As hard as I'm working to have an AFTER result, the benefit of being a BEFORE - in process - is that I'm not yet really disappointed. I'm sorry that you are. How long have you been adjusting? Pictures would help.

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I’m not a painting expert but I understand your disappointment. Everybody, it seems, preaches the conversion varnish on cabinets but I don’t like the plastic look. We brush painted our new cabinets to avoid this. If they wear down, we can touch them up or call it patina. Our house is from 1931.

I have a 1948 traditional house. I had new cabinets installed 3 years ago and begrudgingly had the factory conversion varnish used on them. Previously, my old cabinets were hand painted and I actually LIKED seeing brush strokes.

Boy, am I ever glad I couldn't afford a painter who would have been up to the task! I LOVE the conversion varnish - it really is sort of a matte finish and is lovely and so easy to keep clean. And yes, on three walls, it abuts the old painted woodwork that has decades of paint jobs on it. It is not a problem in any way.

You will be far better served repainting your woodwork than destroying the finish on those new cabinets. I have always used the same color woodwork for all trim on each floor of my house (I did use a different color on the 2nd floor as it worked better with fabric/wallpaper used up there). Well, my new cabinets were to be a light gray that had a tendency to go "greige" in certain light. I did not want "greige", I wanted "gray"! So I painted all the woodwork in the kitchen a very bright white - no yellow in it at all. Since my kitchen is not open concept, this worked perfectly and most people have no idea the paint is different. I have a swinging door from kitchen to DR and I painted the DR side the "old" color, and the kitchen side, the new, brighter white color. Again, no one even notices.

Thank you all for your comments. The cabinets were installed a little over a year ago - plenty of time to adjust.

My feelings match those of wolfgang80. I understand the benefits of conversion varnish, but prefer the appearance of brushed paint in this house. CV probably wouldn't bother me in a newer home. Also, I seem unable to avoid hitting the doors and drawer fronts with my rings, leaving black marks that are extremely difficult to remove. Perhaps someone has a suggestion for this.

It's only a matter of preference. Since mine is paint, I have been wondering about the feasibility of refinishing them with something like Ben Moore Advance in the future. This is clearly not an earth-shattering dilemma.

I've done two kitchens using Advance over both bare wood and finished wood. I assume if you scuff it up and use the right primer it would go on fine. Advance does take a long time to dry and the cure time is even longer, about 30 days. In an ideal world you would take the doors off, paint them with multiple coats, then wait 30 days after the final coat to put them back on.

I will say that I did not wait the full 30 days and did have to do some touch ups thanks to the beating the doors took when I was installing them. The touch ups look fine and are only noticeable if you get really close. I used a $70 paint sprayer from Amazon. I did one coat primer and two coats Advance on each side, sanded after drying, ran the shop vac hose over the door to get the dust, then wiped with tack cloth before spraying the next coat. It's faster than it sounds, but the tack cloth made a big difference in the finish. If I were to do it over again I would do a third coat on the door fronts.

Thank you, Kaylie. I am impressed that you did all the work yourself and appreciate your feedback about 30-day curing time, process, and applying 3 coats. I did all the painting in my houses when I was young. Now I am old and hire professionals, who are far more competent than me. :-)

I don't have CV, but I have all white trim in my house. The first thing I try for metal marks or any other black scuffs is a very soft, WHITE (latex-free) eraser.

Mary Elizabeth, can you tell me more about your latex-free eraser. I am a little bit desperate, having made several irreparable mistakes at this point.

I use a Pentel Click (refillable). Office Max or the stationery section of Target, etc. I think the same type also comes in a larger size.

A lot of people will use Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, but that can dull the finish.

Thanks, Mary Elizabeth. I'll try it.

I guess I've never heard of a "Conversion Varnish" finish on cabinets, but I'm in the middle of two bath remodels and assume this is the same as the factory paint finish (Maybe it's "baked" on?) on my cabinets. My issue is a little similar in that my contractor installed crown molding from the cabinet company in that same "CV" finish for the ceiling crown, but NOT for baseboards, doors, and jambs. I wonder if I should have them use a matched trim paint in a satin (closer to the cabinet sheen) or my preferred semi-gloss that I want to use throughout my house? Sorry, I don't know the precise rules of posting--if this needs to be separated from this thread, I am happy to do so.

yalemichmom, I think your factory paint is the same or similar to CV on mine, but I am not an expert.

My cabinets were supposed to be matched to Ben Moore White Dove so I bought enough Advance Satin in White Dove for all the trim in the house. They are not the same, and the difference was too much for me. I took a drawer to a good paint store and they mixed a quart of paint that matches the cabinets more closely. I used the newly mixed paint in the kitchen and the original gallons of paint in the other rooms.

Even though the sheen on cabinets and kitchen trim is a little different, I have stopped noticing it. Because my house has walls (not open concept), the trim in other rooms appears the same as kitchen trim.

I hope this helps. If you aren't getting enough information from this thread, you might want to try asking your question separately. Best wishes.

dsgts, you mention at the beginning of this thread that your cabinets are too white (in addition to the CV finish). Have you tried different lighting? The new LED lights or bulbs can be very bright and much whiter. Different brands can vary a lot, even if they are labeled with the same rating (Kelvin #). Also check the CRI rating, and compare. Just a thought.

Thank you, dgsts. I’m sure your 1930’s home is gorgeous! I miss my 1922 Dutch Colonial so much. Now I’m in a 1992/93 home—they just don’t build them the same. Yes, my contractor threw me a curve ball after I spent a ton of time trying to match the Holiday Caninets “Nordic” white color to a SW or BM paint for trim. I assumed ALL the trim would be painted the same by the painter, but the contractor installed ready-to-go, matched ceiling and upper cabinet trim right from the cabinet company. No painting needed (“good,” I guess?), but that left the rest to still be matched and with a sheen, color, and smoothness that can’t be precise. I agree I won’t (hopefully) notice over time. I’ve realized this is an issue with cabinets that go to the ceiling where crown molding is present (on cabinets and ceiling).

Thanks for your help!

By the way—I think my contractor has NO intention of my suggestion to use the BM Advance paint on trim. I can tell he doesn’t want (his painter) to deal with its particular application and 30 day cure time. It does look gorgeous when applied properly, though. In fact, when I asked about using specific brands, he said any brand can color match my choice of SW and/or BM. In other words, he didn’t plan on buying either, regardless of my choice. I pretty much said if I picked “X” color and formula by BM, I’d like to see that can in my house. Perhaps I’m the “Bridezilla” of the remodeling world?

I live in an 1850s house and we decided that the CV had too much of a hardened, baked on look that made it feel too sleek and modern for the space, even in the most dull sheen. We had made solid maple cabinets that were then painted with Ben Moore Advance. They were sprayed at the cabinetmaker's workshop so no brush strokes and left to cure there for 30 days prior to install. The paint is completely flat, no gloss, maritime white, which is the same as the walls and trim. I just use a damp cloth to rub off stains.

We didn't want any brush strokes - they feel a bit faux old fashioned to me. The Advanced spray came out with a seamless looking dull finish, which is exactly what we were going for. Our walls and ceiling are all plaster, our trim is original. We haven't used any satin or gloss in our house.

That said, I don't know what the process would be for painting over CV. I would think to be done well you'd want to deinstall the cabinets and have them repainted in a paint booth where they can give you a much better and more even finish.

Note on magic erase, my house cleaner just went to town on my walls with it. There is a chalky residue, which is incredibly noticeable. My guess is it would be fine for small area touch ups but it looks horrible where he used it in large areas where the wall really should have been washed.

There are all manner of sheens available in any coating syatem. You can get anything rom a 4 (dead matte) to a 95 ( super high gloss). You don’t need to move to an inferior coating just because it’s too shiny for you.

There are some conversion coatings that can be brushed. It’ll cost a lot more to get the brush strokes in your finish, as you have to keep mixing small batches. It’s labor intensive. You’ll also have to wait lot longer, as the hand finishing takes 3 times as long. It’s labor intensive. Take your typical custom cabinet order of a small kitchen at 20K Around 8K of that goes to finishing. To do your brushed finish, you’d be looking at around 25-30K for that added labor.

CV finishes are used because they are far more durable and are a less expensive production process. It’s like if a Tesla suddenly was 10K cheaper than a Camry and had a 300 mile range too. You bet they’d dethrone America’s most purchased car! But there will always be a place for a 55 Chevrolet too. But the Chevy will always be expensive and difficult to find and maintain because of it’s rarity and need to be a garage queen rather than a daily driver. Parking lot dings detract.

yalemichmom, fortunately my contractor was very accommodating and did not resist when I said I wanted to hire my favorite painter for walls and trim. I selected and purchased the paint myself and the two professionals were able to schedule work around each other. I wonder if your contractor would consider this. As my architect said, "It's your house and you are writing the check."

I think you will be fine with the factory-finished crown, as long as it is the same throughout the room.

Kendrah, "too much of a hardened, baked on look that made it feel too sleek and modern for the space" is exactly how I feel about my cabinets.

live_wire_oak, thank you for the detailed explanation of coatings. Love the car analogy! It isn't actually the sheen of CV that bothers me. I couldn't find the correct word to describe what I dislike. It's what Kendrah said.

I elected to go with CV for durability and the expense of hand painting. In hindsight, I wish I had chosen unfinished cabinets painted on site (with Advance) by aforementioned favorite painter - even knowing it is more fragile and will require periodic repainting. The one thing I appreciate about CV is that inevitable drips of coffee do not stain the cabinet fronts.

Mary Elizabeth, lighting does make a difference. The color bothers me less in dim early morning/late evening light. It's daytime, when the inalterable sunlight comes streaming in that I wish I'd chosen something with a little more chroma.

All, thanks again for your thoughtful comments.