Sanding & Re-Painting Kitchen Cabinets & Shelves

Here's what happens if you paint over already painted shelves and cabinets without sanding them first (especially if the paint beforehand seems to have been oil and you're using water based paint) - the paint peels!

When we first started with the drawers we were pretty good at sanding the faces of the drawers a bit, so they are OK. However as we went along we weren't as diligent about the rest of the doors, shelves etc… So, after we had painted two coats on almost everything, we started to notice how easily these parts scratched, and even worse, how easily the painted started to peel.

removing the doors

So… since we don't want to re-do this whole process again in two years we decided to redo almost everything, and do it right. So that has meant removing doors which we had been painting without taking down, and a lot of sanding. We wanted to get past the paint we had put on, as well as the paint that was there beforehand down to bare wood so that requires quite a bit of sanding.

We have already gone through the Black and Decker belt sander which we bought for the floor, it broke but luckily Home Depot has a good return policy so now we have an even better one. The wood on the doors and the shelves is nice however and at least the weather has been good so we have been able to be outside.

This time we also primed the sanded parts beforehand with spray paint, and then we painted over that with the finished antique white semi gloss paint. 

We just love making more work for ourselves than if we had just done it right to begin with....