If you’ve decided to repaint your kitchen cabinets, you should take precautions to prepare the best possible surface to take the new stain or finish. The procedure typically requires you to clean the grime and grease from existing cabinets, doors, and drawer fronts. Then, once dry, you can touch up the surface with medium-grade sandpaper.
What if you have dents in the wood? Many woodworkers use a hot iron and moist cloth to raise dents from unfinished wood, but you won’t have that luxury. You’ll need to patch them up. You’ll find a wood filler at your home improvement store that’s perfect for repairing chips, dents, and dimples.
Some carpenters use an oil-based primer which dries as a shell over open-grained varieties of wood. But in most cases, you’ll need to apply putty before staining.
Choosing Your Cabinet Patching Materials
You’ll find latex-based wood patch products on the market that can do the job nicely, although they’re tougher to clean up after than water-based putty. Patch works only on clean surfaces that are pre-moistened just prior to application. Use less than you think you need at first until you get a hang of the material. Too much putty will blob up and raise the surface, increasing your sanding effort. Also, if you use too small an application, you can add a second patch. Of course, you need the filler to be slightly higher than the level of the surface so it can be sanded smooth.
You may want to take a drawer front to the store to match up the color of the patch, although many products come in a neutral tone. Meticulous prepping will bear out after in a smooth, attractive paint surface.
