Preparation for Repainting Old Kitchen Cabinets
- Clean out all of your cabinets and drawers and be prepared not to be able to use them for a week or so. Remove the cabinet doors by taking out the screws in the hinges. Save the hinges and screws; if you will be replacing them make sure you can get replacements that fit properly before discarding the old ones. If you are replacing them, measure the distance between the screw holes to see if you'll need to fill some with putty and drill new ones.
Fill scratches, gouges or holes with wood putty. Use a putty knife to smooth the area as much as possible so that less sanding will be required. If you plan to paint the insides of the cabinets, repair any scratches or holes there as well.
Remove any glass in your cabinets and set it aside in a safe place until the painting is completed and it can be reinstalled. - The simplest way to sand the doors is to lay them flat on a surface, preferably outdoors. Lay them on a sawhorse and sand each door or drawer in one direction, either with a hand sander or an electric sander with fine sandpaper. Sand the surface of the cabinet doors, back and front, and the frames of the cabinets with fine sandpaper. Use folded corners of the fine sandpaper to sand small, decorative areas that weren't reached with a whole sheet. Sand down any wood putty repairs, as long as they are dry enough. If they are in obvious areas, you'll need to do a good job on them or they will show. The rest of the sanding doesn't have to be perfect; all you are trying to do is to make a rough surface for the paint to adhere to. If you are painting the insides of the cabinets as well, you'll need to sand them, or at least rough up the surface too.
Wipe off all the surfaces with a damp cloth. The easiest way to remove dust inside cabinets is to vacuum it up.
If there is molding around the cabinets that needs to be painted, leave it in place but use painter's tape to protect adjacent surfaces that won't be painted. Gently rub the molding with fine sandpaper to rough the surface, wipe the dust off with a damp cloth, and it is ready for paint, along with all of the cabinets, doors and drawers.