Refinishing My Kitchen Cabinets - Unsure what topcoat to use

[z1ggy]

Having trouble deciding on if I should use lacquer or an alternative such as Benjamin Moore Advance or Sherwin Emerald. As far as lacquer goes, Sherwin won't sell me a solvent based pre-cat (their Hi-Bild) unless I'm a contractor with a paint booth, due to VOC's. It seems like General Finishes has a few water based lacquers and poly's that are tintable, so I'm considering one of those as VOC is lower. The girl at Sherwin told me to use Emerald, as it's a newer product that was just reformulated and that many of her pro's are switching to it. I've used Advance many times and I can't smell anything at all when I use it.

I'll be spraying the cabinet doors and drawers but I'm thinking of rolling the cabinet bodies. I'm not sure I'll have the ability to mask off the entire kitchen for 2-3 days and spraying might disrupt the day to day, whereas rolling will be much less messy as far as prep goes.

 

[herm0016]

roll and tip is how I did a whole kitchen with SW pro classic, it was about 5 years ago so I don't know if the emerald reformulation is similar or better. but they are both very good paints. pro classic, advance and emerald are all low VOC. some of the commercial stuff is not.

you may check out the sawmill creek forums, they have a lot of good info on this topic. the SW paints are not easy to spray for example depending on equipment and skill, but come out great with a roll and tip method. a lot of people like the GF finishes for spraying.

all depends on substrate as well, what is the current finish? do you need to grain fill? is it oil or water based? have you cleaned everything very very well with something like tsp and a deglosser? prep is the most important step.

I bought my cabinets unfinished, so it was new, raw poplar, maple and veneer panels. It came out beautiful, but i would probably not do it again. haha.

 

[z1ggy]

roll and tip is how I did a whole kitchen with SW pro classic, it was about 5 years ago so I don't know if the emerald reformulation is similar or better. but they are both very good paints. pro classic, advance and emerald are all low VOC. some of the commercial stuff is not.

you may check out the sawmill creek forums, they have a lot of good info on this topic. the SW paints are not easy to spray for example depending on equipment and skill, but come out great with a roll and tip method. a lot of people like the GF finishes for spraying.

all depends on substrate as well, what is the current finish? do you need to grain fill? is it oil or water based? have you cleaned everything very very well with something like tsp and a deglosser? prep is the most important step.

I bought my cabinets unfinished, so it was new, raw poplar, maple and veneer panels. It came out beautiful, but i would probably not do it again. haha.

To answer your questions:

It's hard to tell the exact wood and if there is veneer but it's definitely not oak. It seems like a maple or maybe alder with veneer sides of the bodies. Stained a cherry color with a poly over it but I don't know yet if it's water or oil.

Was going to use tsp to clean everything but I don't think I'll need to grain fill ....I can't feel any at all. I can pop some pics in here tonight to see if anyone can ID the wood.

I have used Advanced many times and I agree these new alkyd/urethane are thick but I have a 2.0mm hvlp and I can always thin a bit but the spec sheets make me think I should be okay.

My only hesitation honestly with using emerald or any of these non-lacquer is dry time. I don't want to wait one day between coats if it can be helped.

 

[herm0016]

yes, depending on temp and humidity, the dry time can be long. if its warmer and humid it's much faster, recoat usually either 1 hour or 24 depending on product. I found full hard cure to be in the 30 day range. a 2 part lacquer is obviously much much faster. It is very very dry here all the time, and that does slow cure time.

sounds like you have considered most variables. maple/cherry should paint up nicely.

 

[z1ggy]

Lighting is different in each pic but here's the wood.

 

[skyking]

I used a floor finishing product for my kitchen build. It was water based and not stinky, I could shoot it with an HVLP or pad it or brush it. Dry time was very fast I could lay down many coats with the HVLP after work, sand it and shoot a finish coat.
It is hard as can be. I am very pleased with the results.
https://www.paintsupply.com/product...C1fUSs3q41ew1ojWDGF_wjU0LhWk1GdxoCt-wQAvD_BwE

 

[z1ggy]

I used a floor finishing product for my kitchen build. It was water based and not stinky, I could shoot it with an HVLP or pad it or brush it. Dry time was very fast I could lay down many coats with the HVLP after work, sand it and shoot a finish coat.
It is hard as can be. I am very pleased with the results.
https://www.paintsupply.com/product...C1fUSs3q41ew1ojWDGF_wjU0LhWk1GdxoCt-wQAvD_BwE

Is it tint-able and does it stick to primer? I'm going either all white or lately I've been leaning a more grayish blue tone. That's why Emerald or Advance are top of my list... very easy to tint and color match, and I've got 2 stores within 10 minutes.

 

[skyking]

oh no, it is for natural wood. I have no clue what you can do with it, I went over maple au naturale.