Give your kitchen cabinets a facelift in 6 easy steps

(NC) New kitchen or fresh paint? With some simple preparation, a little paint and a free weekend, you can transform the look and feel of your kitchen in just a couple of days. Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started.

Prep the area
Empty your cabinets and remove the doors by unscrewing the hinges and pulling the doors away from the units. Wipe the surfaces clean with a damp cloth.

Clean and sand
If your cabinets have a glossy finish, you’ll need to sand that away before you start painting. Take a sanding sponge or high-grit sandpaper (100- to 150-grit), and sand until you have a matte finish. Once you’ve sanded, wipe the dust away with a damp cloth and allow the cabinets to completely dry.

Pick the right paint
An on-trend gloss or semi-gloss paint is recommended for cabinets because it provides a harder, and therefore more durable, finish. If you choose latex paint, make sure it’s completely acrylic. Oil-free paints called alkyds are great for durability as well. When choosing your colours, you can’t go wrong picking from a designer-endorsed palette like Behr’s colours of the year, which is only available at The Home Depot.

Prime the cabinets
If you’re going lighter than the current colour or your cabinets are new, you will need to prime them. Apply your primer by painting the edges with a brush first, then rolling the middle for the fastest coverage. Allow them to dry completely.

Paint doors and drawers
Once your frames are painted, you can let them dry and move on to the doors. Put boards on the ground and then lay your cabinet doors flat on top of them. This keeps them off the ground while painting. Start painting from the middle of the door and work your way out towards the edges. Let them dry completely. If you want a more vibrant colour, consider adding a second coat. Don’t be worried if there are brush marks, they’ll even out as the paint dries.

Reassemble
Once your paint is dry, reassemble your cabinets by putting the hardware back on the doors if you removed it and then reattaching the doors to the cabinets. Once everything is assembled, you can stand back and take in your brand-new kitchen look.

Find more weekend do-it-yourself projects at homedepot.ca.