The Best Tutorials for Spray Painting Cabinets

When we bought this house 1 year ago, the newly remodeled kitchen was one of the definite perks. The cabinets were solid maple, have a great layout, and they were really built well. The downside of them was their finish. When the cabinets were installed they were not sealed properly, which means in numerous places the glaze was rubbing off like this:

Not only is the glaze rubbing off, I also cannot scrub grease or dirt off of them, without scrubbing the finish right off. This means I have been forced to live with greasy and dirty cabinets which is driving me crazy.

I know there are tons of “wood purists” who would LOVE to have solid wood cabinets like these, but I have been LONGING for a bright white kitchen. This kitchen doesn’t get much natural light, and I think that bright cabinets would help a lot. Here is our current situation:

Won’t you agree that white cabinets would make a difference? When we got our new windows installed we removed one cabinet to widen the window. Since installing the window I haven’t been able to decide on open shelving, which means this stack of clean dishes has been living on the counter.

I have definitely decided that I will be painting cabinets, but I’m not sure of HOW I’m going to paint them. In the past I’ve used Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations and I’ve done my own DIY version of Cabinet Transformations. The problem is that both of those options leave brush strokes. On old dated cabinets I wasn’t too concerned about that, but on these expensive, newer, beautiful cabinets I want to be certain I use the BEST method. I’ve narrowed it down to spraying the cabinets thanks to these helpful tutorials:

1. Bower Power– Check out how she taped off her doorways! We’ve got three openings leaving our kitchen so this will be so helpful.

2. All things Thrifty– I love how she used a decorative glaze to add character. They’re not “antiqued” but have just a little added dimension. I’m highly considering doing this on mine!

3. Evolution of Style– She has the smartest tip to run warm water through your paint sprayer to clean it, rather than trying to disassemble a messy paint gun and then clean it! Genius!

4. Dans le Townhouse– Although turquoise wouldn’t be my choice I love that they went for something bold that is just their style. I also love the factory finish they were able to get with a sprayer.

5. Chris Loves Julia– I love her smart idea to use Dixie cups to hold up the cabinet doors, I also can’t get enough of their stools in the finished space!

How about you, do you have any expert tips for spray painting cabinets? Were you able to achieve the “Factory Finish”?

Update 10/27/14- Here’s how I put these tutorials to work and spray painted my cabinets!