Painting a China Cabinet with Wise Owl One Hour Enamel

Are you in the market for a new china cabinet, but don’t want to break the bank? If so, consider painting a china cabinet with Wise Owl One Hour Enamel Paint! This paint dries quickly and comes in a variety of colors, so you’ll be able to enjoy your new china hutch in no time.

Learn more about the different types of paint for furniture here.

We bought this china cabinet from Facebook Marketplace for $100. It’s in great shape! I don’t know that I love the top, but I’m going to try to change that

Painting a China Cabinet

Alright, we got started with this china cabinet makeover by prepping it.

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Supplies Used:

• Electric Screwdriver
• Krud Kutter
• KwikWood
• Plastic Wood Filler
• Scraper
• 220 Grit Sandpaper
• Shop Vac
• Tack Cloth
• Medium+  and Fine Grit Foam Sanding Sponges (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
• SurfPrep Sander (Use code RAY10 to get 10% off your order)
• Painters Tape
• Pre-Taped Plastic
• Black Aqua Lock Primer
• Wagner FLEXiO 3500 Paint Sprayer
• Bin Shellac Based White Primer
• Paint Filters
• SW Mohair Paint Roller
• Zibra Paint Brush
• Wise Owl One Hour Enamel in Black Cherry
• Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel in Pure White
• Country Chic Paint Oval Paint Brush
• Clear Silicone Caulking
• New Hardware

How to Prepare Wood Furniture for Painting

My husband removed the hardware for me, and then he used Krud Kutter for our next step of paint prep.

This hutch had a lot of grime on it, so he spent quite a bit of time cleaning it all off, and then he rinsed it again to make sure it was clean.

Learn more on how to clean furniture before painting here.

I wasn’t sure what hardware I was going to want to use, so he filled in the inside holes on the drawers so I could put knobs on or other pulls without having to worry about the size of the new hardware.

Check out this comparison post on the best ways to fill hardware holes.

And while he was filling the holes, he also filled in all of the scratches with plastic wood filler.

This is my first time really trying this stuff. I love how it is pink but dries into the regular wood filler color.

I honestly don’t know that it works any better than regular wood filler though…

Read through this post to learn more about the best wood filler for furniture.

Get all the details you need on how to prepare wood furniture for paint here.

How to Remove Fretwork from China Cabinet

Then, he took a break to watch the kids, and I went to work removing the fretwork from the china cabinet’s doors.

My husband didn’t want to mess with this part because he was worried he would mess it up and I can’t blame him. Haha

The fretwork sits between the glass and the door panels, so you basically have to remove the glass to get to it.

How do you remove glass doors from china cabinets?

Thankfully, it isn’t very hard to remove the glass doors from a china cabinet.

The glass is usually held on with some pieces of wood that are nailed in, or a rubber gasket that you can pop out.

This one has the pieces of wood, so I just pried the pieces of wood off with a scraper. They came off easily and I just worked on one at a time.

I left the top piece of wood in to kind of hold it all to the cabinet, and then I let it slide out gently, hoping that I wouldn’t break the glass.

The fretwork came out with the glass, and I set them flat on some moving blankets so they wouldn’t scratch or break.

It’s a little nerve wracking to make sure the glass doesn’t break, but other than that it’s a super easy process.

Try to Remove the Top of the China Cabinet

With that out of the way, I tried to remove the top. Looking at it from the top it looked like it was just nailed on…

But when I tried to pry it off, it wasn’t budging. So I think there was some glue holding it together too.. Or something!

Soooooo I guess it’s staying on. Haha

Sand Before Painting Furniture

Then I sanded the KwikWood down and scuff sanded the whole cabinet to help the paint stick to it better.

Learn more about sanding before painting furniture here.

Also… I love my SurfPrep Sander! It makes this scuff sanding step so much easier!

But here are the best sanders for furniture if you’re looking for a new sander.

And then I cleaned up all the dust with my vacuum and tack cloth.

How to Spray Paint Without Making a Mess

I personally didn’t want to remove the doors on this cabinet because putting doors back on can be a pain… so I opted to tape off the hinges with painters tape.

And then I didn’t want paint to get into the bottom cabinet, so I taped that off with some more painters tape and pre-taped plastic.

I hate taping off cabinets like this… but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to have enough paint for in here.

Learn more about how to prevent overspray when spray painting furniture here.

Best Primer for Dark Paint

Alright, I’m going to go with a darker color for this china hutch, and it says to not use a shellac based primer because it will make it dry too fast.. so I used this Aqua lock primer in black.

It’s waterbased, and it’s black. And it is an excellent bonding primer.

Learn more about the best primer for painting furniture here.

It doesn’t block bleedthrough stains, but I’m hoping we don’t get any stains coming through since the color will be darker. It’s risky business though.

So I stirred it up real good, and then I poured it into the paint sprayer and through a filter to make sure dried paint or random debris wouldn’t get into the paint sprayer.

Even though the primer says to not thin it… I did. With maybe 10% water. It’s pretty thick primer and I don’t want to have a lot of texture when I spray it.

It sprayed beautifully!! Man I love this primer. I kind of wish it came in a satin sheen because it would be a beautiful paint. Haha

I sprayed it all over the cabinet with my Wagner Sprayer, but I tried not to spray inside the top cabinet because I had other plans for that…

And then I let the primer dry for 45 minutes.

When the primer was dry, I could clearly see where I had sanded the KwikWood down on the drawer because I sanded it down to bare wood… So I put some more wood filler on those areas.

Best Primer for White Paint

And then I grabbed some BIN shellac based primer. This can of primer is really old so there’s a lot of dried primer in it. It’s bad!

So, I filtered it before I used it… and look at how many clumps were in it!

This is exactly why I filter our paint before I spray it. No matter what.

You never know what kind of clumps are in the paint, and any small little thing can clog a paint sprayer.

Anyway… After I filtered it… which was not a fun process by the way, I brushed and rolled the BIN shellac primer in the cabinet.

Check this post for the best roller for painting furniture.

BIN shellac based primer has excellent bonding properties, it helps with coverage, especially when painting a light colored paint like white, and it blocks bleedthrough stains from ruining your paint job.

Especially with light colored paint.

Read more about bleedthrough and what else we use to block it.

It also dries quickly and sands easily after about an hour.

I painted 2 coats of primer and let it dry overnight.

The next day I sanded the wood filler and the rest of the hutch to make sure everything felt nice and smooth.

The black aqua lock primer didn’t really need sanding because it was smooth already, but the BIN shellac primer definitely needed sanding to make it feel smooth.

Then I cleaned up the dust and touched up where I had gotten the white primer on the black primer.

And then I taped the upper cabinet off so I wouldn’t get paint inside of it.

Wise Owl One Hour Enamel

While I was doing that, my husband put the paint in the paint sprayer. For this project, we picked out the Wise Owl One Hour Enamel in the Color Black Cherry.

I have heard a lot about the One Hour Enamel, and even though I used it once a long time ago, I wanted to try it again.

And what better way to paint a china hutch, than going bold with a color I’ve never used ever before. Haha

They say it doesn’t need to be thinned, even when spraying, so we didn’t thin it. (But we should have.)

Read more about thinning paint for a paint sprayer here.

Painting with the Wagner FLEXiO 3000 HVLP Paint Sprayer

And then I tested the spray on a piece of cardboard and felt good about it…

Until I started to spray it on the cabinet… and then I started to wonder what I was thinking.

First… the color was lighter than I thought it would be. And it scared the heck out of me.

And then I was nervous about how it was doing to dry… if the paint was going to dry with a lot of texture in it.

So I stopped for a minute and thought about it for a few minutes.

It dried pretty fast so I was able to see that there was a good amount of texture which made me nervous.. but maybe I just didn’t spray it thick enough so it dried faster and wasn’t able to level out like it should have.

Sooo I decided to keep going but spray it thicker.

The paint itself is thicker than I’m used to, so I had the fluid setting all of the way open, and the power was at 2-3…

It was a slow process, but I eventually got the first coat on.

Check out this post to learn about painting furniture with a paint sprayer.

A couple of hours later I went back to check it out… and it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it. There was still a lot of texture, and there were a lot of tiny bubbles, so it felt pretty rough.

And I could still see the wood grain on the drawer.

Sanding Between Spray Paint Coats

So I filled that in again, and proceeded to sand everything with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the texture.

I didn’t use my electric sander because I didn’t want to sand too much off. I just wanted to smooth out the bumps.

The sandpaper did get a little clogged up too, but not terribly.

Learn more about sandpaper for furniture painting here.

And while I did that, my husband thinned the paint out by 10%.

Spray 2nd coat

 And then I sprayed the next coat of paint.

It went on SOOO much better!! But once it was dry I could see and feel air bubbles still… but there wasn’t as much texture.

So I sanded it again, and I thinned it just a tiny bit more so I wouldn’t run out of paint, and I sprayed a 3^rd coat.

That was the ticket. It’s not perfect, but thinning the paint made it look and feel so much better!

It dried for a day and then I removed the tape, and taped off the bottom of the hutch so I could paint the inside of the cabinet without getting drips on the purple paint.

And then I just brushed and rolled 3 coats of Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel on it. Read through his post to learn more about painting furniture with enamel paint.

Also, learn more about the best paint brush for painting furniture here.

Ohhhh I love the look of the white interior!!

Learn more about painting furniture white with Sherwin Williams emerald trim enamel here.

Then I removed the tape and put on new hardware… And here’s what it looks like now!

It’s bold and purple! Haha I’ve never painted anything purple before, let alone a large china cabinet! Haha But I like it. It’s definitely a statement piece!

As for the paint, I’m not sure that I’ll use it again. I can get a better looking and feeling finish with other paint (like spraying Heirloom Traditions Paint) and less hassle.

Putting Glass Back in a China Cabinet

Oh, and one more thing, I didn’t put the glass back in until after I took photos of it so I didn’t have the glare in the glass to deal with.

But I learned a trick for putting glass back in…

I just put some clear silicone caulking around the edges to hold it in place instead of putting all of the wood pieces back in.

What do you think of the new look? Would you ever paint your furniture purple?? Let me know in the comments!

Painting a China Cabinet with Wise Owl One Hour Enamel

Print

Give your old china hutch a new makeover without breaking the bank. Here are the steps for painting a china cabinet.

Materials

• Krud Kutter
• KwikWood
• Plastic Wood Filler
• 220 Grit Sandpaper
• Medium+  and Fine Grit Foam Sanding Sponges
• Painters Tape
• Pre-Taped Plastic
• Black Aqua Lock Primer
• Bin Shellac Based White Primer
• Paint Filters
• Wise Owl One Hour Enamel in Black Cherry
• Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel in Pure White
• Clear Silicone Caulking
• New Hardware
• Tack Cloth

Tools

• Electric Screwdriver
• SurfPrep Sander
• SW Mohair Paint Roller
• Zibra Paint Brush
• Country Chic Paint Oval Paint Brush
• Wagner FLEXiO 3500 Paint Sprayer
• Scraper
• Shop Vac

Instructions

1. Prepare wood furniture for painting.
2. Remove fretwork and glass doors from the china cabinet.
3. Prime the outside of the furniture with black bonding primer.
4. Prime the inside of the furniture with some BIN shellac-based primer.
5. Apply 3 coats of purple paint all over the cabinet and 3 coats of white enamel paint in the interiors of the cabinet.
6. Attach new hardware and put back the glass doors with some clear caulking around the edges to hold them in place.

Recommended Products

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  Black Waterbased Primer
• 
  Paint Brush
• 
  Paint Filters

More Painted China Cabinets:

• Antique China Hutch Makeover
• Blue Painted Hutch Makeover
• Black Painted China Cabinet
• Painted Display Cabinet

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