For wood, brushing is fine, but you may want to hire a professional for a good finish. Using a roller to paint cabinets is a lot faster than brush painting, however, the fabric on the roller will create a 'bobbly' texture on the surface. The texture a roller puts on cabinets makes it unsuitable for gloss paint.
Cabinet Painting with a Roller & a Brush
On the fronts and backs of drawers and doors, you can use a roller. This will apply the paint in a more smooth and even manner and is much faster than only using a paint brush. Then, use a brush for touching up small areas or for hard-to-reach spots.
PAINTING CABINETS – when painting kitchen or bathroom cabinets, we suggest that you use a lint free roller to paint the flat surface areas on the cabinets. This helps to reduce any potential for brush strokes.
Using a paint sprayer is one of the easiest ways to get a super smooth finish on your cabinets. By their very nature, paint sprayers eliminate brush strokes and roller marks completely. And painting with a paint sprayer is almost always faster than using a paint roller and paint brush.
When using a brush, painters can apply thick or thin coats, depending on how they blend and apply the cabinet paint. While the paint that goes into a sprayer has to be thin enough to create a fine mist, brushes are excellent for any paint viscosity.
Many professionals now use latex paint, citing the improvements to the formula and the as-good-as finish they can get on most surfaces. We actually prefer a third type of paint for cabinets, the hybrid enamel.
A small 4” foam roller is best for painting cabinets.
You can also easily use a small roller to smooth out most places you even used a brush to apply cabinet paint. The foam nap also gives you a smoother finish on your cabinets.
Walls, Wood, and Metal - Small 1/4″ nap roller covers or foam rollers will produce the smoothest finish. Light to Medium Textured Surfaces - Microfiber rollers are best.
Ideally, spray painting cabinets is the most sought after method today. The quality of finish you get from using a spray gun is second to none, and it's by far a faster and more efficient method.
Roller provides thin, uniform and even coats, and is an ideal tool for painting large, smooth and well-prepared walls, ceilings, and large furniture. The roller is more economical to use than the brush since its porous surface holds much more paint and distributes an even layer of paint much faster.
The first thing to bear in mind when choosing a roller is - the rougher the surface of the wall the longer and thicker the pile. A short pile roller is generally used for smooth or flat walls, or for drywalls. Less paint is taken up by the roller, allowing for easy application onto flat walls.
To apply flat, eggshell, or satin paints and stains, a knit roller cover is recommended. Knit roller covers can pick up and release higher amounts of paint than woven fabrics because the fibers have a looped backing with a single pass-through process resulting in a more “open” fabric.
For super smooth coverage of your cabinets, try the FoamPRO Fine Finisher Roller. This is one of the best mini rollers for painting cabinets as it's made of quality materials to help you apply a smooth, lint-free finish. It works great with enamel paints, urethanes, varnishes, primers, and stains.
While there are many types of paint to choose from, the best paint for kitchen cabinets is typically semi-gloss, gloss or satin. Matte is not practical in kitchens and baths where you will need durable paint you can easily clean.
If you don't clean before sanding, contaminates (like cooking grease) will be pressed down into the wood. Contaminates will keep the soon be applied paint for sticking. You can remove the doors here in the process or wait until after you wash them down. It is totally up to you and situational dependent.
Large paint roller: 12 – to 18 – inch rollers, a bigger paint roller size. A long nap roller is best used for painting by professional.
Mauro explains that paint roller brushes are measured by their nap length, which determines coverage and texture. a. Shorter naps, around ¼-inch length, are good for smooth surfaces because they can cover the surface in paint without applying too much texture.
A quality roller should last up to 5 cycles before shedding. You can reuse it without affecting the quality of the paint application and over time it will end up paying for itself.
How to paint walls – brush vs roller. If you're working with a brush instead of a roller, you can dip your brush directly in the tin of paint. No need for a tray. When dipping your brush, try not to charge the brush with too much paint.
When it comes to speed and ease of use, using a paint sprayer is the way to go. This is the main reason why so many professional painters use them. But for those looking for quality, nothing beats a roller. It offers a more even finish, a superior texture, and adheres much better.