Painting your kitchen cabinet doors is not exactly an easy venture, but with some planning, patience, and time, you can do a major makeover without making an overhaul.
Most professionals use a simple roller and paintbrush to paint cabinet doors on any side – inside or outside or both – but spray paint is always in consideration as well.
So, Should You Paint Both Sides Of the Kitchen Cabinet Doors?
Yes, but it depends. If you feel like it, why not? Let’s say you don’t like the bare wood look on the inside part, you’d be more inclined to give it a paint job to improve the looks to impress yourself and even capture the attention of the would-be buyer if your home is on sale.
To some homeowners, however, it isn’t worth the hustle. After all, you don’t get to look at the interior part often besides when you are removing something from the cabinet – the door is closed most of the time. In that case, therefore, no one would waste their time and resources to paint both the inside and outside of the door. And because some cabinets come already painted except inside, you’d rather leave the doors as they are instead of laboring yourself with all that work.
Two Reasons Why You SHOULD NOT Paint Both Kitchen Cabinet Door Sides
Here is why it would be a bad idea to paint both sides of the cabinet doors:
1. The Surface Of The Door Is Remarkably Uneven
Working on smooth surfaces is much easier and is more likely to guarantee better results.
This is the point where the value of proper sanding can be appreciated. Yes, it sanding may turn out to be a tedious job, but it’s also highly vital one.
The story can be a little different if the surface is considerably uneven that you can’t simply level it with a layer of paint (more on leveling later). In such a case, you’d rather leave both sides of the doors alone or only paint the level side.
2. Who Wants To Dismantle The Cabinet?
You will need to dismantle the cabinet to effectively paint both sides of the doors.
Need To Organize And Label The Cabinet Parts
First, you need to label all the doors and cabinets (any pro would advise you not to remove any door until it is labeled! This part is worth the many minutes it takes).
Thereafter, you can proceed to remove the knobs and hinges.
If your cabinet features adjustable hinges, you’ll need to label them and place them in each cabinet to eliminate the need to readjust the whole lot when you rehang the doors.
Need To Fix Imperfections Beforehand
If your cabinet doors have any gouges or holes you may be required to fill them before embarking on the task.
Also, if you plan to use new hardware that’s of a different size or color than the original piece, you will need to fill the holes in the old hardware before painting.
Applying tape to the backside surface of the doors underneath these holes is never an easy task.
Then comes the filling part – you will need to fill those holes with the right wood filler before wiping away excess filler with a damp piece of cloth before letting it dry for some time.
The whole process can go down smoothly if you possess pro-level skills or fail if you are clueless.
The most unattractive thing about it, however, is that it’s long and tedious.
Unless you have the necessary skills and a lot of time in your lands, there’s absolutely no good reason to go down that route.
Three Reasons Why You SHOULD Paint Both Cabinet Door Sides
Painting both sides of the doors may be necessary after all, here is why:
1. Can boost the value of the Home
Believe it or not, cabinet painting is among the few home shakeup and improvement avenues that are affordable and will certainly provide a remarkable return on the initial investment.
Therefore, having all your kitchen cabinets well updated and looking brand new boosts the value of the home without requiring an inexpensive and completely new kitchen renovation.
This update also includes painting both sides of the doors. You seriously don’t want the buyer to open the cabinet doors see bare wood or finish.
2. Many Different Color Choices
Wouldn’t it be cute to have the interior of the cabinet and the inner side of the doors panted with a different color than the outside of the unit?
Say, you want the outside of the body and the door to feature light colors that rhyme with the rest of the kitchen and the interior that feature darker colors that you love.
This will certainly let you express yourself in the kitchen to the fullest without having to stick to one color scheme.
Opting to paint both sides will also give you the chance to select from a range of color options to perfectly complement the existing décor.
3. Need to solve flaws through creative concealment
Doors are usually the first parts to age and even sustain damages because they make the face of the cabinet and are always moving.
If the veneer is chipped or dented on either sider, it can be cost-effective and even far easier to paint both sides to hide those flaws that replace the entire door or repair by adding a new finish unless the situation is so bad that paintwork wouldn’t solve anything.
This case, however, will require a type of paint that levels up.
That’s one of a few areas you must get rid of most important if you want to get a smooth finish that hides all sorts of blemishes on the surface of the door.
Some paints do come with levelers that help the paintwork to level out all over the surface to create a uniform finish.
Besides hiding flaws, leveling paints make it much easier to reduce brushstrokes as well as stippling from the roller, two things that can make the whole task fun and easy to do.
You’ll need to be a bit choosy though – Acrylic Pro Classic (can be obtained from Sherwin Williams) and Emerald Urethane enamel works perfectly.
Both products levels nicely, but Emerald Urethane tends to level a bit better and is known to dry harder. Whichever choice of paint you make, make sure it is one that levels.
Summary
Whether to paint both sides of the cabinet doors or not can depend on an array of factors.
- The biggest challenge to giving both sides of the doors a fresh paint job is the need to dismantle them from the cabinet – most homeowners wouldn’t want to go through all that.
- You need to label all the doors and cabinets, then proceed to remove the knobs and hinges
- In case the cabinet features adjustable hinges, you must label them and place them in each cabinet to remove the need to readjust the whole lot when you rehang the doors.
- Doors with gouges or holes will require a fill before the painting can begin.
- Also, if you plan to use new hardware that’s a different size or color than the original piece, you will need to fill the holes in the old hardware before painting.
- The worst thing, however, is that the whole task is normally long and tedious.
- Unless you have the necessary skills and a lot of time in your lands, there’s absolutely no good reason to go down that route.
- If the surface is considerably uneven that you can’t simply level it with a layer of paint.
- The case with uneven door surface may make you reluctant to even think of painting the entire cabinet leave alone the two sides of the door.
- However, painting both sides of the doors can be necessary for some situations.
- Cabinet painting is among the few home shakeup and improvement avenues that are affordable and will certainly provide a remarkable return on the initial investment.
- The improvement also includes painting both the sides of the doors – you don’t want the buyer to open the cabinet doors to see bare wood or finish
- Think about it – wouldn’t it be cute to have the interior of the cabinet and the inner side of the doors panted with a different color than the outside of the cabinet? Absolutely, and you can do so by panting both sides of the doors as well.
- Doors are usually the first parts to age and even sustain damages because they make the face of the cabinet and are always moving.
- If the veneer is chipped or dents have formed on either of two sides of the door, it might be cost-effective and even far easier to paint both sides to hose those flaws that replace the entire door or repair by adding a new finish unless the situation is so bad that paintwork wouldn’t solve anything.
- Leveling up requires a paint that does exactly that – levels up!
- Besides hiding flaws, leveling paints make it much easier to reduce brushstrokes as well as stippling from the roller, two things that can make the whole task fun and easy to do.
