The colors used to decorate a kitchen drastically alter the way it looks and feels. Whitewashed kitchen cabinets convey a country or distressed motif, while dark colors modernize your kitchen and add contemporary appeal to your space. Original whitewashing methods involved diluting white paint with water, a mix that often flakes or peels without a varnish or lacquer finish. While it might look logical to simply paint a lighter color with a darker one, whitewashing or its end may stop the paint from sticking properly and squander all of your hard work. The first step to painting over whitewashed cabinets is preparing the cabinets and doors to accept the new colour.
Remove cabinet hardware and hinges with a screwdriver, or tape over them with tape tape.
Cover the work area with a dropcloth, plastic sheeting or newspapers to avoid spills and drips on floors and countertops.
Cut a piece of sandpaper to meet your hand. Run the seams across the surface of the kitchen cabinet doors and on the cabinet sides and face frames. Use the sandpaper to rough up the surface of the kitchen cabinets enough so that a new coat of vinyl adheres. If you plan to paint the cabinets with a water-based paint, you have to strip the cabinets of the old finish first.
Put on the chemical stripper to cabinets that have a lacquer, varnish or shellac finish when you want to paint over them using a hexagonal latex or acrylic dark brown paint. Dip a paintbrush from the stripper and liberally cover the cabinets and doors, following the grain pattern in the wood.
Allow the stripper to sit on cabinet and door surfaces until you find the complete bubble. This could take from 15 to 30 minutes.
Scrape the putty knife at a 45-degree angle to door and cabinetry surfaces to lift the gelled finish from the wood. Discard the gelled debris at an outside trash container. Completely get rid of all of the end from the cabinets using the putty knife.
Wipe the cabinets and doors with a wrung-out sponge to get rid of any excess stripper or complete on the cabinets after you have scraped them with the putty knife. Let the cabinets and doors fully dry.
Rub the cabinetry and doors with sandpaper following the lines and grains in the wood. Gently rough up the surfaces so the dark brown paint will adhere. Remove sandpaper dust and wood particles with a tacky fabric.
Roll the paint on the bigger surfaces with a roller; use a paintbrush when a roller gets too cumbersome. Paint the cabinets from the management of the grain, starting at the base of the cabinet doors and doors as well as working up. After the first coat dries, paint another coat of the dark brown paint on the cabinetry. Let the paint dry. Reinstall hardware and cabinet doors if you removed them, or even remove the tape from the hardware and seams.