Foam rollers, which have a firm sponge-like texture, are ideal for painting cabinets because they provide the smoothest finish. They work best with latex or water-based paint because that type of paint is thinner and more easily absorbed by the sponge-like quality of the foam roller.
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.
Try to limit brush marks by painting with the grain of the wood. While on the trim boards, using the foam roller and brush paint only one side of drawers and doors. Next, using the same brush and foam roller apply a coat of Cabinet Enamel to the base cabinets. DRY OVERNIGHT and clean your brush.
Paint Type Choices
Foam rollers are often recommended when a very smooth, glossy surface is required. They can be used with both oil- and latex-paints, semigloss or high-gloss, and are a good choice for a wall of built-in cabinet doors.
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.
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.
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.
Rollers are great for providing the main surface of your cabinets with smooth, even coverage, especially if they're larger in size. If you have a lot of cabinets or cupboards to paint, using a paint sprayer can help you speed up the process while still achieving great coverage.
Air bubbles will appear on the surface when working with a foam roller. This is a natural process. It is the air within the foam that is being transmitted onto your surface. Allow for air bubbles to dry naturally (no breeze or wind within the room) and it will vanish completely once dry.
Two coats of paint are essential for cabinets—you're building a surface. By the way, to get the nicest finish, use a brush, a 2- to 2 1/2-inch fine bristle brush. Whatever paint you use, ventilate the room—direct a fan out the window—and wear the masks they sell in paint stores.
Give The Paint Time to Dry Off Before Rolling the Next Layer
You can also avoid orange peel by doing one coat at a time. This will give the paint enough time to dry off before rolling the next coat. Being impatient when rolling paint on your walls will make it foam bubbles and have orange peel.
Before you start a paint job, you actually want to wet the paint roller cover with water. “This primes the roller cover to soak up as much paint as possible,” Barr explains. But don't go too crazy—Barr suggests removing excess moisture with a paper towel and a good shake of the roller so it's just slightly damp.
Large paint roller: 12 – to 18 – inch rollers, a bigger paint roller size. A long nap roller is best used for painting by professional.
Painters often use traditional rollers for uneven exterior walls and foam rollers for smooth interior walls, doors, and cabinets. Foam rollers glide along a smooth flat surface very easily and dispense the paint on the surfaces evenly. Foam rollers tend to last a shorter period of time than traditional rollers.
Gloss and semi-gloss paints go on better with short-nap rollers because this generates fewer bubbles when you're rolling out the paint. Before you buy your roller, make sure to: 1. Squeeze the roller cover.
Microfiber rollers are like traditional woven paint rollers but feature a wrap of microfiber cloth. Microfiber cloths are like normal cloth, but the fibers on microfiber cloths are extremely small. On a microfiber roll, the microfibers are adhered to the roller with heat, which makes microfiber rollers very durable.