• Give your kitchen cabinets a new look with paint.kitchen image by Rich Johnson from Fotolia.com
  
  Kitchen cabinets can be expensive to replace, especially if you need to have custom cabinets made to fit your kitchen. Rather than replacing your cabinets, you should consider giving them a new look with different ways to paint kitchen cabinets. With a new coat of paint and new cabinet hardware, you can have cabinets that look brand new and add value to your kitchen.
  
  

Primer and Paint

• To paint your kitchen cabinets, it is best to remove the doors from your cabinets and then be prepared to do a lot of sanding. Your kitchen cabinets are more than likely covered in a stain that protects them from things such as grease and boiling water. To allow paint to stick to your cabinets, you will need to sand them and then apply one or two coats of primer. Use rough sandpaper to start, and then sand one more time with fine sandpaper to give your cabinets a smooth look. Do not use a power sander as some areas of your cabinets are thin and a power sander may do damage.
  
  

Refacing

• According to Bob Vila, refacing kitchen cabinets means replacing the doors and covering the existing frame with wood that matches the new doors. You would reface your cabinets if you currently have cabinets stained a very dark color and you want to have lighter colored cabinets as a finished product. You can try putting coats of primer on your stain, but you may not get the final look you want. You can use the existing doors as templates to make the new doors, install new cabinet hardware, cover the cabinet frames with the same wood you made the doors with and then paint them the color you want.
  
  

Glazing

• To glaze your kitchen cabinets, you would add the color paint you would like to use on your cabinets to a glazing liquid. According to Ask The Decorator, a glazing liquid will help the darker colors stand out more on your cabinets. It also adds a protective glossy layer to your cabinets that stain and paint do not have. When you use glaze, it tends to dry slower than paint. The end result is an antiqued look that can be the cornerstone of your new kitchen design. Be sure to strip and prime your cabinets before applying the mixture of glaze and paint.