How to paint kitchen cabinets without taking them apart

What you need

• Screwdrivers for hinges and pulls
• 10 cm high density foam roller
• Fine bristle brush
• Sanding block or orbital sander
• Paint tray
• Masking tape and paper
• FFP2 mask and gloves
• Bags and tape for numbering pieces
• Kitchen degreaser
• Sandpaper in 180, 220, 320 and 400 grit
• Filler for wood or melamine
• Bonding primer (Zinsser Bulldog or the equivalent from Bruguer, Montó)
• Satin water-based furniture enamel (Montó, Bruguer, Titan, Xylazel)
• Tack cloth
• New pulls if you want to update them

Step by step

1. 1

   Empty and number

   Take out whatever is in the cabinets of the run you are painting. Number each door and drawer with tape and note its position. Remove handles and hinges and keep them in a bag for each piece.

2. 2

   Protect the kitchen

   Cover the worktop, sink, appliances and floor with paper and masking tape. Open the window and switch on the extractor. Put on your mask and gloves.

3. 3

   Degrease twice

   Clean doors, drawers and carcasses with degreaser and a soft scourer. Rinse with clean water and repeat in the areas near the hob and extractor. Leave to dry for an hour.

4. 4

   Repair dents and chips

   Fill dents, scuffs and old pull holes with filler. Leave it to dry for the time on the pack and sand flush with 180 grit.

5. 5

   Sand to take off the shine

   Sand all the fronts and edges with 180-220 grit, with light pressure. On melamine and laminate you only need to dull the surface. Vacuum and go over with a tack cloth.

6. 6

   Apply the primer

   Lying flat, put on a thin coat of bonding primer on the back and edges, leave for 4 hours, turn the piece over and repeat on the front. Do the same with the carcasses on the wall.

7. 7

   Sand lightly with 320

   When the primer is dry, sand everything with 320 grit to remove specks. Wipe with a tack cloth and a microfibre cloth. Check in side light.

8. 8

   First coat of enamel

   With the foam roller, apply a thin coat, starting with the edges with a brush and carrying on with the flat in long strokes. Do not go back over what is starting to dry. Leave to dry for 6 hours.

9. 9

   Sand with 400 and apply the second coat

   Sand with 400 to take off dust and specks, wipe clean and apply the second coat. If any area is still see-through, add a light third coat after another 6 hours.

10. 10

    Leave to cure and refit

    Leave the pieces lying flat for 24 hours. Refit the hardware carefully and hang the doors. Wait 7 days before cleaning, knocking or heavy use.

What kind of cabinet you have and how it changes the preparation

The material decides how you prepare. Solid timber or veneer fronts are sanded and primed in the normal way. Lacquered MDF needs a light sanding so you do not go through the lacquer. Melamine or laminate, which are smooth and shiny, need a specific bonding primer. Thermofoil PVC, with its raised profiles, does not sand the same way and needs a special primer. If you are in doubt, test on the back of a door.

In a kitchen there is an enemy that does not exist in a bedroom: grease. Years of steam and oil leave an invisible film on doors and drawers, especially near the extractor and the hob. If it is not removed completely, the paint will not grip and comes away in sheets.

A kitchen also gets wet, is cleaned a lot and gets dirty hands on it. Choose a washable water-based polyurethane or acrylic enamel in a satin finish, which stands up to rubbing better than matt and hides flaws better than gloss.

Common mistakes when painting a kitchen

• Degreasing half-heartedly. It is 80% of the success. Use a strong kitchen degreaser, rinse and repeat on the doors next to the hob.
• Not taking the doors off. Painting with the door hanging leaves drips on the edge, paint stuck in the hinge and roller marks. Take the doors down, number each one with tape and paint lying flat.
• Leaving hardware on. Handles, pulls and hinges come off and go into a bag for each door. Masking tape around them never looks clean.
• Painting PVC edges without priming. Plastic edges will not take paint without a bonding primer.
• Thick coats. They sag, run and take a long time to cure. Always two or three thin coats.
• Closing drawers or doors too soon. The paint sticks to the unit next to it. Leave 24 hours before closing and 7 days before cleaning.
• Using wall paint. It does not resist steam or cleaning. Use a water-based furniture enamel from Montó, Bruguer, Titan or Xylazel.

Step by step without taking the units off the wall

Work in sections, not the whole kitchen at once. First take down the doors and drawers of one run, paint those pieces on the floor and the carcass in place, and remember that you need to let them cure before you hang them. If you paint the whole kitchen in one go, you cannot use it for several days.

Protect the worktop, sink, hob and floor with paper and masking tape. Cover the appliances and take food and crockery out of the cabinets you are going to paint. In a small kitchen, move out what you can to another room.

The order is fixed: carcasses first, doors and drawers after, with the carcass already curing, so you do not smudge it. Paint the doors on both sides: the back first, and when it is touch dry, the front. If the inside of the cabinets is in good condition, leave it as it is: only the fronts and the visible edges are painted.

If the fronts have dents, fill them with filler (see how to repair wood with filler) and sand flush before priming. If the surface is melamine, there are specific details in how to paint melamine furniture. For a white without marks, see how to lacquer doors white.

When to call a painter

A whole kitchen is dozens of doors, drawers, edges and corners. If the kitchen is large, if the cabinets are in poor condition or if you are after a factory-looking finish, it is sensible to hire a painter, who works with a fine roller, spray gun and controlled drying. At Manitas Costa we assess from a photo and give a fixed price.

We have no set price per cabinet. As a guide, painting a 12 m² room costs €180-300, and a small job, such as renewing a few doors or one run, falls under the handyman hourly rate, €35-45 for the first hour and €28-35 for each hour after that.

You will find more in painters in Valencia, Alicante and the Costa Blanca and in how much it costs to paint a flat. If you also want to renew the walls between the units, see how to paint bathroom and kitchen tiles.

Coastal climate: damp, heat and salt air in the kitchen

On the coast, the kitchens of beach flats tend to have high humidity, little ventilation and windows crusted with salt. Paint with the window open and, if you can, with a fan. Humidity above 75% stretches the drying time and can cloud the finish. Avoid painting on damp levante days.

In summer, a temperature of 28-30 degrees speeds up drying and leaves roller marks. Paint first thing in the morning or with the air conditioning on dehumidify. In winter, below 12 degrees, water-based paint does not cure properly. Keep the kitchen between 15 and 25 degrees while it cures.

In second homes in Torrevieja, Benidorm or Valencia, make use of a period when the place is empty to paint. If the kitchen is going to be let, refreshed fronts in white or light grey change the look of the whole home for little money.