Vent: My dad told me to skip the primer on my kitchen cabinets and I regret it

He swore that a good sanding and two coats of semi-gloss paint would be fine on the old wood. I listened, and after about eight months, the paint is already chipping around the handles and on the edges. It's a real mess. I'm looking at redoing all 24 cabinet doors this fall, and I know the primer step will add a full weekend to the job. Has anyone else had paint fail because they skipped this step, or was my dad's advice actually solid for a different type of surface?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenniferhart1d ago

Man, that sucks. I did the same thing on a dresser once and the paint peeled off in sheets. @fionanguyen has a point about touch-ups, but if it's chipping at the edges already, a touch-up will just sit on top and peel again. You gotta bite the bullet and sand it all down to bare wood, use a good bonding primer, then paint. It's a weekend of extra work, but doing it right now means you won't be redoing it again in another year.

fionanguyen1d ago

Ugh, that's rough but honestly, is it really that bad? Chipping around the handles after eight months sounds pretty normal for cabinets that get used every day. Maybe just touch up those spots instead of redoing everything, that sounds like a crazy amount of work.

the_julia1d ago

Yeah, and like jenniferhart said, if the base is bad it'll just fail again. Reminds me of when I tried to just spot-fix a scratch on my car's clear coat. Looked fine for a week, then the whole patch bubbled up and flaked off because I didn't sand and blend it right. Sometimes a quick fix just costs you more time later.