The best way to clean kitchen cabinets is by thoroughly degreasing them using a heavy-duty degreaser. You can use liquid dish soap such as Dawn, Simple Green, M1 liquid deglosser, TSP, or you can use a product called Krud Kutter. A green Scotch-Brite pad works great to scrub all surfaces. You need to pay close attention and make sure you remove any grease and grime before painting your kitchen cabinets. Or else your paint will not adhere.
Attention: If you have kitchen cabinets that already have been painted, then read this article How to Clean Painted Wood Kitchen Cabinets
This ultimate guide to painting kitchen cabinets has everything you need to know about the process, materials, and determining what type of cabinets you have!
How do you clean grease off kitchen cabinets before painting?
To clean grease off kitchen cabinets before you paint them, we like to spray down all surfaces with Krud Kutter and then scrub them really well.
To make it a bit easier, we use brushes that you can attach to a drill or impact driver.
These brushes have soft, medium, and coarse bristles.
Depending on the condition of the cabinets we usually stick to the medium and coarse bristles.
After scrubbing all surfaces really well, we wipe them down with a clean and wet rag.
Just to make sure there are no Suds or cleaner residue left on the surface.
Related Article How to Clean Painted Wood Kitchen Cabinets
How Do You Prep Cabinets For Painting?
After you thoroughly clean your kitchen cabinets and they are dried, you can begin prepping.
To prep them correctly, you will have to scuff up the surfaces to create a tooth for your primer to bond to.
Check out this article for a detailed description and video on how to paint kitchen cabinets.
Can You Just Paint Over Cabinets?
The answer is No!
You might luck out but in 9 out of 10 times, your paint will not adhere to the surface if not properly prepped.
This means a detailed cleaning that removes all grease and grime from the surfaces.
There’s no paint that will adhere to grease or grime, and you will have failing results.
This could include:
- peeling paint,
- chipping paint,
- and bleed through contaminants that are left on the surface.
Related Article Do I need a primer for kitchen cabinets?
In conclusion
The best way to clean kitchen cabinets and get them ready for painting is to clean them thoroughly with a good-quality degreaser. Scotch-Brite pads and a little bit of elbow grease go a long way. Although this is probably the most minor fun part of painting kitchen cabinets it might be the most important. So don’t skip this step and be very thorough with it.