Painting Unfinished Cabinets

During the laundry/office renovation, I posted this question on Instagram: What would you like to read about more in-depth? While the volume of responses wasn’t huge, most people who answered wanted to know about painting unfinished cabinets.

So many of you were really into this color too. It is Mount Etna by Sherwin-Williams, a vibrant chameleon-level shade of green, blue, or black. Whatever color you want it to be is what you see.

Today’s post is a handy how-to guide. Painting cabinets is an easy way to customize a project, and following the right steps will yield professional-looking and long-lasting results. I’m all about doing projects right the first time.

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Supply List

For this project, I used:

• Compact Detail Sander and sanding sheets
• Sanding Sponges (medium to extra fine – Here is a well-priced multi-pack.)
• Water-based primer (Oil-based primer is an option too.)
• Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel in Mount Etna
• Paintbrushes – This one is my favorite.
• Project Source cabinets from Lowe’s.

Painting Unfinished Cabinets: The Short Version

1. Remove the doors and drawers.
2. Sand the frames, drawers, and doors until they are smooth
3. Prime
4. Sand lightly to knock down the raised grain. Touch up the bare spots, and sand them after the primer is dry.
5. Paint first coat
6. Sand lightly
7. Paint second coat
8. Sand gently and touch up paint as necessary. For dark shades, a third coat might be necessary.
9. Add hardware and bumper pads or soft-close hinges and slides.
10. After installation, add the side panels and paint them to match.

Painting Unfinished Cabinets: The Long Version

Step 1: Sand

Remove all of the doors and drawers.

The Project Source cabinets are quite a solid value for the price. However, I needed to sand them pretty aggressively before priming them. The pre-sanded texture was rough to the touch.

Using the detail sander with an 80-grit pad, I knocked down the roughness and imperfections quickly on the frames, drawer fronts, and doors. I followed that pass with a quick allover swipe of a 120-grit and then a 220-grit pad for the smoothest finish.

Step 2: Prime

Before I began priming, I had to decide how much of the cabinet to paint. Since these cabinets were going in my laundry room/office, I opted to only paint the cabinet frame and the exterior doors and drawer fronts. For a higher-end project or look, I would have painted the interior doors and backs of the drawers too. There’s no wrong answer here. However, whatever you choose, stay consistent, and keep a sharp line between the unfinished and finished sections.

For dark colors, feel free to use a tinted primer. I did not since I already had untinted on hand.

Step 3: Sand Again

Once the primer was dry, I could see the raised grain again, so I knocked it down by hand with a sanding sponge. For the toughest spots, I used medium grit, but for most, fine grit worked well.

I dabbed a little more primer on the edges where I went back to bare wood with the sanding sponge. After it dried, I lightly sanded it again.

Step 4: Paint

With a steady hand and a high-quality brush, I painted the cabinet frames first, carefully keeping the paint off the inside. I didn’t worry too much about the sides because I planned to add end panels after the install.

Note: If you feel like you should tape first, I highly recommend FrogTape which adheres well and maintains a crisp line.

Next, I painted the cabinet doors and drawer fronts and let everything dry thoroughly. After the first coat, I sanded with a fine-grit sponge again.

Although the Project Source cabinets from Lowe’s are constructed quite well, the grain of the low-grade wood kept popping from the moisture of the primer and paint. Grain popping is normal for unfinished wood, but higher-quality wood often requires less aggressive sanding between coats.

Note: I cannot ever remember having to sand so many times between coats. For a bare wood project, sanding after the first coat of primer or paint is always necessary. A light touch after the second coat might be. My experience with the Project Source cabinets was unusual.

Next, I applied a second coat of paint. The second coat was the charm. Finally, the color was smooth and uniform, and the grain did not pop again.

Painting Unfinished Cabinets: The Final Touches

Once the cabinets dried thoroughly, I added drawer pulls that I found on eBay and coordinating knobs. The replica drawer pulls were too brown for my taste, so I tapped them lightly with a brush and gold paint.

Finally, since the doors and drawers of the Project Source cabinets do not have soft close hinges or drawer slides, I added small felt bumper pads to all four corners of the drawers and the opening edges of the cabinet doors. (Available in rubber or felt.)

For high-use areas like a kitchen or bath, I would probably swap out the existing hinges and slides for the soft close version. In our laundry, the bumpers are sufficient.

After I installed the cabinets, I added the side panels and painted them to match. The countertops were made with 2X8 Douglas Fir boards, glued and sanded, but that is a tutorial for another day.

Nearly three months later, the new still hasn’t worn off for me. I love that we have storage in the laundry/office now, and seeing this room finished makes me so happy.

If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments.

PS: Here’s a pretty pin so you can save this post for later.