Repainting Cabinets? First You Need to Strip

By Jim Mallery
RefacingCabinet.com Columnist

Part 1 of 2

If you are thinking of refinishing your kitchen cabinets, keep in mind that stripping them and prepping them for a new finish is a little more involved than slathering some stripper on the wood and wiping off the paint. What you blithely think may be a weekend project could well take a whole week of tedious labor. Here are several tips when stripping your cabinets.

Gather Your Stripping Tools

Here are the tools you need as you get started:

1. A stripper of your choice, but if you are stripping a vertical surface, it's easier to use a gel. You can buy stripper at paint stores, or Home Depot or Lowe's. By nature, strippers are toxic; there are eco-friendly brands, but you still need to use them with care. The main ingredient in the more toxic strippers is methyl chloride--some people avoid it at all costs, while others feel it does a better job and use it with great caution.
2. Rubber gloves.
3. Natural-bristle brush (strippers dissolve synthetic fibers) to apply the stripper.
4. Tooth brush or brass-bristle brush of that size.
5. Stiff, vegetable brush.
6. Toothpicks; 1/4" or 3/16" dowel, sharpened in pencil sharpener.
7. Fine steel wool.
8. Metal or plastic scraper. If metal, round the corners with a file to keep it from gouging the wood.
9. Lacquer thinner.
10. Empty paint cans or heavy-duty plastic bucket and cat litter for disposal.

Prepare Your Work Area

Begin your preparation.

1. Paint strippers release toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs)--even the most eco-friendly brands. Do as much work as possible outdoors or in an open garage. Lay down sheets of cardboard to keep the stripper off concrete and protect other areas from splashing.
2. If you must work inside, as is likely when stripping kitchen cabinets, leave windows and doors open. Mask off the walls that abut the cabinets with plastic, and use drop cloths to protect everything else that might get splashed.
3. Remove doors, drawers, and shelves and take outdoors to strip (take care to note the location of each drawer and door so you can return them to the exact location). Remove all hinges, pulls, and knobs. You might want to remove the cabinets from the walls and remount them when you are done. One problem with this, however, is that the house may have shifted since the cabinets were first installed and they may not reinstall in a tidy fashion.

With the prep done, you are ready to strip.

Part 2 of 2

Let the Stripping Begin

Stripping lacquer or paint off your kitchen cabinets takes a little muscle, but mostly it's just sloppy and tedious. The stripper is doing most of the work for you. Once you have prepped, here are 11 stripping tips:

1. Wear rubber gloves and safety glasses. Cover your arms and legs.
2. Closely follow instructions that come with your stripper--they can vary from brand to brand. Generally, pour stripper on the surface and spread it with the brush. Don't work it back and forth, just spread it and let it sit. Strippers form a waxy film on top that prevents the volatile stripper from evaporating before it can work. If you overwork it, that film is broken and the stripper dries too quickly.
3. Horizontal surfaces are easier to do. For the vertical faces of your cabinets, use a thick, gel-type stripper that won't run.
4. When the paint loosens or bubbles, scrape it off. It may require a little force, but take care not to damage the wood (hence the rounded edges of the scraper).
5. If patches of lacquer or paint still adhere, put more remover on over the old. Let it sit several minutes and scrape again.
6. Use a toothbrush, brass brush, toothpick, or sharpened dowel to get into the nooks and crannies. Again, be careful not to damage the wood.
7. You may have trouble with paint that remains in the grain. Rubbing stripper into the grain with the vegetable brush or with fine steel wool helps remove it.
8. You end up with lots of gunk. Put it in a paint can or plastic bucket, preferably mixing with clay-based kitty litter (wood chips are a lesser alternative). Let it dry. Your locality may not allow you to dispose of this in the regular trash, but it probably has sites where you can dispose of toxic waste.
9. Rinse your wood with lacquer thinner and then rinse it again. Think about it--anything you want to coat your kitchen cabinets with is not going to stick to traces of stripper.
10. With your kitchen cabinets stripped to bare wood, it's a good time to evaluate. It's not uncommon to find nice wood cabinets hidden under a coat of paint. You might want to finish them with a clear finish rather than the coat of paint you had planned.
11. If you are painting them, fill any nicks and scratches with a good wood filler and sand smooth. (Then clean any dust with a swipe of thinner and a tack cloth). Pay attention to the quality of your sanding because any irregularities will show under a coat of paint.

This should get your kitchen cabinets ready for a revitalizing refinish.

 

 

About The Author

Jim Mallery, a semi-retired journalist and onetime registered contractor, has extensive experience remodeling, repairing and rebuilding homes.