Step : Add A Second Coat Of Furniture Paint To The Vanity
When using furniture paint, the first coat will look crappy. Youll likely see the wood color coming throughIt will look spottyAnd you may start to freak out and think you did something wrong. Dont be surprised. This is how it looks with the first coat!
I thought those very same thoughts the first time I used chalk paint on my little DIY card catalog. The second coat is where the true coverage happens. You can think of the first coat similar to a priming coat. Just be sure that your first coat is normal and smooth out any drips and runs before the paint dries.
Once it dries for about 2 hours, add another coat to your vanity or cabinet and youll see how much more coverage you get. The color will begin to take shape!
Remodeling A Bathroom Can Be Budget
The good news is that painting a bathroom vanity can go pretty quickly and can be pretty inexpensive. We ended up doing more to this small bathroom to help completely makeover the spaces. Simply getting rid of the oak cabinets through our easy cabinet painting technique did wonders for our bathrooms.
Make sure to ask any questions at the end . Sometimes, the only thing holding you back from completing a DIY project is just fear. I am telling you to just go for it. Paint can always be painted over.
What Kind Of Paint Do You Use For Bathroom Cabinets
Because of the moisture present in a bathroom, combined with consistent cleaning and frequent use, oil-based, semi-gloss, enamel paint is almost universally recommended for painting bathroom cabinets. Newer, low-VOC acrylics create an acceptable finish without the fumes, but remain a step below in silkiness. Beware of the thickness of oil-based paint as you work. It should flow from the brush without running. If not, thin according to the manufacturers instructions. An added benefit of thinning is that the paint will take longer to dry, and that translates to a smoother finish.
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Start Priming Surface For Painting
When priming cabinet I was really confused as to what to use. Can I use any primer or do cabinets have special primer?
After talking to the consultant at Bengimun Moore it was good to get a separate primer to add to the bathroom cabinets. And the best was STIX primer.
She said to add the primer lightly to the door with a brush and dont forget the edges. Then flip the door once its dry to do the other side.
It was also suggested to tint my primer sightly gray since that was the new color of the doors.
Do You Need To Sand Your Cabinets Before Painting
This is the point where a lot of people get confused. Everybody wants to do the right thing, but a lot of times its hard to know what that is.
How do you know if you need to sand or not? How do you know when you need to use primer and when you can skip it?
Nobody wants to be doing extra unnecessary work, but at the same time, we want to make sure we do everything right so that our paint job lasts.
The kind of prep you need to do for your cabinets depends on two main things.
Are your cabinets super shiny and slick? Then you probably do need to give them a light sanding before you can paint.
Are your cabinets really rough to the touch and theyve seen better days? Again, a light sanding is a good idea to smooth them out.
Those are the main reasons to sand cabinets before painting to scuff up a very smooth surface so that paint can stick or to smooth a rough surface.
Most people with standard bathroom cabinets do not need to sand them before painting.
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What Kind Of Finish To Use On Bathroom Cabinets
At this point, you need to make a choice. If you want a glassy-smooth finish on your cabinets, you need to assess the depth of the grain in the wood. Heavy grain with deep pits may require some sort of filler. Another option is two coats of primer one to fill and one to smooth each followed by light sanding with 220-grit sandpaper. If you can stand a little grain peeking out, one coat of primer may suffice. Choose an oil-based or hybrid primer designed for bathrooms or high-adhesion. Both options do a better job of sticking to the original finish than standard primer, and one or the other will be available from any home center or well-stocked hardware store.
Try these painting tips for an antique look.
How To Paint Bathroom Cabinets: Diy Guide
Homeowners often dream of a full bathroom makeover, but sometimes its just not in their current budget. There are some budget-friendly ways to refresh and renew your bathroom without a total redo. Just changing the shower curtain, updating the faucet hardware and towel rods, or repainting your bathroom cabinets can make you much happier with your bathroom.
To paint your bathroom cabinets, first make sure you have the right tools and supplies, remove cabinet parts, and prep your painting space. Then, start by deglossing the backsides of the cabinet doors before priming and finally, painting. Make sure to paint them on a flat surface.
DIY home improvement projects can be daunting, but youll do fine if you follow this DIY guide. Well go over everything you need to get started, including how to prep your space and your cabinets and which type of paints are recommended for bathrooms. Lets jump right in!
How To Know When Your Bathroom Cabinets Need Repainting
Before spending money on paint and supplies, examine your current bathroom vanity to determine if its worth painting. The countertop should be in good condition or better because that portion will remain untouched. You should also at least like the look of the countertop and sink because youll likely be living with it for several more years after repainting the cabinets.
Different Types of Bathroom Cabinets
Make Sure You Have the Right Tools and Supplies
Must-Haves
- Wood putty and putty knife
- Marker or chalk
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Patch And Sand The Vanity
Next, youll want to repair and sand the wood surfaces of the cabinet, doors and drawers.
- Check the wood surfaces for holes and other signs of damage.
- Where possible, repair holes and dents with wood putty or wood filler.
- If you plan to replace the old knobs and hardware with new pieces that need fresh holes drilled, fill in the old holes with putty at this time.
- Allow the putty to dry according to directions and sand it smooth.
- Lightly sand the cabinet, doors and door fronts with a 220-grade sandpaper until it has a dull appearance. This will improve the adhesion of the primer or paint.
- Wipe down the surface with a damp cloth.
- Vacuum up any remaining dust on the cabinet or in the painting area.
Prepare The Bathroom Vanity
Youll need to take several steps to prepare for painting a bathroom vanity cabinet to ensure the best results.
- Put down a drop cloth.
- Relocate all objects and toiletries from the cabinets, drawers and on top of the sink that might get in the way.
- Use a screwdriver to detach such hardware as knobs and hinges. Label the items that youll be reusing and store in a plastic bag.
- Remove bathroom cabinet doors and drawers, if they can be detached. Set them aside on a drop cloth for painting separately.
- If possible, remove drawer fronts from the drawers as it will be easier to paint these separately. Mark where the fronts attach to make reattachment easier.
- Clean the surface of the doors, drawer fronts and the cabinet with a degreasing cleaner such as trisodium phosphate to manufacturers instructions. After cleaning, thoroughly rinse the surfaces with water and a sponge or cloth to remove any traces of the cleaner.
Tip: As you remove them, label each drawer and cabinet drawer with a piece of painters tape and a marker so theyll be easier to put back after painting.
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Clean All Surfaces Youre Painting
Preparation is key and it begins with cleaning all of the surfaces that youre going to paint. Even if your cabinet doors dont look dirty, you might be surprised by what you get off of them with a good cleaning! There are various products you can use but I use a small amount of no-rinse TSP substitute like . Using a clean cloth dampened with the solution, give all of the vanity surfaces a good scrub .
Our Painted Bathroom Vanity: The Before& after And How
Painting my daughters bathroom vanity is something that has been on my to-do list for YEARS but somehow other projects always took priority, keeping it from ever getting done. With our master bathroom addition currently in progress, my girls bathroom was the lone untouched bathroom in the house. I finally decided to bump this project to the top of the to-do list and knock it out before my oldest daughter comes home from college for the holidays. Im now kicking myself for not having done it years ago because it made such a huge difference to the look and feel of the space! By using the right paint and painting tools, youd honestly never know that it was a DIY rather than a job I hired out to have professionally done.
Heres what my girls bathroom vanity has looked like for the past six years:
From a distance, it doesnt look too terrible but the dark cabinets in combination with the dark countertops gave the room a really gloomy feel. And closer up you can see that the cabinet doors were a hot mess with a lot of wear and tear from previous owners:
With only a quart of paint, the right tools, and a little DIY action, say hello to my newly painted, brighter and lighter girls bathroom!
Im thrilled with how it turned out the vanity truly looks brand new:
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How Should I Prep My Vanity For Painting
Before you start painting your vanity, you need to do the prep work.
To start, wash the entire vanity down with a good non-sudsing cleanser. This will get all of the dirt, oil, hairspray, dust, and who-knows-what off of the cabinets surface.
If you skip this step and go straight to sanding, you will end up pushing all of the foreign elements on the surface deeper into the grain. This will mean that your primer and paint wont stick like you want it to. It could cause bubbling or peeling.
Once youve washed it all down, let it dry and then give it a decent sanding with a medium grit sandpaper.
Sanding the piece will give it a surface that primer and paint will adhere to easily. This also will prevent peeling and chipping.
Since youll want your newly painted vanity to look good for years to come, its worth putting the extra time in to do it right.
Basics Of Painting Bathroom Cabinets
Wood bathroom cabinets are the easiest to paint. Moving between similar materials is usually the best path to success with this project. Other surfaces, such as melamine or thermofoil, can be painted as well, but the results may not be as satisfactory as with wood.
If you can remove the bathroom cabinets, your task will be much easier. You will not have to worry about the paint overlapping on walls or spilling on the counter or floor. Even if you cannot remove the cabinet, you should be able to remove the cabinet doors.
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Prepare Your Vanity For Primer
Bathroom vanities are always dirty and need to be cleaned before sanding and priming. Contaminants like hairspray, toothpaste, and soap residue will cause adhesion problems for primer and paint. Don’t sand before cleaning. Doing so will grind contaminants into the wood grain. This is important for open grain wood like oak.
Wood cleaners I use and recommend:
How To Paint Your Cabinets Using A Sprayer
I originally purchased a sprayer many years ago with the assumption that I was going to spray my cabinets. For some reason that just seemed more overwhelming to me. Spraying does give you a better finish so if this is something that doesnt overwhelm you, then I say go for it.
Ive heard good things about this paint sprayer and this is the one I had originally purchased but never used. You would follow the same steps as abovesand, clean, paint. Did you forget already
You can thin the paint with water up to 6% by volume if needed.
I am sure you can find tutorials online with using a paint sprayer. But the magic is in the paint!
Have fun and good luck!
And remember our chant.sand, clean, paintsand, clean, paint.
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Clean And Sand Cabinets
Before painting bathroom cabinets, clean the faces of cabinet boxes and drawers and both sides of doors and shelves with a product that removes dirt and grease, such as trisodium phosphate . Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on the packaging, mixing water and TSP in a bucket as directed. Wear protective goggles and rubber gloves. Apply the TSP-water mixture with a sponge to clean. Once the cabinets are clean and dry, use a putty knife to fill any nicks or dents with spackling compound or wood filler let dry.
Sand the surface with 120- to 220-grit sandpaper to dull the surface and smooth down any imperfections. To sand all the contours of paneled doors, try using a contoured sander, a small sponge wrapped with sandpaper, or a commercial sanding sponge. Use a tack cloth or damp rag to remove dust after sanding.
If your bathroom cabinets are in good shapeâand don’t require you to fill nicks and dents or to sand smoothâan alternative to sanding is to apply a liquid deglosser, which removes the glossy finish on cabinets and helps the new paint adhere to the old finish. If you need to sand your cabinets regardless, you do not need to degloss before painting bathroom cabinets.
Best Bathroom Vanity Or Kitchen Island Colour: White
If you arent feeling the more colourful end of things, you may find that white gives you all of the inspiration you need!
BENJAMIN MOORE WHITE DOVE OC-17
White Dove is one of my faves. Its a warm, soft white not as creamy as some, but not a stark, clean white either, making it a great option for the average home.
FULL Paint Colour Review of Benjamin Moore White Dove
SHERWIN WILLIAMS PURE WHITE 7005
Pure White is an awesome white with just a WINK of softness to it. The main difference between Pure White and White Dove is that Pure White is LESS warm, but has a similar LRV.
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Brush & Roll On A Bonding Primer
The next step is to brush and roll on the bonding primer. Since my bathroom vanity was previously stained and coated with a glossy polyurethane, I chose Sherwin-Williams Extreme Bond Primer which is made for adhering to hard to stick surfaces. It truly sticks to anything I highly recommend it! is another one Ive used several times thats a great choice! I start by rolling the backs and edges of the vanity doors with the doors sitting on top of four to raise them up off the table Im painting on. Once thoroughly dry, I flip the doors over to paint the front, using a combination of a paint brush and roller.
Having the right tools makes all the difference for this step and every other step in this project. If youre guilty of spending days figuring out paint colors but then grab the closest paint brush and roller on the shelf to apply it, rethink that the next time you have a painting project. Investing in high-quality tools will keep you from getting the excessive brush marks and lint that come from using cheaper products and can ruin your final finish. Ever since I took a painting class with Jeff as newlyweds and we were told that Purdy has the best brushes and rollers, its what Ive always used I still have and use some Purdy brushes that I bought over 20 years ago:
For priming, I started with , brushing the primer into all non-flat areas of the door:
Then I immediately rolled all flat surfaces with on using a mini roller tray like :
Clean The Surface Of The Cabinet
Cleaning the surface to be painted off grease and dirt is very important. Remember to put on protective overalls, safety goggles, and rubber gloves.
Clean surfaces with products like trisodium phosphate . Adhere to the products directives on the labeling, mixing TSP in cold or warm water as instructed. Apply the water-TSP cleaning solution with a cloth or rag to clean. Afterward, use a dry cloth to wipe off the cleaning solution.
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Remove Drawers Doors And Hardware
Remove drawers and doors from the cabinet frame. Using your screwdriver, remove all hardware, including hinges, knobs and pulls. Be sure to place all screws and hardware in a safe place and label the back of each door and drawer to ensure you put them back in the correct spot when youre ready to reassemble the piece.