Painting cabinets is one of the few remodeling jobs where the materials cost very little and the result depends almost entirely on preparation. Skip the dull parts and the finish will tell on you within a year.
Set up a real workspace
You need somewhere ventilated where doors can lie flat and stay untouched for a day or more. Painting doors on their hinges is the single most common shortcut, and it is why so many home-painted kitchens have runs down the stiles.
Label everything as it comes off
Take the doors and drawer fronts off, remove the hardware, and label each piece and its hinge positions. Cabinet openings are rarely identical, and doors that go back to a different opening will not sit right.
Clean, then degrease, then sand
Kitchen cabinets carry years of cooking grease that is invisible until paint refuses to stick to it. Wash them down, degrease properly, then sand enough to give the surface a key. This stage is the job.
Prime
A bonding primer is what makes the topcoat hold, particularly over factory finishes, thermofoil or previously stained wood. It is not an optional coat.
Choose the paint deliberately
Oil-based enamels level beautifully and cure hard, but they are slow and they yellow over time on whites. Modern waterborne alkyds get close to the same finish with far less smell and a faster recoat. Either works. Standard wall paint does not.
Thin coats, and more of them
Two or three thin coats will outlast one thick one every time. Let each coat cure rather than just dry, and resist the urge to reassemble early.
Reassemble carefully
Paint reaches handling strength long before it reaches full hardness. Give it as long as the tin says, then put the doors back on their original openings and adjust the hinges.
Done properly this is a week of evenings and a genuinely different kitchen. If the doors are damaged, the boxes are failing, or you would rather it were simply done, that is a conversation worth having before you buy the paint.
