Painting Oak Cabinets

[nkpaintingvt]

Hello,

I'm doing a job this winter that involves a kitchen. Cabinets are currently varnished Oak, headed towards paint grade (Cottage White). I'm going to do the prep on everything and sub out a spray finish on the doors and drawer fronts. Here's the order of operations I'm thinking about and the products. Any input is appreciated!

1) Remove hardware, label, TSP wash, etc
2) Sand, round sharp corners
3) Fill oak grain with unknown product - any favorites?
4) Prime with XIM UMA Primer
5) Fill and sand any imperfections
6) Prime again
7) Sand down everything to a chalky powder with my Festool toys
8) Send off the drawer fronts and doors to a spray finisher that recommends General Finishes Enduro White Poly - thoughts on this finish?
9) 2 coats Impervo on the bodies/face frames

I'd love to hear any thoughts, thanks for looking!

 

[DB10]

The only thing that I would add is to make sure you get a sample pot of touch up paint from your sprayer when he has done, just in case you get the odd chip in the painted doors and draws when it comes to reinstalling every thing.

 

[tjbnwi]

Parks, Varethane trowel able floor filler.

Aqua Coat or Crystalac filler.

Tom

 

[junk731]

Make sure your primer is compatible with the final finish, always better to get the finishers recommendation before wasting your time and money. Make sure the door/drawer finish matches the colour and sheen on the cabs and face frame.

John

 

[tiralie]

4) Prime with XIM UMA Primer

It is an arcylic based primer so it will be fine as a base for the poly.

8) Send off the drawer fronts and doors to a spray finisher that recommends General Finishes Enduro White Poly - thoughts on this finish?

Good tough finish. By the time you are finished with the grain filling and priming, any problems with the existing old finish will have been solved by you.

9) 2 coats Impervo on the bodies/face frames

Strange, why wouldn't you have your guy spray these too? Going to look a little strange next to the very smooth and different sheen of the Poly on the doors.

Tim

 

[Hurricane Whisperer]

Three comments.

1.  I saw a painted oak cabinet that did not have the grain filled and it looked good.  I liked it better than grain filled paint I have seen.  This may change if you have lots of big cathedrals in the center sections.  I recommend painting the back of a door to see how you like it.  If you find you don't have to grain fill, you've saved yourself a lot of work.

2.  I wouldn't paint with two different paints.  I would use 1 paint for both cabinets and doors.  Two different paints can look different when first applied due gloss and color differences and even if it looks the same now, they can age differently.  Also, there are two kinds of Impervo.  The original is an oil based alkyd that is known for being excellent to brush.  The other Impervo is a water borne paint which I believe is also an alkyd, but water borne.  The General Finishes paint is an acrylic.  In general, alkyd's tend to yellow with time and acrylics tend to stay white.  It sounds like you may be choosing Impervo for the frames because you intend to brush those.  If so, find a paint that can be brushed by you and sprayed by your painter.  Sometimes the look between even the same paint brushed and sprayed can be quite different due to gloss differences and curing differences affecting color, so beware of that.  Do not choose a primer until you choose the paint so you can ensure compatibility.

3.  Consider a color other than white at least for the lower cabinets.  Personal preference, of course.

 

[nkpaintingvt]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies, greatly appreciated.

I'm now leaning towards having the spray finisher do the boxes and frames as well, it's not as cost prohibitive as I'd initially thought.

One last question on prep: I've chosen Aquacoat to fill pores. They give the usual "clean and sand and eliminate foreign contaminants" instructions prior to application. I have several Festool sanders to do some top notch sanding, but I'm wondering how you folks might prep this project. Is a de-glosser more appropriate here since it will get in every nook and cranny and pore? If so what brand? Is TSP followed by a sanding or visa versa enough? I'm looking for the minimum effective dose here.

Thanks!