# Painting Kitchen Units



## needleworks (10 Jun 2006)

My wife has decided she wants a new kitchen, cause she has seen a lovely shiny white one in a showroom !! The kitchen we have may be old, but it is a shrieber, very well made, and still in very good condition. 

Rather than buy a new one, I would like to try and spray the one we have, using car paint. I know it`s been done, but I can`t get in touch with the guy who done it. Anyone have any advice as to whether I would have to treat the wood with anything before I spray it, or what type of paint to use, I have asked a couple of paint sprayers, but they`re a bit non commital whether to use either 2 pak paint, 2k paint or cellulose paint, any advice greatly appreciated.


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## ColG (10 Jun 2006)

Hi,

I'm just refurbing some MFC wardrobes for a client. The basecoat is International Melamine Primer brushed on (after first keying with 320 grit paper) followed by 2 coats primer/undercoat with an oil based eggshell topcoat which looks fine - you can brush, roller or spray apply the coats and end up with a good finish.

Cheers

Col


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## needleworks (10 Jun 2006)

Thanks for the reply ColG, but I really want to use car paint, the kitchen that I seen a few years ago had been done with metallic black car paint and looked like no other kitchen I`d ever seen before, the finish was absolutely outstanding. I also think that there was 3 or 4 coats of lacquer on the top which gave the finish a lovely "deep" shine.


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## engineer one (11 Jun 2006)

whatever you do, you will need to use a melamine type primer
since otherwise the subsequent paint won't adhere.

of course you can use car spray paint, either in cans, quite expensive,
or get them sprayed, but remember that most car paints are
two pack, and you need breathing apparatus etc, and probably 
an oven to bake the finish. at the very least you need one of the
red lights to heat the surface.

try it out on a spare first to see how you can get your act together.

paul :wink:


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## Scrit (11 Jun 2006)

needleworks":346d1782 said:


> My wife has decided she wants a new kitchen, cause she has seen a lovely shiny white one in a showroom !! The kitchen we have may be old, but it is a shrieber, very well made, and still in very good condition.
> 
> Rather than buy a new one, I would like to try and spray the one we have, using car paint. I know it`s been done, but I can`t get in touch with the guy who done it. Anyone have any advice as to whether I would have to treat the wood with anything before I spray it, or what type of paint to use, I have asked a couple of paint sprayers, but they`re a bit non commital whether to use either 2 pak paint, 2k paint or cellulose paint, any advice greatly appreciated.


Which part of the kitchen do you want to paint? If it's the carcasses, which are melamine faced chipboard, I'd suggest that you'll find the degreasing and keying of the melamine will give you major headaches. I'd also be very concerned about the dealing with overspray. To keep the room passably clean you'll need to mask-off very well indeed and use an extremely high volume air extractor with a filter - something like a carpet drier with an inlet filter set (the overspray can cause the fan to go out of balance and destroy itself as these devices tend to iuse aerofoil fans which won't take getting dirty), at least that's what people doing this sort of thing in the USA use. You'll also need a decent quality breather mask - air fed in the case of 2-pack as that stuff is exceptionally toxic during the catalysing phase, and the finishes will stink the house out for a few days afterwards, too. Lastly, spraying in situ like this is a very definite fire risk - after all you are effectively filling a room with an accellerant/air mixture - very combustable. As for finishes, melamine can be over-sprayed, but it requires a special type of paint to adhere unless you mechanically key the surface - pre-cat (cellulose) or 2-pack will tend to peel after a few years if not adequately keyed and their scuff-resistance is nowhere near as high as melamine, so carcasses dine with either would potentially show signs of abrasion quite quickly. If you try to do your carcasses with a high gloss finish at all, you'll live to regret it. High-gloss worktops are the bane of kitchen fitters simply because they scratch as soon as you look at them (well, almost) - a painted high gloss shelf will be even worse IMHO. With the sorts of edge damage, water damage and grease, etc that old kitchens acquire I'd really think twice about doing the carcasses. Carcasses generally spruce-up better with a good clean-out and replacement shelves, also consider replacing/adding the plinths, light pelmets and cornices and if you want the cover bare end panels then consider using either pre-made vinyl-wrapped end panels or self-adhesive vinyl roll sold for the purpose by kitchen door makers.

If it's only the doors, have you considered just replacing them? If the existing doors are melamine/laminate faced or vinyl-wrapped MDF they are simply not going to spray well without an inordinate amount of effort. These days there are some really nice high gloss slabs and saponettas being made in vinyl-wrapped MDF - the better quality doors are recognisable because the surface doesn't suffer from "orange peel" caused by problems in the glue bonding - appears on about 80% of the IKEA high gloss doors I've seen. I deal with a manufacturer who is now doing about 20 high gloss colours (in slabs), including a blue maple (not my cup of tea, but in the right setting it could look really cool). Unless your existing doors are really special, this is probably the way I'd go. I'm not sure about spraying a high gloss finish onto a solid wood door - I'd be concerned about any seasonal movement damaging the finish (after all you need to build a lot of coats on top of the substrate) and if asked to do this professionally I'd probably refuse on those grounds, although the amount of work in preparing frame and panel doors for such a process as this is also commercially prohibitive.

If you are still of a mind to spray your existing doors (assuming that they're wood) then then you'll need to consider your facilities. High gloss spraying requires cleanliness, so that means you'll need a spray booth with adequate extraction - you can spray in a converted garage, but you will need extraction to help avoid overspray. The doors will need to be thoroughly degreased and the existing finish mechanically keyed then flatted to around 180/220grit. To prevent any problems occurring with the existing finish you'll need a barrier layer and for that something like a couple of thin coats of white French polish (shellac) works well. The doors would then need to be sprayed using 2 or 3 coats of (ideally) a high-solids/high-build undercoat, denibbed between coats and flatted to at least 600/800 grit before applying the top coat. Don't skip grades when sanding - 600 grit will never sand-out 320 grit scratches - and thoroughly clean-out the surface area and/or any machinery between coats and use a lubricant (soapy water) for silicon carbide papers. After you have a smooth, clean primed surface you can then spray the top coats. About the easiest high-gloss is a 2K colour coat (2 or 3 coats in reality) with 3 or 4 coats of a clear or tinted/metallised clear gloss on top. Finally the whole lot needs to be buffed out with a mop head and something like Farecla. the 2K stuff is widely available but you must ensure that the paint, thinners, undercoat, etc all come form the same supplier and that they are compatible. 2k (2-part) acrylics are available which allow the use of particulate/P2 carbon masks without the need of an air fed mask, but they still require caution.

Good luck.

Scrit


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## Argee (11 Jun 2006)

Scrit":2qx3fq1x said:


> I deal with a manufacturer who is now doing about 20 high gloss colours (in slabs)..........


In case you're not aware, Hafele are also doing high gloss doors, drawer fronts, etc. in 13 colours. Standard and custom sizes.

Ray.


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## Scrit (11 Jun 2006)

Argee":jf8p5dhm said:


> Scrit":jf8p5dhm said:
> 
> 
> > I deal with a manufacturer who is now doing about 20 high gloss colours (in slabs)..........
> ...



Yes Ray, but Hafele are just EXPENSIVE on much of what they do, even with trade discounts

Scrit


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## needleworks (12 Jun 2006)

thanks for all the input guys, looks like I may have to re-think my strategy. I`m gonna look at the possibility of replacing all the doors/drawer fronts.

Once again, thanks to all who replied.


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## andrewm (12 Jun 2006)

I saw a kitchen in a flat a couple of years ago that used standard carcasses but with doors made from stainless steel faced MDF. It may have been a laminate but looked real enough. the edges of the doors were edged in a bright turquoise and it looked 'very' expensive. So making your own doors is a possibility. 

I did enquire last year at a local body shop as to the cost of spraying an MDF sideboard but it wasn't going to work out very cheap. The price was roughly based on the surface area which for kitchen doors is likely to be a lot more than your average saloon.

Andrew


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## Scrit (13 Jun 2006)

That sounds like a laminate - sevetal manufacturers do laminates, some in the most outrageous effects, but the bright shiney metal ones tend to be a bit fragile for use in a kitchen (i.e. they can matk quite easily, like any high gloss finish). I deal with a couple of firms who do stainless steel wrapped doors - the steel is formed around an MDF shell with a laminate-covered back. They are a llot more durabe and will stand repolishing of brushing if required

Scrit


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