Update: Painted my kitchen cabinets and only messed up 3 hinges total

Spent last Saturday at my friend's place in Austin watching her try to paint her own cabinets. She accidentally glued a drawer shut with polyurethane. That scared me straight. I took it real slow, labeled every screw in a ziploc, and numbered each door with painter's tape. Ended up with sticky spots on two doors from rushing the last coat but the hinges? Only three had paint drips I had to scrape off. Feels like a win even if my forearms are sore from holding the drill. Has anyone else painted cabinets with a foam roller vs brush and had better luck avoiding drips?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nathan59m ago

Actually I have to disagree with you on the foam rollers @wren_jackson. I've painted three kitchens now and I swear by the foam ones for the flat cabinet doors. The trick is you gotta load them right, not dunk the whole thing in paint. Just dip the tip and roll it on the tray first to spread it out. I get way less drips than with microfiber because the foam doesn't hold as much paint in the middle. My last kitchen I did with a 6 inch foam roller and only had to sand one door for a drip. The angled brush for edges is good advice though, I'll give you that.

wren_jackson3h ago

The 240 ziploc bag trick is genius though, I had to buy new screws for my last project because I just tossed them in a bowl and they all got mixed up. Foam rollers are tricky because they hold too much paint and then you get those drips if you lay it on thick. I switched to a 4-inch microfiber mini roller for the flat parts and a good angled brush for the edges, that combo cut my cleanup time in half. The brush still leaves some marks if the paint is too thick, so I started thinning the last coat just a tiny bit with water or Floetrol depending on the paint. That alone fixed the sticky door problem you ran into, now I just have to stop myself from rushing through the last coat.