How to Paint Black Kitchen Cabinets

Hey guys! Get ready for a LONG and picture heavy post! That’s because it’s week 3 of the One Room Challenge and I’ve got a TON to share. This is the week where I talk all about how to paint black kitchen cabinets.

In week one I shared the “before” and in week two I shared my mood board and plans.

I started by filling all the excess cabinet holes with this wood filler. **post contains affiliate links**. I did two coats and sanded between coats to ensure that they wouldn’t show once they were painted.

Next I primed all of the cabinets with Bulls Eye 1-2-3 in Gray, due to going with a much darker paint color. I used this brush and this roller which didn’t leave any roller marks.

Here’s a close up so that you can see the awful graph paper pattern that I was covering up.

I used my trusty paint platform that I LOVE for projects like these.

I carried ALL of the doors and drawer faces to the basement, and used dixie cups as risers before spraying the faces. I used my Graco Truecoat 360 sprayer to spray the cabinet faces. I’ve used it on TONS of cabinet projects and I still really love it and highly recommend it!

After the gray had cured, I used the same method for my black paint. The black paint color didn’t have a name, but is the darkest base with 12 ounces of black colorant. No blue, no yellow… only black colorant. I LOVE how pure this color is. Then I used the exact same method to put three coats of Minwax Polycrilic in satin on everything.

Then came the fun part where I put it all back together, adding these brass knobs and these brass pulls.That was until the NEXT DAY when our double oven broke for good! We knew it was bound to happen, but we didn’t even get to enjoy the new kitchen with it. The really bad news was that it was a 24″ range, which is basically obsolete these days. So we had to get creative.

After removing the double oven I painted the surround and added MDF shelves to turn it into a pantry. I built pantry doors using MDF and some scrap pieces that were used to trim out the old oven. I can’t say I LOVE the doors that I built, but they’re doing the job.

Then we demoed the built in desk, and put the fridge where the desk was. Next I used more MDF to build a double oven cabinet.
Honestly, I didn’t take many photos of this part because I was figuring it out as I went. Basically though I built up a base, used the drawers from the desk, and then put a piece of MDF on top of those. Then I used more MDF to create a shelf. I had all the MDF cut at our local Lowe’s so I made multiple trips with VERY specific measurements.

I took the cabinet doors that were above the desk, and cut them down to use above the oven. I had to have our electrician move the wiring to this wall so that we would wire the oven.

Next I tore apart the very angled island, and used the exact same cabinets but put them straight in a row rather than angled. TO make this work I built a new base out of MDF, and also had a new back panel cut out of MDF.

I ended up being able to reuse both end panels from the original island, which meant only the back and base was new. As you can see along with the oven we also bought a new oven and refrigerator! I built a shelf for baskets above the fridge, because I didn’t have any more cabinet doors to use up here. Once we get the flooring installed, I’ll use another piece of MDF to create a fridge end panel.

Finally I had our electrician move the pendant lights, and our plumber run all new lines for the sink and dishwasher.
You’ve probably noticed that I also hung a backsplash! Because this post is already insanely long I’ll save those details for a post later this week!
So this is how our kitchen stands today! This week I’m working on patching the old pendant light holes, building the butcher block countertops, and finishing painting the MDF.

Of course I’m totally crazy, and if you remember I’m ALSO taking on our dining room! No progress was made in there this week though, and we’ve still got a plastic curtain hung separating it. I’m hoping to get the drywall in there knocked out by next week.

So I’ve still got an insane amount of projects to accomplish, but it’s coming along! I hope that you love my black painted cabinets as much as I do! I think the key to them looking so good is all of the natural light that this kitchen gets.

I hope that I’ve inspired you to consider painting your cabinets! Also maybe you can revive your kitchen by working with the cabinets you’ve already got, rather than starting from scratch? Otherwise there’s always that one time I bought our kitchen cabinets on Craigslist from a house that was being torn down! Or maybe you just want to update your knobs and pulls to some fun brass ones like these? Either way thanks for stopping by today!

**Update** If you’d like to see how the kitchen and dining room turned out head to this post! I’ll share one little spoiler pic here: