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I won't bore you with the history of how we ended up with these cabinets, but the gist of it is we have cheap poor quality white kitchen cabinets which, after only 3 years, are already chipping. They are not warped, just chipped--but it is pretty bad.
They appear to be some sort of fiberboard stuff with a thin layer of paint.
Must they be stripped and refinished?
Is that the only alternative to completely replacing them?
I was wondering if I could just get away with touching them up, but the wear and tear is beginning to become rather extensive.
If you are not unhappy with the white color, I'd lightly sand them, wash them down with TSP and repaint. I have a friend who bought a latex white paint at Sherwin Williams that she says is made for kitchen cabinets and is extra durable. I am not familiar with the product. I would likely spray paint them.
You can't strip them and refinish them. They're not wood. I'd touch up the chipped spots to get a few more years out of them. Another alternative is to replace the doors.
You can't strip them and refinish them. They're not wood. I'd touch up the chipped spots to get a few more years out of them. Another alternative is to replace the doors.
According to the interwebs, I can do something along the lines of what Squirl advises. Refinishing Fiberboard
I might look into replacing the doors, but I wonder if it might be more cost-effective to just touch up here and there.
What I'd really like to do is replace everything, but that's such a major expenditure.
Thank you, Hopes and Squirl.
I second Hope's opinion, if you eventually wish to replace them do the inexpensive thing now and save for when you can replace them for the ones that truly suit your taste.
I don't recommend you go to the trouble of striping them with paint stripper. That's just so much work and since you are painting white on white, just sand the surface to help with adhesion and clean well before applying paint.
I will not refinish them.
I think I'll do touch up now, and reserve the sanding/painting for a later date.
At some point they will have to be replaced, but I will wait for that.
Thanks, y'all. It helps to bounce these ideas off someone else.
Sounds like those are the super cheap-o "in stock" cabinets they sell at the big box stores. I'd personally just save my cash and buy better cabinets. They are likely to fall apart soon.
BlueWillowPlate --- I think we may have identical cabinets and experiencing the same thing. However, the "paint" on our cabinets was applied in such a way - similar to the paint coating that's sprayed on cars - that we can't simply sand it off and repaint.
We're also saving our pennies to replace all the cabinets. It makes no sense to replace the door and drawer fronts since the only part of the structures that are real wood are the cabinet frames and the drawer sides. The rest is all fibreboard junk.
In the meantime I'm using glue to fix peeling paint and craft paint to fill chips. (As for the craft paint, I bought a few bottles of paint at a craft store in different colors of white and mixed until I came up with a matching white.)
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