Painted kitchen cabinets fail for one reason almost every time: the paint never bonded to the surface underneath. Kitchen cabinets carry years of cooking grease and a slick factory coating, and paint laid over that will peel at the first fingernail. The brush work is the easy, satisfying part. The prep is the boring part that decides whether the job lasts a decade or a year.
So most of a good cabinet job happens before any color goes on. Skip the prep and you are just buying yourself a redo.
Prep is 80 percent of the job
Take the doors off and label them, painting them flat on a table gives a far smoother finish than reaching into hinges. Then clean like you mean it. Degrease every surface with a strong cleaner (a degreaser or TSP substitute) because invisible kitchen grease is the number one reason cabinet paint fails.
Once clean and dry, degloss. Scuff-sand the slick finish with fine sandpaper and wipe off the dust, or use a liquid deglosser. You are not removing the old finish, you are giving the primer something to grip. A surface that still feels glassy will reject the paint.
Prime, then use the right paint
Prime with a bonding primer, ideally a stain-blocking one if your cabinets are wood that might bleed tannins through light paint. Primer is what actually sticks to the deglossed surface and gives your color a foundation. Tint the primer toward your final color and you may need fewer topcoats.
For the color, use a cabinet-and-trim enamel, not wall paint. Cabinets are touched and wiped constantly, so they need a hard-curing finish, a water-based alkyd or a quality acrylic enamel levels out brush marks and cures to a tough surface. Two thin coats beat one thick one every time, thick coats stay soft and dent.
Technique and patience
Work in thin, even coats and let each cure properly, rushing the recoat is how you get a gummy finish that never fully hardens. A foam roller for the flat panels plus a good brush for the detail, or a sprayer if you have one, gives the smoothest result. Maintain a wet edge so laps do not show.
The hardest part is waiting. Cabinet enamel can take days to weeks to fully cure even when it feels dry, so rehang doors gently and avoid heavy use early on, or you will press fingerprints into a finish that has not hardened.
One move before you start: degrease and dewax a hidden cabinet edge, then try to scratch the spot after priming. If the primer holds, your prep is good. If it flakes, the surface needs more cleaning before you commit to the whole kitchen.
