walls in our homes or even the trim are usually straightforward processes. It’s a big area, the brushstrokes don’t show, and the wall or trim doesn’t take a lot of prep work. Not so with cabinets. 

Prepping cabinets for painting can take layers of chemical, sanding, more chemical and more sanding because previous coats of lacquer or stain can’t be painted over. If you have vinyl cabinets, removing the vinyl itself can be spotty but the glue that’s left behind takes chemical, sanding, more chemical and more sanding. In our experience, the preparation work is a substantial part of the painting process. 

When we go to redo cabinets, homeowners have usually used an interior house paint that’s a satin or semigloss. We’ve seen hundreds of pictures that people have googled on the internet showing what their cabinets were supposed to look like complete with instructions. Instead, they have painted their way to unevenly finished, often tacky cabinets that require us to strip and start all over. 

The kind of paint is only part of the problem. Using a brush or roller results in visible brush strokes and roller edges on the small, uneven cabinet doors and drawers. And using a sprayer instead is only the beginning of creating that velvety smooth finish you’re looking for. 

‘Painting’ in a cabinet shop like ARHTX means using a furniture and kitchen cabinet grade system of pre-catalyzed lacquer that is formulated with high quality synthetic resins, the finest grades of nitrocellulose, and represents an intermediate step between conventional lacquer and conversion varnish. Spraying pre-catalyzed lacquer creates that smooth, blemish-free finish we’re looking for in our cabinets. 

Lacquer finishes don’t yellow with age, are impervious to water and require very little maintenance. The equipment needed to apply lacquer means leaving finishing your cabinets to the professionals.     

The lacquer finish on the wainscotting and mudroom creates a flawless backdrop of beauty.