Between finishing a 260+ page book manuscript (due Jan 4 — yikes!) and hosting family time with lots of delicious food, we’ve also been priming the kitchen cabinets. Can I get a “holla!”? Or more likely, a “you’re crazy.”
Thankfully our guests have been super understanding, and it feels great to see real progress.
Primer naturally looks a little rough, which is actually a benefit — it takes the pressure off getting a perfect finish at this stage. Primer is essentially a sticky underlayer that helps paint adhere and last, so as long as you apply it thinly and evenly (avoid drips), follow the recommended drying time, and then paint, you’re on the right track.
Using a stain-blocking primer is especially important on wood cabinets that were previously stained and exposed to kitchen grease like ours. We used Zinsser Smart Prime, a high-quality, low-VOC primer recommended to us by two pro cabinet painters and available at our local Benjamin Moore store. One advantage of this primer is that it stays “open” a bit longer, so it doesn’t skin over immediately while you’re still working it into cracks and smoothing out drips or bumps. It’s also durable, which should help give us long-lasting results.
For the smoothest application we use a small foam roller and a 2″ angled brush. There are plenty more primer tips and techniques to share — and we filmed the process — so we’ll return with a full how-to next week once our arms recover from all the brushing and rolling.
Once the painting is finished and our very understanding house guests head home, we’ll finally have the kitchen back. Until then, picture us juggling painting, doing a happy dance, editing the book, and offering snacks and drinks in the dining room and living room since the kitchen is temporarily out of commission.
This is the exciting part — we can’t wait for the hardware to go back on once everything fully cures. New hardware feels like the final flourish and is oddly thrilling, especially when the space used to look like this:
Wahoo — progress!
Note: We previously shared details on how we prepped our cabinets for paint and how we chose hinges and cabinet color. If you enjoyed this update, stay tuned for the full step-by-step primer and painting guide coming soon.