The pitfalls of painting your kitchen yourself – why a DIY paint job will cost you 1000s of $$ in the long run
How to avoid wasting hundreds of dollars with a DIY kitchen paint job
The pitfalls of painting your kitchen yourself – why a DIY Kitchen Renovation will cost you 1000s of $$ in the long run
Painted cabinets are ruling Pinterest these days and really it is very tempting to do A DIY Kitchen Renovation yourself, with only a few coats of paint. It seems like a no-brainer project, but this undertaking actually has many potential pitfalls. At Dianella Polishing we get asked quite frequently: Can’t I just paint my kitchen myself?
So the short answer obviously would be: “Yes you can DO A DIY Kitchen Renovation .” You guessed however – there is a catch to it. If you paint your kitchen yourself – it will look as if you did it. The best case scenario is: Your kitchen cabinets will look like your walls.
Most often though what happens is, we get another phone call from the same client – a few months later. Can you please fix my doors? We come out, inspect the kitchen and Trevor, our boss, goes like:
Trevor: “Who did you get to paint that?”
Client: “We did.”
Trevor: “I’m sorry but I can’t fix that now. You will need a cabinet maker.”
So why do these paint jobs go wrong, when it looked so simple on YouTube?
Here are the Top Five Mistakes people make when doing a DIY Kitchen Renovation.
The top five problems with DIY paint jobs
Water based paint
Paint coming off a home-painted kitchen cabinet door
Most commonly they use water based paint which makes your kitchen cabinets feel and look like your wall. And what makes it worse: No matter how clean you think your kitchen is, if you don’t degrease all surfaces – the doors, drawer fronts, panels etc. as the water-based paint just won’t stick to an oily surface.
Turpentine based paint
Some people use turpentine based paint – just an ordinary bucket from Bunnings. If you use this on doors – you have pretty much destroyed your doors – you can’t fix these doors.
Removal of doors and drawers
Clients don’t remove the doors and drawers. Yes we do know it is time consuming. But it is an essential first step. You need to take all the doors and drawer-fronts off, remove the hinges and handles. If you paint your cabinets while they are still (partly) assembled, the paint will peel off and chip in no time and you will have to do it all over again.
De-dusting cabinets
The cabinets aren’t dust-free. Even if you try to wipe off the sand and dust, you won’t succeed. A private garage doesn’t provide a clean environment and it just takes a few pieces of dust to ruin the look: “You’ll get a sandy uneven finish.
Primer skipped
People often skip the primer. By the time the homeowners have taken their kitchen apart, hopefully labelled it so it gets back together correctly and sanded it back, most DIY’ers already have run out of steam. You want to save time and money, but unfortunately it is only a question of time until the wood will start to stain. Wood is very porous and always requires a primer.
However – even if you used high quality water based paint, degreased and sanded the surfaces, wiped the dust off to your best ability and primed your cabinets thoroughly – the bottom line is, a DIY Kitchen Renovation will look like one and won’t ever give you the same finish as polyurethane (2pac paint). Most likely you will have spent between 5 to 8 days of your time just to find out that your cabinets don’t look as expected (to say the least).
DIY Polyurethane?
Can I use polyurethane myself? You can if you want to spray the kitchen in your backyard? But without a spray booth you won’t get the professional finish. We strongly recommend letting us experts do it.
Kitchen cabinets need to be painted in a controlled environment, to ensure the professional finish. You don’t want your kitchen to look as a DIY-project. At Dianella Polishing we have more than 30 years’ of experience in French Polishing and spray painting, a professional workshop and the expertise to make sure that your tired dated kitchen sparkles like a brand-new designer dream. As tempting as it is – there are some jobs you need to leave to a professional!
Contact us, upload your photos, and let’s discuss your options.
A professionally painted kitchen can give your old cabinets new glory.
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