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Refinishing vinyl covered cabinets

jimthej

My mom lives in a 25 year old manufactured home. The cabinets in the kitchen were covered with wood print vinyl and are beginning to show a lot of wear in spots. Has anyone tried to refinish this kind? How is the easiest and cheapest way. She wants them to end up painted white, but I am afraid the paint will not stick properly. Suggestions?

Jim Johnston

a1gutterman

Hi Jim,

If the cabinets are made from particle board:eek: , as I suspect they are, you do not want to peel the imitation picture off the surface. The surface that you are trying to cover is not really made for refinishing. Some finishes may even "melt" the imitation woodgrain finish that is currently on the cabinets. That said, you could try this: The first thing that you would want is a clean surface. Laquer thinner used carefully, or Surface Prep or some other cleaner should be applied to accomplish that. Then I would take a primer and paint just one section of the cabinet, let it dry thoroughly, and test it to see if you can easily peel it off. If you cannot peel it off, paint your finish coat on top of the primer and check it again. If it does peel, you might try sealing the surface with KILZ or some other sealer first and then repeat the testing. Good luck.:)

jimthej

Thanks. I will give it a try, otherwise I have about 22 doors and 6 drawer fronts to build.

Jim

ericolson

Jim;

Something else you may want to consider is peel and stick veneer. Some of the better veneer distributors have this product and it was originally designed for re-facing the types of cabinetry you're talking about. It's actual wood, not wood grained vinyl.

I've got a friend that used 1/8" thick hardwood ply to reface all of the cabinets in his RV. I think he used luan. Basically, what he did was to cut a piece of the ply to the overall outside dimensions of a particular cabinet. He did an initial attachment with double stick tape. Once sure of his cuts, he permanently attached the ply to the cabinet with a staple nailer. For door and drawer openings, he simply drill holes in the ply where the openings were and then used a laminate router with a flush trim bit in it to route out the opening. Any little curves in the corners he dressed up square with a file. He re-faced the drawer fronts using the same technique and made new door fronts. Once he put a finish on everything, he used a matching putty to hide the staple holes. I was hard pressed to find where he had put the staples and the interior of the RV looked awesome.

rflaherty

Hello Jimthej--

If the idea is to put a different "look" on the plastic veneer of the cabinet faces, this might work: Krylon makes a spray paint called "Fusion" which is designed to chemically fuse with plastic, such as lawn chairs (http://www.krylon.com/). It works quite well, especially for indoor projects, comes in several colors, and most hardware/home/paint stores carry it. Of course, make sure the plastic veneer is well attached to the door substrate first.

Best wishes.

--Bob