Before painting, thoroughly clean your cabinets to remove all grease, cooking oils, and grime. Use a heavy-duty degreaser like Krud Kutter Pre-Paint Cleaner or Trisodium Phosphate (TSP). Avoid dish soaps with moisturizers or polishes like Murphy’s Oil, as they leave residues that ruin paint adhesion.
Yes, you can use Murphy Oil Soap on kitchen cabinets. However, it is specifically designed for natural wood and relies on proper dilution.
Properly prepping your cabinets is the most critical step for a flawless, long-lasting finish. Remove all doors, drawers, and hardware. Thoroughly degrease every surface with a heavy-duty cleaner, scuff sand to remove the glossy sheen, fill any imperfections, and apply a high-quality bonding primer.
When wiping your cabinets clean, it's also important to avoid abrasive rags or pads—and to clean the surfaces of your cabinets gently. Scrubbing too hard can damage the finish of your wood cabinetry over time.
Yes, you can use Dawn dish soap on wood cabinets, but only highly diluted in warm water. Because Dawn is an aggressive degreaser, using it straight or without thorough rinsing can strip the wood's finish or leave a dull, hazy residue over time.
To make old wood cabinets look new, choose the approach that fits your budget and the cabinet's current condition. The most effective methods range from simple polishing and re-staining to a complete overhaul with paint.
Recap: Painting Kitchen Cabinets
The 1/3 rule in cabinet design is an interior design guideline stating that a cabinet pull or handle should be approximately one-third the width of a drawer or one-third the height of a cabinet door. This ensures hardware is visually balanced and functional.
Kilz can be a great primer for cabinets, but it depends heavily on the specific formula you choose. For cabinets, you need a primer that provides excellent adhesion, stain blocking, and durability.
Using a Magnum airless paint sprayer will provide the fastest way to achieve a perfect finish. When this project is done right, you'll get a durable, smooth finish, without any brush strokes or other imperfections. It's also important to get even coverage on the doors and in all the corners and grooves.
The best overall cleaner for wood cabinets is a simple mixture of warm water and a few drops of grease-cutting dish soap. For stubborn grease, specialized oil soaps like Murphy Oil Soap Wood Cleaner are highly effective. Always avoid harsh chemicals, abrasive scrubbers, and soaking the wood to protect the finish.
It will also start leaving a residue after a few times. If it is furniture - use Murphy's oil soap, but not on wood floors! Use only what the wood floor manufacturer recommends. If it's raw wood floors and finished in the home you can use a very small amount (2 Tablespoons) to a gallon of water.
*How Do I Prep Kitchen Cabinets with an Existing Finish Before Painting or Recoating with a Stain?
Kitchen cabinet colors that feel dated include stark, clinical all-white, cool minimalist grays, and red-toned woods like cherry or honey-oak. Flat, one-dimensional brown-on-brown color schemes and overly bright primary colors have also fallen out of style.
The best degreaser for paint prep depends on your project, but the top industry standards are dedicated wax and grease removers for automotive surfaces and TSP substitutes for household painting. These cut through grease, silicone, and oils to ensure maximum paint adhesion.
Properly prepping your cabinets is the most critical step for a flawless, long-lasting finish. Remove all doors, drawers, and hardware. Thoroughly degrease every surface with a heavy-duty cleaner, scuff sand to remove the glossy sheen, fill any imperfections, and apply a high-quality bonding primer.
Trending cabinet pulls heavily feature "Modern Heritage" designs and "jewelry for the kitchen". Top styles include oversized/sculptural pulls, timeless cup pulls, and mixed metals.
Combining cabinet handles and knobs in your space is the most effective way to enhance the functionality of your space. Pulls are typically recommended for the lower cabinets because it makes them easier to open and close, while knobs look better on the upper cabinets and are easier to grab and reach.
Not Thoroughly Cleaning the Cabinets
If you don't plan to sand your cabinets, you really should wash them clean with a solution of water and dish soap before applying paint. There's a good chance grease and grime are coating the doors, and you should never paint over this—the paint will not adhere correctly if you do!
Yes, Murphy’s Oil Soap is a trusted and highly recommended choice for cleaning and restoring wood cabinets. It is a gentle, vegetable-based cleaner that safely breaks down kitchen grease, grime, and food residue without stripping the wood’s natural finish.
What makes it look cheap: A lack of continuity disrupts the home's visual and physical flow, subtly cheapening the overall experience. Mismatched flooring, abrupt ceiling changes, or lighting that feels disconnected from nearby spaces can make the kitchen feel compartmentalized instead of cohesive.
No, using Pledge on kitchen cabinets is generally not recommended. While it provides an instant shine and hides fingerprints in the short term, it contains silicone and wax that build up over time. This creates a sticky residue that traps dirt and creates massive headaches if you ever want to repaint or refinish your cabinets.
Yes, you can use Dawn dish soap on wood cabinets, but only highly diluted in warm water. Because Dawn is an aggressive degreaser, using it straight or without thorough rinsing can strip the wood's finish or leave a dull, hazy residue over time.
Yes, you can stain old cabinets to refresh their look, with gel stain being the most popular, efficient method for DIYers to go darker without completely stripping the old finish. While traditional staining requires extensive sanding to bare wood, gel stain sits on top of the existing finish, making the process much faster while allowing the wood grain to remain visible.