Why you should ALWAYS sand and prime before painting!

I totally get the draw - the claims of "no sanding, no priming" yadda yadda on your DIY makeover painting projects. Makes life easier - until it doesn't. Here's why you should ALWAYS do both of these things and use the proper types of products, especially if you're working on painting your kitchen cabinets.

Kitchens are a very messy place. There's grease, bbq sauce, oil, butter, bacon splatters, coffee and all kinds of mystery blobs that land on your cabinets. It's called life. When you cook, oil flies everywhere. When you open a door or drawer, oil from your fingers transfers over. You will not see these things on stained cabinets, but you can bet your butt it will eventually come through on your "no sand, no prime" project, especially if you're using a very porous paint and/or do not scrub, sand and prime. It's honestly only a matter of time.

To properly prep your cabinets, you need to THOROUGHLY degrease them. Now, you don't have to go all nutso and use actual TSP - in fact, it's not recommended because it doesn't play nice in the end with some primers, especially the shellac-based primer that I use. Find an environmentally safe degreaser and go to town. Use hot, soapy water with that degreaser mixed in and clean the bajeezus out of them. And then clean them again until the clean water rag you're using to wipe them down with comes away clean.

Here's a pair of doors that I scrubbed (and scrubbed and scrubbed!). They had lived in a home where LOTS of cooking and many, many years of in-home smoking was done, so there was lots to take off here. Door on the left is after I scrubbed, door on the right is before. Do not quit until you know they are completely sparkling clean.

After your doors are completely clean, you MUST sand. This will scuff the surface enough to remove any hairs, dust or stray blobs of whatever may be in the original finish, plus it gives a wonderfully grippy surface for your primer to adhere to. This is CRITICAL to the success of your project. All my projects get 2 solid coats of shellac-based primer. The stuff stinks, but it's miraculous for its stain-blocking powers and it's magical adhesion properties.

After the primer has dried, you may need to lightly sand again to remove any dust or hairs, etc. Important: always use a paint that's specifically formulated for cabinets and trim. This gives it the durability and stamina it will need to stand the test of time. This type of paint will also not require any sort of a top coat because it's designed to be tough and durable, also allowing for any touch-ups in the future without causing discoloration on the surfaces.

So what if you don't follow these steps? There's a number of things that likely will happen.

The most common failure you may experience if you are using a product that's porous, is that over time if there is any iota of grease that was left behind, you will eventually see something like this:

That... is grease rearing its ugly head. There's no way to get rid of this once it appears except sanding everything off, and then thoroughly degreasing and starting all over. In the above photo, it has seeped into the porous paint and is just yucky. Couple this with any sort of top coat that may have been put on and now you've got a whole extra layer of "stuff" to remove before you get back down to that grease and start all over again.

Lastly, if you do not properly clean, sand and prime you will likely see chipping. If a surface isn't made perfect for adhesion and longevity, it will fail.

OR.... if you've read enough and simply don't want to mess with a project of this scope yourself, reach out to me. This kind of nit-picky tedious stuff is totally up my alley! I've transformed over 350 kitchens, bathroom vanities and more, and love every minute of it!