I know this series is called “painting cabinets”, but painting is just the final and probably the easiest step!  Before you break out the paint, make sure you check out the first two posts in this series… painting cabinets | prep painting cabinets | priming Now, let’s talk about the paint. For the cabinets and trim in my house, I’m using Benjamin Moore’s Advanced paint in the Satin finish. It’s a waterborne paint that behaves a bit more like an oil.  It has a long open time, which means you can brush over it, fix drips, etc. without pulling off the drying paint.  I think the reason I like using this paint so much, though, is that it is thinner, like milk paint.  The advantage to thinner paint is that it’s self-leveling.  Brush and roller marks disappear, making for a beautiful finish.  The disadvantage is it doesn’t cover quite as

If you missed part one of my series on painting kitchen cabinets and you’re following this as a tutorial, you need to read that post first.  I know we want to get right to the good stuff, but your painted cabinets will look crappy if they aren’t prepped properly.  Take the time to put in the elbow grease before you crack open a can of paint. You will be happy you heeded my warning. So, now let’s talk about priming.  Using a quality primer is every bit as important as using a quality paint.  It may be ever more important, because it is the foundation that will help the paint grip the pre-finished surface of the cabinets. For this project, I used Zinsser’s Smart Prime.   For the doors (since they were removed), I applied the primer with a paint sprayer.  I have a Graco HVLP Finish Sprayer 7.0 that