Best Paint Finishes for Kitchen Cabinets (part 2)

As told in part 1 of this article, changing the set of kitchen cabinets can extremely cause expenditure increment. Thus renovating the products using different paint finishes can be economically beneficial and will instantly improve aesthetics of the house portion.

People often get stuck into a dilemma of choosing old-school oil paint or latex paint which is available widely for their cabinets. Latex material is often recommended for kitchen applications due to its offering which is lower levels of unstable organic compounds production and its drying pace which is higher than the oil material. However, oil paint gained its popularity due to its easy applicability and long lasting characteristics which is ability to be scrubbed and clean regularly.

Latex Paint and Oil Paint Finish Comparison

Oil paint finish is popular due to its resilient specification, thus using this type of can be very efficient for kitchen applications. Opening cabinet doors with sticky or greasy hands can cause strains on the material, however oil paints have the ability not to be scratched and get cleaned easily with simple scrubbing without taking any damage. This paint takes a long time to dry in between coats, and the time is approximately up to 16 hours which can be considered as a draw back from some people’s perspective. Waiting for the paint to dry while having no good circulation especially inside MDF cabinets can become an issue. Keeping equipment and also some dry foods out of the cabinets for a day is surely annoying. Latex-paint, unlike the oil finish can be dried and ready for another coat in about two to four hours. This means the job can be done easily in few hours and the kitchen will be put back together instantly.

Having fast pace drying characteristic is not the only reason for using Latex as a paint finish. Two biggest pros of Latex are about its VOCs and yellowing. Water-based latex often has no VOCs unlike the oil paints which release higher levels of volatile organic compounds. Using paints which are known to produce VOCs on the cabinets which are surrounding for consumable materials such as food, eating utensils and spices is not recommended. These emissions can cause health damage and conditions in organs such as nose, eyes and throat. The surfaces which are covered with oil-paint are expected to take yellow hue over time and the cabinets might start to look dingy. Also, these paint finishes are prone to yellowing in low light conditions, thus painting inside of the kitchen cabinets which have slab doors, flat doors and etc. is not recommended.

Latex paint while having many advantages are much easier to use as painting material for kitchen cabinets. Nowadays, most of these paints are produced with greater durability for cleaning. This is an important factor for kitchen application, thus choosing a washable or scrub able finishes needs to be considered.

It is important to mention that if the material used for cabinets is MDF or Solid Wood, their surface need to be properly prepared before applying latex paint. This paint finish is more likely to show variances in the texture and grain on the wood unlike oil paint which goes on smooth. If a smooth and good look is desired after finish, some prep work beforehand is necessary.

There is an additional situation for using latex-paint which is when a kitchen cabinet is already painted instead of being pure wood. When the type of the paint which is already applied on the material cannot be identified, using water-based paint formulas having latex are the safest option. Oil-paint never adheres well over latex material; however, the latex-paint can be applied to a surface with any type of paint finish.

Simple Application Tips

If the cabinet has flat doors, they can be renovated with quick work of painting application with simple usage of painting roll having ¼ nap. Paneled cabinets obviously require more precision and work. For evenly coated surfaces and inset areas, paint brush can be very handy. It is also important to choose a synthetic bristle brush if latex paint is applied. The water-based paint can swell the natural bristles.