How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets
A new kitchen costs thousands. Painting the cabinets you already have? It costs a day of your time and a tin of paint. And the before photos will feel like a different house.
This is the complete guide to painting kitchen cabinets with Frenchic chalk paint, covering prep, paint selection, the full step-by-step, and colour picks.
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Why Update Kitchen Cabinets Instead of Replacing Them?
There are three reasons most people agree on.
Cost
A full kitchen refit runs anywhere from about £8,000 for a small basic job to £25,000 or more for something bespoke. Painting your existing cabinets with Frenchic typically comes in under £150, even for a decent-sized kitchen. That's the difference between saving for two years and doing it this weekend.
Sustainability
Perfectly good carcasses and doors end up in skips every day because someone wanted a new look. If the bones of your kitchen are solid: hinges work, doors aren't warped, units aren't falling apart. You're replacing what's essentially the outside layer. Repainting keeps the same materials in use.
The Results Genuinely Look Great
Modern chalk paints provide a fresh new look that dates slowly. That's paired with a wipe-clean finish that stands up to kitchen wear and tear. Browse the Frenchic upcycling gallery and you'll see orange pine turned into soft navy, dated white gloss into sage green and plain MDF shaker doors into anything you can imagine.
Painting vs Wrapping: Which Is Right for You?
Frenchic does both, and they solve different problems.
Choose Painting If...
You want a fully custom colour. You've got over 150 colours to choose from across our Al Fresco, Trim Paint and Lazy Range. Paint handles curves, edges and detailing that vinyl wrap can struggle with, and it transforms the whole feel of the cabinet rather than just covering the surface.
Choose Vinyl Wrap If...
You want a realistic wood, marble or stone effect that would be very hard to achieve with paint. It's also far quicker: minutes per cupboard door rather than two or three coats with drying time between each. Wraps are fully removable too, which matters if you're renting.
Why Not Both?
Most people end up using both. Paint the cabinet doors and wrap the worktops. Or paint the base units and wrap the wall units in a wood effect for contrast.
Brush vs Roller vs Sprayer: Which Should You Use?
All three work for kitchen cabinets. Here's what to expect from each.
| Method | Best For | Finish | Difficulty | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brush | Detail work, edges, first-timers | Subtle hand-painted character | Easy | Best starting point for most people |
| Roller | Large flat panels | Slight texture: smooth the wet paint with a brush immediately after | Easy | Use a small foam roller + brush together for the best of both |
| Sprayer | Full kitchens, showroom finish | Ultra-flat, factory finish | Advanced | Worth it for big projects, overkill for smaller ones |
What's the Best Paint for Kitchen Cabinets?
Chalk paint. And it's not close.
Oil-based paints give a hard finish but the prep is miserable and the smell is brutal for days. Standard latex wall emulsion isn't built for the knocks, steam and grease kitchens throw at it. Traditional gloss can look dated and yellows over time.
Modern self-priming, self-sealing chalk paint skips all of that. You can go from clean-and-sand to painting without an extra step. It sticks to wood, laminate, MDF, uPVC and metal. Because it's water-based, brushes rinse in the sink and there's no solvent smell.
Frenchic has three ranges suitable for kitchen cupboards, all self-priming and self-sealing:
Lazy Range
Flat matte finish with a subtle softness from its unique wax infusion. The all-rounder for kitchen cabinets.
Shop Lazy Range
Al Fresco Range
Weatherproof and UV-resistant. The better choice if your kitchen gets a lot of direct sunlight or splashback.
Shop Al Fresco
Trim Paint
Soft satin sheen, closer to traditional woodwork paint. If you want cabinets with a bit of gloss, this is the one.
Shop Trim PaintWhich Surfaces Can You Paint?
Pretty much any cabinet surface you're likely to have in your kitchen.
Natural Wood
Solid wood, pine and oak take paint easily. Knotty pine may need a knotting solution first.
Laminate
The most common kitchen door material. Works fine with proper prep: a thorough sand and degrease sand and degrease.
MDF
Porous, especially on cut edges. Seal with 2-3 coats of Finishing Coat first. Skip this and it looks patchy.
uPVC
Less common for cabinets but used on some budget ranges. Needs thorough sanding as the surface is very smooth.
Metal
Can be painted. Bare ferrous metal needs a specialist metal primer first. Powder-coated metal is fine to paint directly.
Tools and Materials You'll Need
A short list. You don't need much.
For Prep
- Sugar Soap, diluted one part to ten parts warm water
- Sponge and lint-free cloth
- Medium to fine-grade sandpaper or sanding blocks
- Screwdriver (cross-head and flat)
- Wood or all-purpose filler for any dents or holes
- Masking tape
- Dust sheets
- Pen or pencil for numbering doors and drawers
For Painting
- Your chosen Frenchic paint (750ml covers roughly 6m² with two coats, about 10-15 doors)
- Good quality oval brush (the Frenchic Petite Oval 27mm is the all-rounder)
- A small foam or fleece roller for flat areas
- A small paint tray or shallow container
- Something to stir the paint
- A tin opener
Optional but Useful
- + Frenchic Finishing Coat if you're sealing porous surfaces like bare MDF or want extra protection on heavy-wear edges
- + Frensheen mineral powder if you want to mix up a metallic finish for the handles
How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets: Step by Step
Ten steps from start to finish. The first four are prep, and they matter more than anything else you'll do. Rush the prep and the paint won't last.
Remove the Doors, Drawers and Hardware
Label everything as you go. Number the back of each door and drawer with a pencil, and bag up the matching screws, hinges and handles tagged to that number. Even doors that look identical rarely hang exactly the same: they've settled into their specific hinges over years.
The carcasses stay on the wall. You're not removing the boxes themselves, only the doors, drawers and any loose shelving you want to paint. Anything inside the cupboards can stay put.
Clean and Degrease
Kitchen cabinets pick up a film of grease, steam and cooking residue that's invisible until you try to paint over it. Mix one part Sugar Soap to ten parts warm water and scrub every surface you plan to paint: front, edges and inside lip of each door. Then rinse with clean water and let everything dry completely.
Sand the Surface
A light hand-sand creates a 'key', a slightly roughened surface the paint can grip. You don't need an electric sander for most cabinets. Medium to fine sandpaper and a sanding block does the job in about thirty seconds per door.
For glossy laminate doors, sand more thoroughly. The shinier the surface, the more it wants to repel paint, and the better the key you need. Wipe off all the dust with a slightly damp cloth and let everything dry.
Fill and Repair
Fill any dents, chips or old handle holes you're not reusing. Use a wood filler for solid wood doors or a general-purpose filler for laminate or MDF. Press it in, scrape off the excess, let it dry, then sand flush. Wipe off the dust.
Prime (If Needed)
Here's the good news. With Lazy Range, Al Fresco and Trim Paint, you don't usually need to prime anything. All three are self-priming and adhere straight to prepped laminate, wood and uPVC.
The exceptions:
- → Bare MDF or exposed cut edges: seal with 2-3 coats of Finishing Coat first
- → Bare ferrous metal: use a specialist metal primer
- → Knotty wood: a knotting solution stops knots bleeding through over time
- → Going light over a strong dark base (or vice versa): an extra coat of your chosen colour usually works
Apply Your First Coat
Decant the paint into a shallow container rather than painting from the tin: it keeps the rim clean so the lid reseals properly. Dip the brush no more than 2cm into the paint. An overloaded brush causes drips and drag marks.
Paint in long, even strokes, following the grain direction on wood or the longest axis on laminate. Start at the top edge and work down. Pay attention to edges and corners where paint likes to pool.
Sand Between Coats
Once the first coat is fully dry, run over the surface with fine sandpaper. A light pass is all you need. This knocks off any raised grain, dust that settled in the wet paint, and any visible brush marks. Wipe off the dust before moving on.
Apply Your Second Coat
Same technique as the first coat. The colour deepens and evens out. Two coats is enough for most colours on most surfaces. You might need a third for strong reds, deep oranges and cases where you're going significantly lighter over a dark base.
Seal or Top Coat (If Needed)
If you've used Lazy Range, Al Fresco or Trim Paint, you're done. All three are self-sealing. For higher-wear areas, you can add extra protection:
- → Tuff Top Coat for a matte, completely scrubbable finish with good heat resistance
- → Finishing Coat for a soft satin sheen with a little extra durability
Reassemble and Cure
Reattach the hardware and rehang the doors, matching each to the slot it came from. This is where the numbering in step one pays off.
The paint is dry and usable within a few hours, but full cure takes two to three weeks. During that window, be gentle with the surfaces: avoid hard scrubbing, don't slam doors and don't stack anything heavy against painted edges. After three weeks, the finish reaches full durability.
How to Get a Smooth, Professional Finish
Most first-timers worry about three things: brush marks, drips and patchy coverage. All three are fixable and largely avoidable.
Brush Marks
Brush marks come from the wrong brush, overloading the brush or overworking the paint once it's started to dry. Use a proper chalk paint brush with soft, tapered bristles and load it lightly. Apply in long strokes, then leave it alone. Self-levelling paints smooth themselves out as they dry if you stop fiddling.
Patchy Coverage
Patchy coverage is almost always a sign of coats applied too thinly. Check the tin: if a 750ml tin is supposed to cover 6m² with two coats and you've got loads left after painting that area, your coats are too thin. Apply more paint on each pass rather than doing more passes.
Drips
Drips happen when paint builds up in one spot, usually on edges or corners. Check edges as you go and smooth any build-up before it dries. If a drip does set hard, let it dry completely, then sand it flat and touch up.
Kitchen Cabinet Paint Colours: Our Picks
Colour is personal and no guide can or should pick for you. But these are the combinations that show up most often in Frenchic kitchens, and why they work.
Greens
Green kitchens have taken over. Wise Old Sage is the crowd favourite, a soft, muted green fits modern country kitchens and contemporary shaker styles equally well. For something bolder, Victory Lane is a rich emerald that looks excellent against white tiles and brass.
Greys
Greys have quietly stayed on trend for over a decade because they're practical and they date slowly. Swanky Pants is a light silvery grey. Greyhound is a deeper mid-grey with blue undertones. Smudge is a deep charcoal for real drama.
Blues
After Midnight has become one of the most requested kitchen cabinet colours on the Frenchic site: a deep, inky navy with teal undertones that looks dramatic against brass hardware and brilliant white worktops. Moody Blue has lavender undertones that lift the mood in kitchens that don't get much natural light.
Neutrals
Cream Dream and Salt of the Earth are the go-to cream and greige options. They give you complete freedom with everything else because they don't compete.
Bold Contrast Technique Worth Knowing
Painting wall units a paler shade than the base units makes a small kitchen feel larger. Try Blackjack on the base and Dazzle Me or Whitey White on top, with light wood worktops between them. The eye reads the darker colour as grounding and the paler colour as space.
Before and After: Kitchen Cabinet Makeovers
Nothing sells a paint job like seeing real results. Here are some of our favourite customer transformations.
Blackjack Kitchen Transformation
Orange-toned wood swapped out for sleek matte black with light wood worktops and monochrome geometric tiles.
Smudge Kitchen Makeover
Deep charcoal Smudge paired with Hot As Mustard and Dazzle Me tiles for a characterful cottage kitchen.
Hornblower Kitchen Makeover
Bold Hornblower blue on the cabinets lifts the whole room.
Nougat Kitchen Upcycle
Dated light wood turned into soft, creamy Nougat with refreshed handles and a crisp white door.
Cream Dream Kitchen Makeover
A calm, neutral transformation in Cream Dream from the Al Fresco range.
Spitfire Kitchen Makeover
Warm rust-toned Spitfire cabinets with Dazzle Me tiles for a kitchen that feels both vintage and modern.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not really. Our self-priming paints don't need a primer coat, but they still need a key to grip to. A light hand-sand is the only way to give them that on shiny or previously-sealed surfaces.
The good news: 'sanding' here isn't the heavy-duty work people imagine. You're not stripping the existing finish off. Thirty seconds with fine-grade sandpaper per door is enough to dull the surface. Skip it and the paint might adhere initially, then peel or flake at the first knock.
With Frenchic's kitchen cabinet ranges and proper prep, cabinets still look excellent five years on. You'll find plenty of customer photos in the Frenchic community with kitchens painted 10 years ago holding up beautifully.
For a standard UK kitchen (about 15 to 20 doors and drawer fronts), typical costs are:
- 2-3 tins of paint at 750ml each: around £60 to £90
- A decent chalk paint brush: £10 to £15
- Sugar soap, sandpaper, dust sheets, masking tape: around £15
That's £85 to £120 total, versus £8,000 or more for a new kitchen. Even if you add a top coat (£15 to £25) and some new handles, the whole project typically comes in under £200. The hidden cost is time: budget a full weekend for a first project.
Plan for a weekend for a standard kitchen if you're doing it properly.
Day one is the heaviest: remove doors, clean, sand, fill any damage, apply the first coat. Day two is a light sand between coats, second coat and reassembly by the evening. You can do it in a single long day if you've got smaller cabinets, but two days gives the paint enough time to dry properly between coats.
Two coats, for most colours and surfaces. You might need a third if you're painting a light colour over a dark surface, using a strong red or orange, painting onto bare MDF, or spraying rather than brushing (sprayed coats are thinner by design).
The easiest way to know: look at the surface in natural light. If you can still see the colour underneath showing through anywhere, add another coat. If it looks solid and even, stop.
Yes. Taking the doors off makes everything easier and the results better. You get cleaner edges because there's no tape-off around hinges. You can paint the door flat (horizontal), which is how chalk paint self-levels best. And you can work on multiple doors at once while each coat dries, which cuts total project time significantly.
You don't need to empty the cupboards. The carcasses stay on the wall: you're not moving the boxes themselves, only the doors and drawers. Everything inside can stay put.
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