Apartment Therapy San Francisco | How To: Paint Cabinets

How To: Paint Cabinets

Insert heavy sigh here. We could have really used a great "How To" on painting cabinets when we re-did the ones in our old apartment a few years ago. Instead, we could write a great How Not To...

If you're thinking of painting your cabinets, check out the tutorial (and read more about the green cabinets you see here) on day-lab DIY.

And we have to say, our cabinets sure looked infinitely better painted white -- even a sloppy white -- than the brown it was before (similar to the ones shown in the before photos).

(Edited from a post originally published 10.11.07- CB)

Comments (13)

oh, wow, what color green is that??

posted by *heather leaf* on October 11th 2007 at 3:18pm
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I love that color! Strangest thing - when I first saw that color, it reminded me of salt-water taffy. I love the 1950's vibe with the canisters and appliances.

posted by ll on October 12th 2007 at 11:01am
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Great tips! I have a coffee table that gets lots of, er, foot traffic, and of course drinks and food put on it all the time. These tips should actually be really helpful for when I repaint that!

posted by michpc on October 1st 2008 at 12:28pm
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Thanks for the link - It's coming time to repaint the kitchen cabinets again and I can see that I needed to use a protective coat over the paint which is why it's now chipping around the edges...

...I guess it's time to get a sander now too.

posted by bepsf on October 1st 2008 at 12:35pm
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love those cabinets! Never would have thought of it but it looks great and really adds something.
Tabitha @ http://www.fromsingletomarried.com

posted by Tabitha (From Single to Married) on October 1st 2008 at 12:46pm
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We'd like to paint our cabinets, but don't have the time to do it ourselves. How do we go about finding a good person for the job?

posted by als1 on October 1st 2008 at 1:20pm
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You may want to try hardware stores for referrals, 'als 1'. Ace Hardware has an excellent referral service.

posted by danze on October 1st 2008 at 2:00pm
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Beautiful!

posted by madampince on October 1st 2008 at 2:40pm
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that colour looks like my old living-room - it's Ralph Lauren's Faded Silk

love it.

posted by emily! on October 2nd 2008 at 6:04am
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does anyone know where to find those canisters? love them!

posted by sacred spaces on October 4th 2008 at 4:04pm
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I love this kitchen. Makes me want to remodel mine : )

Ebay is a great place to find antique canisters like that.

posted by DreaMichelle on October 5th 2008 at 5:24am
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Very timely post! I've been leisurely repainting the inside of our house and thinking I'd have to get to the kitchen at some point (where my husband slapped some paint on the cabinets a few years ago with no prep).

Since he just mentioned that maybe we should move our 2 year plan for selling to now, I've got to get into high gear to get things done.

We're looking in a couple of neighborhoods that are mostly older (1920"s to 1940's) homes so I'll hopefully have some retro to play with.

posted by oceandreamer56 on October 6th 2008 at 7:03am
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i'm also curious to know where the canisters are from, they are to die for!

posted by Madinat on October 19th 2008 at 9:45am
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