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What Finish Do I Choose When I Want Distressed Kitchen Cabinets?
Posted by: THAT Painter Lady in Painting Techniques
This reader is letting her husband help her choose the Faux Painting Technique for her Kitchen Cabinets. Here is the problem… sometimes husbands don't have the vision - :)
I have to confess that I also take my husbands ideas into the mix - especially on choices for the kitchen. We all hope our husbands or significant other will spend time in the kitchen… cooking and doing the dishes! Or at least making the coffee in the morning.
I need your help!!
I want to update my red oak kitchen cabinets. They are currently stained with a golden oak finish and I hate them. I want to paint them and then apply a faux finish.I had originally planned on painting them white but that seemed too boring. Then I came across a faux finish applied on top of white/off white cabinets and showed my husband. He felt that the cabinets would just look too dirty with a white base and an antique faux finish on them. That just isn't his taste.
So now I thinking that I want to paint them brown and then apply an antique black finish to give them more of a mahogany or dark cherry finish.
I'm not really interested in maintaining the grain in the wood. My oak cabinets have too much grain, and I'm ready to see it go.
Have you ever done this before and can you give me ideas on what products to use? Any help would be appreciated.
Before and After Distressed Kitchen Cabinets… This is what the hubby didn't choose. 
You still need to prime the cabinets. QT Stain Primer Sealer
Then use the technique used buy this faux painting expert. He didn't base coat with brown… just went straight to the black. Check out his website showing some gorgeous black distressed kitchen cabinets and how he did it.
The black paint should be an enamel. Enamel paints are hard wearing. You will need to clear coat the cabinets as well. For a distressed cabinet don't use a high shine sealer or clear coat. They all come in a satin and matte finish.
I just found this Trim and Cabinet Enamel Paint. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like the perfect product for kitchen and bathroom cabinet painting. It also comes in a tintable version… so you can have the paint guy tint it with any color. It is water based, but says it will cover polyurethane and varnish. Insl-X Products Corp CC4510099-04 QT Satin White Cab Enamel
Have fun and send us pictures!
Debra
Entries (RSS)
November 21st, 2007 at 9:26 pm
yea those are cool cabnets. mine are just gloss black,,(bathroom) i will be going back at soon.
captain drywall
January 7th, 2008 at 7:59 am
You recommend an Oil primer, then you say use an enamel. I assume that is an Oil enamel? Is there such a thing? I always thought of enamel as water based, but maybe I am wrong. You can’t paint water based paint over oil, but you can paint oil over latex….correct?
Thanks!
January 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Hi Abbe…
I updated the article above to include a product I just found that is specifically for cabinets and trim. It is a water based enamel that covers even polyurethane and varnish.
I know that using a water based product over an old oil based product is usually not suggested by other experts… but I have been using Zinsser Cover Stain for counters and on fiberglass for over a year… without any problems. I use it because it bonds it bonds to anything. I mean anything. And I have used all water based paints over it without any problems. I love it.
The Zinsser product doesn’t smell and If I am using a throw away tool to apply even better. I have done clean up with Dawn dish soap and it usually comes out great. It takes more than a drop of Dawn to take the oily substance out… but it does work… and no need for smelly solvents.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I have new custom cabinets painted a Navaho white. Do I still need to prime them?
January 10th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Hi Abbe…
You probably can just give them a good sanding and cleaning.
Have Fun!
Debra
January 30th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I’m going to be painting a faux distressed antique finish over oil based paint on some cabinets for a lady. Usually when I do faux finishing, I use latex paint but, she had a painting company paint an oil based paint as the base coat. I already accepted the job and am in a panick as to what to do. She’s already had them painted and I don’t know what I can use to color wash over them and add antique color to the edges and crevises. Do I need to sand them lightley to prepare the surface to let the top coating stick? I do need to protect the faux with a sealer. What would I use?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Hi
I have old red oak kitchen cabinets stained with honey oak color. I just destained , sanded and painted them with gloss polyurethane. The wood color is lighter (natural color) with darker grains and I hate that. I am planning to paint them off- white color. I have tons of questions if I do try that approach:
How do I obtain a shiny and smooth look for the cabinets?
What steps do I have to prepare the cabinets for painting?
What kind of paint should I use, oil base? enamel?
How do I to apply the paint to have a smoth result (use spay so no paint brush marks)?
Can I do faux painting for cabinet rather having a solid white color?
Please help. Thanks.
February 4th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Hi Dawn,
You should be able to glaze over the oil based paint with latex. But… you will have to seal the finish with a high quality sealer.
The faux finish should be cured… not just dry. Let it dry for several days and see how the finish wears with customer use. You can do touch ups if the finish wears off in a few corners.
The sealer will then need to be cured as well for it to become a hard finish.
February 4th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Hi Mai Anh,
Preparing cabinets for painting requires a primer. Even though you have done the sanding, de-staining and sealed them… they still have a uneven look because of the grain. Priming will give the cabinets a pure, even look.
The usual recommendation for cabinets is to use an oil based enamel. It is hard wearing and usually chip proof.
Spray painting will give you the smoothest results. You could rent a sprayer for a day.
If you are going to be faux painting over the base coat color… you really will not need to use a sprayer. The finish you will have with a paint brush is fine.
Yes… faux glazing a cabinet is still very popular. It’s really like the old antiquing method from the 70’s. Brush on and wipe off.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Looking for help… I bought a church pew (used but proably only about 20 years old) to make into a corner breakfast nook. Cutting it on a 22 1/2 degree angle to make a modified ‘U’ shape was much harder than anticipated, but we persevered. However, I need help with the finish. The pew is oak, and had a medium or honey oak stain with some kind of sealer. I knocked the finish off with an oribital sander, and put a coat of black oil-based gloss enamel on it. (my impatient self had gloss, and couldn’t wait long enough to go to the hardware store for satin)
I only put one coat on, as I wanted some of the wood to show through, and intend to sand off the paint to give a more distressed look. I need to know how long I should wait before sanding the paint off, what I can do to knock the shine off the paint (it is super shiny) and what I can use as a top coat that will give an aged appearance. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
February 13th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Hey Monica… what a great project!
So… you really did use the wrong finish paint for a distressed look… but… it will be hard wearing which is good on a breakfast nook bench.
That said… let’s try to fix it up. (I soooo understand the impatient self part
)
I would let the paint cure for at least 48 hours. If you sanded the bench well, the paint should stick just fine and not pill up when sanding again.
Now you need to go at it with your orbital sander again… all over. You don’t want to take the paint completely off in all areas…. but all the paint needs to have that gloss taken off.
You will want to sand down to the wood on the edges so it looks old and antiqued.
Now…. get some stain. and wipe the entire piece with it. This will age all of it and the raw wood on the edges won’t look so…. well… raw!
You will let it sit for a bit and then wipe of anything that isn’t clinging to the bench. It probably won’t cling much to the painted part.
BTW… don’t use a stain sealer combo… just stain. It will need to be oil based to work with your oil based paint.
Now… when it’s all done and cured for another 48 hours… Patience is a virtue you know.
You can seal the whole thing with a flat sealer. This will protect your bench and the finish will look aged.
Perfection!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Hi! just wanted to send an update on my church pew to breakfast nook project. I used my orbital sander to go over the whole bench, then I used it to take all of the paint off on the edges and wear areas. Then I used steel wool pads on the orbital to ‘dull’ the glossy paint even more. The raw wood had a nice rich tone to it without the addition of stain, so I skipped that step and used satin polyurethane (which deepened the raw wood color even more). In the end, you were right, it turned out perfect! Everyone who has seen it is super-impressed. Thanks so much for the advice. I’m currently working on another aging project for a bench on my wraparound porch.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Hi Painter lady
I want to dress up the cabinets before I faux paint them (off white/chocolate glaze= vanilla finish faux). To dress them up, I would like to put a trim around the doors. Where can I find wood pannel about 2″ wide and 1/4″ thick?. If I nail the trims on the door and seal the nail hole with wood putty, then paint. Will those marks be visible?
March 18th, 2008 at 1:36 am
You can find that type of trim at almost any hardware store.
You will need to prime the trim after you have filled the nail holes. Prime before you paint. If you patch well… the nail holes should not show at all.
Your best tool for checking if the nail holes are filled correctly? Your finger. You will be able to feel any imperfections when you run your finger over the areas that have been patched.
I would recommend that you glue the wood trim as well as nailing it on. You will have better luck and it will stay on the door with regular use.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Hi stummbled across your site today and i am so glad i did i have picked up some great tips and i will be sure to add you to my favourites thanks
April 29th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Hi! I have a brand new coffee table that has a painted green oil-based distressed, somewhat crackled finish, some of the bare wood showing through. I want to paint it black and still have some distressing, and maybe some of the green paint showing through in places, or bare wood. How would you suggest I go about doing this…type of paint, prep, etc. Thank you for any suggestions you might have!
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Thanks so much for the advice i’ve found on here. I knew what i wanted to do to my fireplace mantle, just didn’t know how to execute it. I had seen this on a friend’s kitchen cabinets years ago. She had paid a pro to do it, but said it seemed fairly easy. I primed, then 2 coats of antique white latex paint, then rubbed on some colonial pine colored water-based stain I had left over from staining my son’s dresser. I tried the glaze/paint mixture first and found it too hard to work with. The satin was super easy. I got in the crevices with one of my son’s watercolor paint brushes. I love it.I’ll try to put up a pic. You’ll have to excuse the painter’s tape. I still have to do a clearcoat.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Krist… if you send a picture to
debra (at) thatpainterlady (dot) com I’ll put it up on the web site so everyone can see what you have accomplished!
Debra