I had my builder's grade oak cabinets painted professionally. The boxes were spray painted in place. I got new doors and drawer fronts (paint-grade maple with MDF inserts) which were not expensive. They were sprayed at the painter's shop. The shaker door and slab drawer fronts went from partial to full overlay. It really changed the look of my cabinets. If you look closely, you can see some grain on the small bits of the boxes that still show, but overall, you don't notice it at all.

Some people paint the boxes themselves, but it can be a daunting task.

We are in the middle of this project! We are doing it partially DIY - we removed the doors, cleaned, patched and repaired, sanded, and send them off to be painted by a pro in a spray booth. The cabinet boxes we are painting ourselves using a microfiber roller.

We ended up going with Insl-X STIX for the primer, and Ben Moore Advance for the cabinet paint. It's self leveling, which does help to fill in some of the shallow grain. I'll be posting pictures of our finished product - probably not until around the end of the month, since vacation is coming up. :)

I think if you get a professional to do it all the way, you'll get what you pay for. A pro will be able to fill in the grain for you so that it's almost invisible, but don't expect it to be cheap! That's why we're going the partial DIY route.

meow is right, it ain't cheap. For my 10x10 kitchen, I paid about $4400 to have it painted. They did throw in new shelves. :)

I painted my dark oak builder grade cabs in the late 90's because we couldnt afford to redo the kitchen then. I did 2 coats of primer, sanded of course a bunch, and used Pratt and Lambert oil based semi gloss. Some say not to use oil-based because it yellows, but I didnt' really notice it. We had them for 15 years before redoing the kitchen in 2012. For the most part, they held up, especially the uppers. You could see dings and nicks in the lowers. I would think using latex paint you would have to use poly or something on them to prevent chipping.

I did mine with INsl-X (now owned by BM) and finished it with its sister product, Cabinet Coat. MADE for woodwork that needs a very hard, washable finish.

If you're hiding grain, there are grain fillers that can be used, eliminating a bunch of coats. Although primer + 2 are recommended.

This topic has been discussed here a bunch of times, along with the Woodworking and Painting forums. You would get fuller advice doing a search and reading. People pretty much agree on the proceedures for success, though.