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I have the cheap original kitchen cabinets in my kitchen that are the hardboard covered with the wood grain paper. The woodgrain paper is peeling off in places. I would like to paint them but the paint dept at Lowes said that if you paint over this type of cabinet that the paint ends up with bubbles in it. Any suggestions??????

Hi,

Although I like Lowe's I find alot of there employees do not know what they are talking about. You probably have MDF type cabinets. The photo finish paper can easily be hand sanded with a fine paper. Will remove about all of it. Prime with a bonding primer and paint with your choice of color.

I'm redoing my cabinets right now! I honestly don't know what kind of material it is, LOL. Some kind of wood with some kind of varnish and then a clear protective layer on top.

I found the paint guys at Home Depot to be a lot more helpful than the ones at Lowe's. They listened and helped me choose the best primer and paint for the job.

As Yanita said, I sanded the top surface (in my case, the protective finish), then applied something called Bulls Eye 1-2-3. They tinted it to a lighter shade of blue than my paint would be. The paint guy said that this brand is a bit thicker than Kilz and the paint would adhere to it better on the cabinets.

For paint, I didn't want anything glossy but I did want something durable and washable, so they recommended their Behr Premium Plus interior flat enamel. (Happily enough, HD has lowered the price on this stuff so it was only about $16/gallon. One gallon covers 400 sq. ft. It is NICE paint -- very thick and rich. It's covering really well!

I've had excellent results and I've got about half of my cupboards done. I've got a lot of cabinets, sigh. It looks great, though, and keeps me going! Good luck to you!

Personally I do not like the look of painted wood. When I redid our kitchen I found new OAK & plywood cabinets for less than any of the home centers cheap mushboard cabinets.

My other thought would be to make or buy new fronts. Greg