Repainting Cabinets

• 1). Take off your painted cabinet’s handles by unscrewing the handles from their doors using a screwdriver, and set them aside. Remove the cabinet’s drawers, and take off the cabinet doors by unscrewing them from their cabinets using a screwdriver, as this makes redoing these cabinet parts easier. Spread the doors and drawers out on a horizontal working surface such as a piece of plywood placed on top of sawhorses.
  
  
• 2). Look for any bumpy projections such as dirt, wood or paint chips on the surface of your cabinets, drawers and doors, and scrub these areas with a steel wool. Wipe the cabinets down with a rag soaked in a trisodium phosphate paint preparation cleaner, which is available at hardware stores and helps remove dirt and grease from your kitchen cabinets so that your new paint adheres to them correctly. Wipe the cabinets with a clean wet rag.
  
  
• 3). Fill the imperfect areas of your cabinets using a wood filler. Sand the excess filler material away using medium-grade sandpaper, and remove the dust produced with a tack cloth.
  
  
• 4). Cover the surface of your cabinets, doors and drawers with an oil-based primer using a paintbrush so your new paint to stick to these surfaces with ease. Allow the primer to dry completely, which requires a couple of hours.
  
  
• 5). Paint your cabinets as well as the doors and drawers using a bristle brush and an oil-based paint, which produces a glossy appearance and makes cleaning grease and other debris from your kitchen cabinets easy. Allow the paint to dry for a day. Reattach your kitchen drawers and doors, and put your kitchen cabinet handles back on.
  
  

Staining Cabinets

• 1). Remove the cabinet doors and handles by unscrewing them from their cabinets using a screwdriver. Strip the paint off of your painted kitchen cabinets. To do this, apply a paint stripper onto the cabinet, door and drawer surfaces using a paintbrush, and allow the paint to bubble up and loosen.
  
  
• 2). Remove the old paint with a steel wool or brass brush. Rinse the cabinet surfaces with lacquer thinner and wipe away the thinner completely.
  
  
• 3). Fill imperfections in the cabinets using a wood filler.
  
  
• 4). Apply wood stain to your cabinets using a staining brush. Let the stain dry completely before reassembling your cabinet drawers, doors and hardware.