Kitchen Cabinet Painting!
What are the best products to use?
There are many choices, making the right one means you get 3 to 5x longer use.
Latex Paint Maybe 2 years if you are lucky. (No moisture resistance)
Cabinet Paint 5 years if applied properly. (Gets brittle after 3 years)
Acrylic Urethane 15 years if applied properly. (Very Durable)
Cross Linking Urethane 15 to 25 years if applied properly. (Highest Chip, Chemical & Moisture resistant finish for Interior wood surfaces you can get)
When deciding on a coating you are looking for 4 main characteristics
#1 Stickability: How well does it stick to what is almost always an Oil Based Clear Lacquer that very likely has food and grease contamination that has soaked into the old finish and/or wood?
#2 What kind of Chip Resistance Rating it has?
#3 What kind of Chemical resistance it has from cleaners.
#4 What kind of moisture resistance does it have?
No matter what your budget entails weighing the durability & longevity should be your first and main goal.
You also should want the smoothest finish, one that is very smooth, fine like a furniture grade finish and if you can have it cured by way of Infra Red heating.
The best wood finishing products flow out or cross link to drastically minimize what is called the orange peel or dimple appearance.
The best products flow and smooth out like a car finish on the hardest woods.
See previous post for a close up view!
Next time I will talk about prep work and why it is critical to follow certain steps to ensure the best bonding you can get.
So many choices available these days. Experience in product knowledge, application and final appearance cost a little extra money and are well worth paying for if you want your friends to say your new finish looks "Like New™" vs did you paint your cabinets?