I've painted over 3,000 kitchen cabinets and I've never used lacquer. Some guys are married to that stuff and that's why they push it. YOU DO NOT NEED LACQUER. Lacquer is one of several hundred options.

A quality 100% acrylic enamel or a hybrid like Advance, Cabinet Coat, etc. work well on kitchen cabinets when the substrate is properly prepared. Properly prepared is super, super clean with Dirtex or Jasco TSP substitute, sanded dull, primed and two coats of quality paint.

The paint is probably soft due to excessive coats and improper drying times.

Some questions for your painters.

1. What did they use to clean the cabinets?

2. What primer did they use? It should have been D&E specified primer.

3. What is bleeding through?

A rough surface? The paint is slow to dry. If there is any dust movement in your house, the finish will be rough. Change the air filters and switch off the furnace during painting.

Thank you so much for the help Brushworks!

To answer your questions:

The paint they used was Dunn Edwards Aristowall. Do you think this paint is okay to use on cabinets?

1. I don't believe they used anything to clean the cabinets - just sanded and wiped down (they were new cabinets that were just made)

2. I am waiting on an answer for the primer from them so not sure with that

3. In regards to whats bleeding - you can see putty under the white where they patched some of the wood and filled holes, there are a ton of little lines and scratches and everything and a lot of it just feels somewhat rough to the touch. Most cabinets I've had in the past were really smooth - you could spill something on them and nothing would get stuck because they're so smooth. These are somewhat rough like they need more sanding or like dust is stuck in the paint.

Thank you so much!

New cabinets should be sprayed IMO. When you have felt cabinets in the past that were ultra smooth, they were probably factory finished or sprayed by a cabinet maker. It is possible to brush/roll cabinets and have them come out smooth though. It sounds like your painters just aren't skilled to be honest. And why are new cabinets needing to be patched?

Hi paintguy22 -

Thanks for the feedback. They were sprayed (I must have forgotten to mention that). They are custom wood cabinets - all handmade from scratch (I don't really love the ready made options) so I just mean wood filler in the little cracks of where all the wood trims come together. Like the joints, where base meets cabinets, cabinets meet crown, etc. I love the woodwork - just not loving the actual finish of the paint. Like I said, the main problem is how rough it feels. It feels a little gritty, not super smooth.

Thanks so much -

Those gaps should be filled with caulk, not wood filler or putty. Were the cabinets sprayed on site or in their shop? This is one of the problems with installing painted cabinets after all the pieces have been painted. The gaps need to be caulked or installed very tight, which is usually impossible. Once caulked, that caulk really needs to be painted because that caulk rarely matches the paint color exactly and even if it does perfectly match, it will end up looking bad eventually because unpainted caulk attracts dust and dirt that can't be cleaned. Sprayed cabinets should be perfectly smooth when done though, so they need to be sanded and sprayed again to make it right.

Using wood filler will usually change the tone of the cabinet since wood filler isn't of the same species or wood grain. Can you post a pic?