Your kitchen is likely one of the most used rooms in the house. Freshly painted cabinets in your kitchen can bring a bright new warmth to this space. However, with how much cooking and wear and tear goes on in this room, it can be difficult to maintain the polished look of your painted kitchen cabinets Grease build-up, brightly colored foods, fingerprints, and other stains can damage the new paint job.
So how does one prevent such difficulties with freshly painted kitchen cabinets?
Clean Stains Immediately
One precaution you can take is cleaning up any messes or spills immediately while they’re still fresh. This not only will protect your cabinets, but make your life a lot easier. A fresh stain is very simple to clean and usually takes only a minute or two, where as trying to clean a dry caked-on stain can be much more time consuming and difficult. Even if you don’t see large visible stains, cleaning the cabinets around your stove-top once a week well dramatically help prevent grease build up, and keep your painted kitchen cabinets looking brand new.
Use the Proper Cleaning Products
While cleaning these fresh stains and messes, use soft fabrics like microfibers, a gentle cleanser, and finish off with a dry soft towel. When selecting a cleaner for your painted kitchen cabinets, you should avoid harsh chemicals or solutions like ammonia, citrus-based cleaners, silicone, or petroleum products. You will also want to avoid abrasive powders or scrub pads as those can accidentally strip the paint. Before using any cleaning products, test them on the inside of your cabinet to see how they react to the paint or cabinet itself.
For more harsh stains that won’t go away, you can use a mild cleaning solution. If you’re unsure about store-bought chemicals, you can make your own cabinet cleaning solution. Simply a few drops of dish soap, a teaspoon of vinegar, and a cup of water will make a great cleaner for your cabinets.
Avoid Excess Moisture
Being in a kitchen, it is inevitable that your cabinets will get wet from time to time. This is nothing to worry about and will cause no damage. However, it is best to avoid letting the painted kitchen cabinets stay wet for a long period of time. Moisture and water can cause the paint to weaken and wood to expand. Because of this, it is best to start out with a very small amount of water or cleanser when cleaning your cabinets, and add more if necessary. This will help prevent soaking the area and shorten their drying time. This also means you should avoid hanging your wet towels on the cabinets to prevent such issues.
Be Prepared to Touch them Up
The thought of your newly painted kitchen cabinets being scratched or damaged in any way can be quite scary, but it’s actually not that big of a deal! While painted kitchen cabinets, if completed properly, should last a long time, touch ups are inevitable and not difficult to complete. If any chips or scuffs occur, you can easily cover them up with a little extra paint. It should only take you a few minutes!
To make your touch-up process as quick and smooth as possible, do not dispose of the extra paint after your project is completed. Having that paint on hand will dramatically reduce the amount of time needed to touch up your project. You can check out our article on Paint Storage for more tips!
If you do happen to run out of paint, you can visit any Sherwin-Williams store! They can color match your cabinets and get you the paint you need extremely efficiently.
Schedule your in-person or virtual estimate with ONiT Painting today, and you’ll know how to take care of your beautifully painted cabinets afterwards!
