Waterloo Region Homeseller’s Guide to Kitchen Cabinet Painting
If you are putting your Waterloo Region home on the market for sale it is of course very important that you are able to present it in its best possible light. However, investing a great deal of money in a property they intend to leave soon is not something that most home sellers want to do.
The kitchen is often the room that home buyers pay most attention to when real estate ‘shopping’. The two biggest elements in most kitchens are the kitchen cabinets and the kitchen counter tops, and a change in either can often make a huge difference to the way a kitchen looks and “feels”. But both projects can also be rather expensive.
If their kitchen cabinets are an issue, some people consider kitchen cabinet refacing over kitchen cabinet replacement to save money. But kitchen cabinet refacing can even mean spending more than you would ideally like to.
In terms of cost when it comes to kitchen cabinet refacing, painting the old cabinets and drawer fronts is often the cheapest option, but is it a good alternative to having the old cabinet fronts replaced altogether?
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Facts
There are times when all that a homeowner really has to grumble about when it comes to the appearance of their kitchen cabinets is their basic color. They are happy with the shape of the doors and their basic construction, they simply cannot stand the color, or it may even just be that the doors are scratched and damaged and certainly look as if they have seen better days, a state of affairs unlikely to impress many home buyers.
In this kind of situation, a simple repainting job can indeed make all the difference, and it is a relatively inexpensive way to give kitchen cabinets a new lease on life. You do have to go about such a project in the right way though in order for it to be as effective as you want it to be. Here are a few tips:
Choose Your Colors Carefully
When it comes to interior design in general, there are certain colors that are practically timeless while others are “hot” and trendy for a while but then tend to look rather dated quickly (think the avocados and browns that were so trendy in the 1970s that look very old-fashioned now) By sticking to “classic” colors you will ensure that your kitchen cabinets’ new paint job looks great (and relevant) for years to come.
Examples of interior colours for kitchen cabinet painting with home staging in mind that most people love; beige, taupe, ivory, coffee tones, honey, butter, golden, wheat, blue-green, mossy green, brown, blue-gray, and gray.
Choose the Right Paint
Most experts agree – if you are going to invest time and money in kitchen cabinet painting, latex paint is the best choice as it is more durable, goes on quite easily and is usually very easy to keep clean.
The two primary differences between oil-based paint and latex-based paint on kitchen cabinets are final texture and dry time. Oil-based is more traditional and popular with purists who like the “painterly” look of brush marks, while latex gives a more consistent finish. But oil-based paint can take up to a full day to dry, as opposed to a couple of hours for latex. Plus, if you choose a low- or no-VOC latex paint, the odor will be considerably less offensive as it cures.
Do Your Prep Work
There is more to refacing kitchen cabinets by painting them than just slapping on a couple of coats of paint. Preparing the cabinets surfaces properly is very important. If the surface is already painted, the old paint needs to be stripped off and a layer of primer applied before the new paint goes on.
Priming will keep discoloration, splotches, and visible knots in the wood at bay. Primers fall into two main categories—light and dark—so generally speaking, you’ll choose your primer based on your paint color. If redoing your cabinets in white, cream, or a pastel shade, use a primer suitable for light paint, and if going with a dark color, get a primer that won’t peek through.
Don’t Get Too Creative
If you are repainting the cabinets in a home for sale, then you want the finished look to appeal to as many people as possible. That really does mean that you should keep things rather simple.
‘Specialist’ painting techniques like stenciling and ragging can look very nice, but they are something of a ‘niche’ decor technique that not everyone appreciates. Save the creative stuff for your new home and just stick to getting a smooth streak free finish for this repainting job.
Getting ready to sell your Waterloo Region home, or buy a new one? Let Team Pinto use our huge experience and expertise to help you. Contact the award-winning Team Pinto here, or book a free Zoom consultation to discuss your unique Waterloo Region real estate needs here.