Painted kitchen cabinets...??? (laminate, counter top, paint, ceiling)

[World Citizen]

The kitchen cabinets in my house are painted. They were painted with the wrong kind of roller and paint so they have lumps and they're too shiny. When I replaced the shelf liner I realized that they are really good cabinets underneath. The drawers are dovetailed and solid wood. The fronts appear to be oak. The previous owner replaced the hardware and the counter top already so I'm thinking that it makes sense to try to use them.

I'm trying to decide whether to strip them or to just sand and paint them. If I do strip them, I don't want to remove them from the house. I want to use a safe, green product. I don't like to use chemicals.

I bought a soy based stripper made by Zinnser / Bullseye that says you can use it in the house without fumes.

Has anyone used these products? Do they work? Is there one which really works?

[Historic Bessemer]

Citri-strip works good! We just stripped the mantle in our foyer with Power Strip(very strong chemical). If they are painted I would just sand the high spots and re-paint them after applying a good coat of primer.

[pitt_transplant]

I like thermal strippers. Less clean up with sanding and no burning goo flying all over the place.

Amazon.com: Warner Tool 1000-Watt Radiant Heat Paint Remover #382: Home Improvement

[World Citizen]

Originally Posted by pitt_transplant

I like thermal strippers. Less clean up with sanding and no burning goo flying all over the place.

Amazon.com: Warner Tool 1000-Watt Radiant Heat Paint Remover #382: Home Improvement

You're not kidding about burning goo! My last house was built in the 1900's and I used a chemical stripper. I vowed afterwards that I would never again use one.

This house was built in the middle 70's but I'm sure the paint on the cabinets was done much more recently so I'm not worried about lead or anything. Looks like only one or two badly done coats of enamel paint of some kind. (one painting of two coats)

I read the reviews on the link you sent me. Sounds interesting...

Are there dangerous fumes from using this kind of removal? I've got pet birds ....

[World Citizen]

Originally Posted by Historic Bessemer

Citri-strip works good! We just stripped the mantle in our foyer with Power Strip(very strong chemical). If they are painted I would just sand the high spots and re-paint them after applying a good coat of primer.

That sounds like the easiest solution.

I'd kind of decided to go that route until last night when I pulled out the drawers and discovered that they were dovetailed and solid wood... so, now I'm wishing I could see the wood. It would be awful to spend all the time stripping them and then find out that the wood on the cabinet fronts is badly damaged.

Why do people paint oak cabinets?

[desertsun41]

It still sickens me to see people painting cabinets. I have said it many times on here. YOU CAN NOT PAINT CABINETS. Especially oak. I wont say it anymore.........

Do you really want to strip those doors? Most cabinet doors have nooks and crannies. Whats your time worth? If you have oak you can buy brand new raw sanded custom doors around $35 each. Now do I have your attention? Maple doors for $50 each or cherry for $70. How many doors do you have? How much time do you have and whats it worth?

Cabinet professionels such as myself do not make our own doors. Cabinet doors is its own profession. We use Decorative Specialties Home Page You look up the more then 200 door styles on-line and give them the door and size and you will get a quote. They ship within 2 weeks out of California.

I highly recomend the concealed hinges. Your only problem here is you will have to purchase a forsteners bit to drill them hinge bores. It will be 32MM or the inch equivalent. Its easy.

Now you have nice clean sanded raw doors to finish as you wish.

As for the frames. You will have to sand them. You have a mess on your hands. With just doing frames I wouldnt bother using strippers. Just get a quality belt sander to rip off the finish. Then use a palm sander with gradual less course sand paper till you get a nice smooth finish.

The sides: Most cabinets, even quality brand cabinets, only the face frames and doors are real wood. The sides are particle board melamine. You can not sand this. Instead you might try and locate an eigth inch thick skin and skin the sides and the toe kick. The face frame should extend an extra quarter inch past the side. We call this the ear. Your skin will tuck right behind this ear. Then just finish the skin just like you would the rest.

You should really consider doing a crown molding above. It just makes the final job sweet. We discussed this in another forum yesterday about DIYers doing crown. It is not recomended but if you have a friend that can do it or if you can do it then it will make the job real custom.

To answer the usual question again. Refacing costs way more then brand new cabinets. And in most cases you will have no wood but rather laminate doors and laminate facing. Yuck ! And you still have the same ol disgusting insides.

[World Citizen]

Thanks, desert sun!

I like the way you think. If you saw the bad job they did of painting them you'd be even more convinced that you can't paint cabinets!

I priced refacing in my last house and I agree, it's too expensive and you end up with crappy laminate covering and doors.. for big bucks!

These doors are not elaborately carved. I may try stripping one just to see how it goes. Luckily, they did just paint the face of the frame - not the inside of the cabinets.

[Historic Bessemer]

[quote=desertsun41;4469950]It still sickens me to see people painting cabinets. I have said it many times on here. YOU CAN NOT PAINT CABINETS. Especially oak. I wont say it anymore.........

QUOTE]

I disagree. We painted our cabinets and they look great. Granted, they are cheap laminate cabinets. We peeled the laminate off, sanded the glue off and painted them...........added pulls and have less then 200 bucks in the entire project. Here are some photos ........before then after...........

[Uconn97]

I disagree with the comment as well about not painting cabinets. We saved a ton of money by having ours done when we redid our kitchen. We had solid birch cabinets that went up to the ceiling that would have easily cost us 30K to replace. We had them sanded, primed, sprayed twice and glazed over and its been two years and they still look like new. I think it comes down to prep and patience. If you are trying to get it done in two days forget it. The guys who did ours (two of them) did the steps over the course of 5 days while working on the other areas we were having redone. It can be done, just do it right and use the right products.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

YOU CAN NOT PAINT CABINETS. Especially oak.

Sure you can. You get a brush, and some paint, and ... Like anything else, you just have to take your time and do a good job. No shortcuts. Apparently, unlike the people who painted World Citizen's cabinets.

Historic Bessemer, your kitchen looks fabulous!! How tough was it to get the laminate off?