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5 from 4 votes

How to paint Ikea Cabinets

Here are the steps to painting Ikea cabinets.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Additional Time5 days
Total Time5 days 1 hour 20 minutes
Course: DIY
Cost: 150.00

Equipment

  • Small cabinet paint roller
  • Cabinet paint brushes

Ingredients

  • Degreaser
  • Oil Based Primer
  • tape
  • Your favorite cabinet paint *I like Benjamin Moore Advance Paint

Instructions

  • Start by making sure your cabinets are super clean. They should be as they are likely new, but if not you need a good degreaser.
  • If they already have hardware on them, remove the hardware.
  • Tape off anything you don't want to paint. I only painted the fronts of the doors and the base. The inside of the cabinet I did not paint, I didn't care that they were white. And this way, it saves them chipping from banged pots and you don't have to remove the doors.
  • Use a good primer. I used an oil-based primer and did 2-3 coats on them. Luckily primer dries fast, follow the directions on the dry time- super important.
  • Once you have your primer set, you can jump into the painting. I used a small roller brush, like this one here. And carefully rolled being careful to not overcoat one area more than the other.
  • Let the first coat dry for 24 hours per the instructions on the paint. You really have to wait the time, I am super impatient with these kinds of things and want to hurry to the next time, but just don't. The curing time is super important to make sure your cabinets hold up. I ended up doing 3 top coats, just to make sure the paint was really on there good. For the next couple of weeks be careful with them. It takes weeks to fully cure and you could ding them up if you aren't careful.

Notes

* The times above are just estimates as it all depends on how many cabinets and what size they are.