Do it yourself cabinet painters, if you are wondering what is the first step to getting a good finish when painting your kitchen cabinets, then you should consider thoroughly cleaning your cabinets before doing anything else. Cabinets are the least cleaned surfaces in most kitchens. Most people clean their countertops, stoves, sinks, and backsplashes, but most cabinets get forgotten.
Cabinets collect all kinds of contaminants you can see. Most people cook, when they season meat, they forget a condiment in the cabinet and with those filthy hands, they rub the cabinets with their contaminated bloody hands, which they wipe up with a dish cloth if they see the residue. If they don’t see the residue, that contaminated area may not be cleaned up properly. To clean that type of contaminant, you need to clean the area with a good antibacterial cleaner that is also a degreaser. Just like you wash your hands after seasoning meat, you should also clean your cabinets.
Another contaminant that will ruin the paint finish is invisible oil. If you’re like most people, you only clean your cabinets once in a while, whether it’s once a month, every 3 months, or once a year. Cabinets need to be cleaned daily, as do countertops and the sink. If you don’t clean your cabinets daily, you’ll slowly build up a film of oil, grease, and other nasty stuff you can’t see that will cause a problem when you decide to preserve or paint your cabinets.
That’s why proper cleaning before moving on to the next prep step is so important to keep your paint job looking its best. You need a few items to thoroughly clean your cabinets. You need gloves, a scotch pad, a sponge, a 3-gallon bucket, and your favorite degreaser.
All of the items listed are common sense, but are overlooked when a do-it-yourself homeowner decides to paint their own kitchen cabinets. An adhesive pad should only be used on your cabinets when you want to paint or restrain them. Using a sticky pad is not recommended for everyday use because it will ruin the existing finish over time. If you need to use a sticky pad to remove oil and grease then you have neglected cleaning for too long and your next step should be a finish. Clean your cabinets a couple of times. It is your project so you must be willing to do the best job for your home.
After washing down your cabinets with your best degreaser and scotch, you need to fill your 3 gallon bucket with clean water. Get your sponge really wet, then wring it out and wipe the degreaser off your cabinets. You must keep clean water and clean the cabinets several times to remove the degreaser. Once you have removed the degreaser, you should repeat the process several times, degreasing the cabinets at least 2 times and flushing with clean water at least 2 times after degreasing the cabinets, making sure to change the water throughout the process.