We used General Finishes Milk paint in snow white and their satin top coat for this job. I was excited when General Finishes agreed to work with us, because choosing the right type of paint was perfect for this project. We chose not to sand or prime our cabinets, this is what worked for us.
Here's a few preparation thoughts from General Finishes;
Sanding:
If your project does not start well, it will not end well.
The most critical part of refinishing a piece of furniture happens before you open a can of stain or paint – it starts with the sanding. Prep sanding is absolutely essential, but often it is not necessary to strip away an existing finish.
When preparing an existing finish, start by cleaning with a Scotch Brite pad soaked in a 50|50 mix of denatured alcohol and water. Let the surface dry for 2 hours and then lightly scuff sand with a Klingspor AO 220 sanding pad. Wipe away the dust with a non-sticky tack cloth made for water based finishes or a water dampened rag. Once the surface is dry, apply your finish! We always recommend applying finish to a hidden area of your project before getting started.
See this GF video tutorial on preparing a surface with an existing finish: http://bit.ly/1AUuJo0
Deep cleaning:
In cases where the project has a lot of buildup, we recommend scrubbing with a detergent such as Spic and Span first, followed by a rinse, and then by the 50|50 mix of water and alcohol. Let your piece dry thoroughly. You can use commercial furniture cleaners such as TSP but check the label for phosphates - they will leave a residue behind that requires rinsing.
Sanding is essential because it lays the groundwork for your entire project:
1) Sanding roughens up the surface and creates "tooth" on existing finishes for improved adhesion. Finishes will not adhere properly to an smooth, slick surface. Even if the paint holds up at first, problems could appear over time.
2) Sanding helps clean the surface. This is extremely important in kitchens where oils from hands, splatters from food, grease from cooking, and chemicals from cleaners are spread across the surface. These surface contaminants will cause discoloration and adhesion problems. Sometimes, wax or chemicals from cleaning products (i.e. products containing silicone) permanently contaminate the finish and often cannot be successfully removed.
Primer:
Primer should be applied when using white or light colored paints. Raw wood can bleed tannins and existing finishes can leach dyes and stains. The discoloration is more apparent on white and light colors. We often recommend a coat of primer, and then an optional secondary coat of light grey paint before applying the final color. The only way to predict whether bleed through will occur is by testing your entire procedure ahead of time and letting the finish cure for 7-10 days. However, tannin bleed through can occur months after refinishing. Primer may be able to prevent this bleed through but there is never any guarantee with difficult wood species such as Pine, or existing finishes that contain aniline dyes.
We recommend using the following white pigmented shellac based stain blocking primers: Zinsser BIN, Kilz or 123 Stain Blocking Primer.
Preparing raw wood:
Preparation of raw wood surfaces only involves sanding, not cleaning.
Sandpaper that is too fine can seal the pores of new raw wood, preventing the absorption of stain or the the adherence of paint. Here are a few GF guidelines:
Sandpaper grit used to prepare raw wood: http://bit.ly/1S63v2H
General raw wood preparation instructions: http://youtu.be/Tl4s34DZolc
Water based wood stain and wood species: http://bit.ly/1X2P8gg
I've used this type of paint before you may remember on our bathroom cabinets and Zane's bed, so I knew there would be some prep involved. Here's what we did to prep our cabinets for painting.
We used a gentle soap to clean the cabinets and wipe down all the dirt and grit from the cabinets. Once they were all clean we let them dry, this process didn't take long.
