This home in Lawrence has oak cabinets that were cherry red. Cherry was popular in the early 2000’s when this home was built, but the homeowner wanted something new. The great thing about white cabinets is that they are both modern and timeless, so they are always a great option for those wanting to update their kitchen without incurring the expense of all new cabinets.

We used heavy plastic to close off the kitchen from the rest of the house, with a plastic curtain for the entrance by the utility room. After covering up countertops, backsplash, and floors, we removed all of the doors and drawer faces, marking them carefully to make it easy to put them back on at the end. We then took those loose pieces to finish off-site in our shop. The cabinets had a natural look on the inside that the customer wanted to preserve, so we used tape and plastic masking film to cover up the inside of all of the boxes before we started painting.

We sanded the existing finish to promote adhesion, smooth out knicks in the finish, and reduce the likelihood of adhesion problems due to cooking oils or furniture polish. After dusting them off, we started the actual painting process. In this case, paint is a misnomer, as we actually used a pigmented lacquer that looks like paint, but forms a much better chemical bond to the old finish. We used an HVLP sprayer to achieve an ultra-fine finish.

At the end of the project, we reinstalled the loose pieces and painted the ceiling and walls.