I had a pro come over this weekend for an estimate. He said that he does three lighter coats with cabinet coat sprayed on with HVLP sprayer for just this reason. He said it will help avoid any gaps as the wood expands/contracts.

For my money, it's worth paying the $800 - 1000 to have a pro do it, attain a factory finish quality, and have it done in 1 week. He sands, primes, sands, coat, sands, coat, sands, coat. It would take me months to do that and I wouldn't attain the same results.

thanks. I've been trying to find someone in my area to get a price from but can't find anyone. How did you find someone? That sounds like a reasonable price to me. I'm looking into getting unfinished cabinets for the home we plan to build and thought this might be a good option.

Any painted wood cabinet/door whether factory finished or painted DIY or by a pro will develop cracks and gaps. It is the nature of wood and part of the charm of a painted cabinet. Using an MDF door which is more dimensionally stable will result in a painted finish that holds up better if you dislike the look of cracks in the paint. However, if you are using a wood paneled door, you should expect cracking to appear. Most cabinet lines have you sign a disclosure protecting them from liability with painted finishes since this is an expected outcome with a painted wood panel.

From my experience with painted cabinets in my last 3 kitchens, the stable plywood boxes do not develop cracking but the raised panel maple door do develop cracks along the joints within a few years.

Good luck.

I did a test door on an oak cathedral door that came from a cabinet we removed from the kitchen. I did that about 3-4 months ago, and I have left it in the kitchen since then. Well, when I originally painted the finish was flawless. i pulled the door out last night and looked closely at it and noticed that the seams where the raised panel meets the frame had started to crack, AND that the graininess of the wood was causing the paint to crack everywhere. Makes me hesitate a bit on painting.....

Yeah, I know... this topic kinda scares me, as I have about $15K worth of painted cabinets coming tomorrow!!! But I REEEEALLY love and wanted white, glazed (painted) cabinets.

I like what Cleo said above, "It's the nature of the wood and part of the charm..." Remind me of that in a few years, will ya'??!! ;o)

thanks. Of course the Maple raised panel door is the one I'm looking at so now I'm even more nervous but as you said it' the nature of the wood. How bad do the cracks get? Are they slight or pretty big and stick out like sore thumb. I'm sure it depends on manufacturer and quality. Ugh! I just don't like stained look but this is driving me crazy!

I found this cabinet painter by calling Kitchen Tuneup which does refacing etc. They use him and spoke very highly of him. I also called our local Sherwin Williams and they gave me three names as well.

I'm leaning against painting now...not because of concerns of the cracks (althought that is tipping the decision) but rather because I got a quote on Hanssem cabinets. They are frameless which is what I truly want. The price is excellent. If i augment the cabinets I have with some new and pay to paint, my cost difference between that and new cabs is 3k. So new is looking like the route since I'll get exactly what I want.

I had a pro paint mine, with BM's Satin Impervo. They are maple and were originally "pink"--similar to the washed or pickled look. My relatively small kitchen cost $2000. to paint (including the baseboard and other trim). He took the doors back to his workplace to spray, did several coats, and they look fabulous. I posted a photo under the recent "pickled oak" thread which I'm sure you can still find.

I painted some very old ones once in a very expand/contracty environment (the humid part of Texas in an uninsulated house) and they didn't develop cracks the several years I had them.

Of course, I should mention that there were several coats of paint beneath the several coats I added so those doors were pretty well sealed...

The nice thing about DIY is that you can always touch up with the same techniques. The bad thing is it's soooooooooo much work.

If you do a glaze, I think any cracking be less obvious, or at least it'll look "right", since glazing is just another antiquing process.

I painted my cabinets just recently so I don't have any long term results, but they haven't cracked as of yet. I finished the painting in November and we've had some weather changes since then. I distressed my cabinets and glazed them and hopefully that'll enhance any future imperfections! LOL (Just my way of hoping they will be ok!)

Mine are painted maple cabs. My cab builder had already primed them when they arrived. I wanted brush strokes so my painter and his helper did them here. They took off the doors and sanded painted/sanded/painted. They also caulked every little seam. They used BM satin Impervo. It has held up perfectly. I just went and took a really close look . No cracks. We have an 1890 house and the cold/heat has been really hard on everything in the house. It has been 17 at night and then we have had 70's and lots of rain. So I figure if this hasn't cracked them nothing will. c

thanks everyone for the input!

If ordering now, get wood for all else, but MDF for doors. They take paint better initially and won't expand/contract with heat and moisture variations in environment over time. There is no advantage to specifying a wood door you will just paint.

I have a similar situation. We bought display cabinets from a design studio and, in order to make them work perfectly for a kitchen, had to build a 12" filler cabinet. The showroom cabinets came with a can of touch-up paint, but not enough to paint the new cabinet and door. The touch-up had a Sherwin-Williams label on the lid, so we took it there to match. When we painted the new cabinet, it looked much different from the surrounding cabinets--a painted-on look versus a baked-on finish.

How would you suggest we try to achive the best possible match? Should we remove the filler cabinet and have it professionally painted? Is there a type of paint or applicator we can buy to create a better match ourselves?