Thoughts on cabinet colors...refinishing

[Tman]

Some of you know I am building my dream shop and that it is a strawbale building. The inside will be plastered in a light reflective color.

I recently helped a custom cabinetmaker pal do a kitchen and scored the tear outs! They are noce cabinets but your typical dark 70s stain. I am planning on painting them with automotive type paints thru my gun.

The question is WHAT COLOR? Part of the cabinets will be by my old Coke machine, so my wife mentioned red. You folks have any ideas?

I am open to anything, I kinda want to keep it light. Thanks in advance. Trent

 

[bmwpower]

Depends on the overall look of the place. How many cabinets? What's the layout?

Red might be too much. White is too light. I'm thinking more like Black, but that's probably not what you're looking for. Check out byrdman's garage.

 

[Tman]

I will look at that garage! I am also leaning towards black or a dark grey?

The shop is a 24x24 main bay(I would post pics but am still building0, off to the left is double Frech doors to my office with the Coke machine to the right of that and them 7 feet of lower cabinets with a concrete worktop and then full uppers above the pop machine and workbench. The rest of the cabinets are going to be outta site in teh back 13x50 bay, some are for my wifes corner. I dont think the darker colors will be too much, the floors are going to be a ruddy concrete stain, walls will be light.

 

[trainer]

Go to your paint supplier and see what they have for mixing mistakes.
Works for me when I can't decide..... (well... except for the Fugly browinsh-purple water skis i refinished last year)

 

[Tman]

Yeah, I have bought many $1 mistake gallons. But for this I am going to shoot an industrial urethane or enamel with hardener for ease of cleaning and durability. I got the cabinets for free, I can afford $30 for paint! hehehehe

 

[Slide]

My vote would be for battleship gray.

You might also consider a bit of the psychology of color. (This is gonna get a little weird, but bear with me...) If your shop typically feels too cold, as I'm sure it would in SD, then you might use the warmer reds, browns, oranges, yellows, etc. to make the shop feel suprisingly warmer without actually changing the ambient air temperature. Here in TX, my shop is more often too hot than too cold. So if I actually painted anything, I'd prolly go with blues or bluish-grays to make it feel cooler than it really is. You'd be surprised how much of a difference stuff like this can make.

 

[midknightryder]

I like the idea of red cabinets. I repainted our kitchen cabinets red using an exterior simi-gloss house paint. I was suprised at how many coats of paint it took to cover the dark stain (4!). Of course I was using a brush. But the guy at the paint store said that red does not cover as good as other colors. Someting you might want to consider. But the color really brightened up the kitchen.
MKR

 

[MacTexas]

Dove gray. It was the color of my 1982 Buick Regal. It is the perfect color for cabinets. Not too dark and not too light.

 

[bmwpower]

I think lighter gray is rather blah. A darker gray might be nice.

Here's byrdman's black cabinets:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2003

 

[DanC]

cover 'em in girly posters...

 

[z28toz06]

My vote would be for battleship gray.

You might also consider a bit of the psychology of color. (This is gonna get a little weird, but bear with me...) If your shop typically feels too cold, as I'm sure it would in SD, then you might use the warmer reds, browns, oranges, yellows, etc. to make the shop feel suprisingly warmer without actually changing the ambient air temperature. Here in TX, my shop is more often too hot than too cold. So if I actually painted anything, I'd prolly go with blues or bluish-grays to make it feel cooler than it really is. You'd be surprised how much of a difference stuff like this can make.

Hey paint a few penguins on the walls also, you'll freeze your **** off!!

 

[maa139]

What color is your toolbox? How about matching that? Or maybe the cabinets by the coke machine painted red and the ones near something else, the color of the something else? Girlie posters would work too...

Matt

 

[Rickster]

You could try tying it in to the toolboxes. Say if they were the red boxes with the dark gray drawers then go a matching dark gray on the cabinets. I have my cabinets and walls covered in auto related signs. I do like the girly poster idea but I have mine on the inside of the cabinet doors.

 

[Tman]

What color is your toolbox? How about matching that? Or maybe the cabinets by the coke machine painted red and the ones near something else, the color of the something else? Girlie posters would work too...

Matt

My wife said the same thing. I am leaning towards something else. I do like those black cabinets posted.

 

[maa139]

My wife said the same thing. I am leaning towards something else. I do like those black cabinets posted.

She wants you to cover your new cabinets with girlie posters??? She's a keeper!

 

[Dave Carney]

Gray for shop cabinets.

 

[PEDDRO]

Match it to your underwear......pink!

Personally I don't think cabinet colour really matters. Are you prepared to clean it a lot or are you simply not gonna get it dirty in the first place? Either way, it's the only time colour will matter at all.....although I personally would never do it white.

 

[DanC]

maybe try searching Family Handyman archives, they built some cabinets awhile ago and finished 'em some splatterpaint type looking stuff, I think that looked cool...

 

[maa139]

Tman - what did you come up with? I just 'rescued' a pair of cabinets from a dumpster and am prepping them for paint. I'm going to try and match my tool box as close as possible. Then I remembered this thread and was curious as to what you did...have any pics?

Matt

 

[Tman]

Tman - what did you come up with? I just 'rescued' a pair of cabinets from a dumpster and am prepping them for paint. I'm going to try and match my tool box as close as possible. Then I remembered this thread and was curious as to what you did...have any pics?

Matt

Sorry, not online much. Have the net here at work but am living in the camper at the new place while I finish it up. Havent got around to the cabinets yet

 

[byrdman]

What's up y'all, long time no speak.

For what it's worth, my cabinets are not black, they are a Chrysler "slate gray" metallic. (Thanks BMW, for the nod though. ) I did a little test panel in this color but still the cabinets came out darker than I thought they would. It works well to hide greasy fingerprints though. For a working shop(automotive), I would not recommend a lighter color. But that's just me! If these cabinets are wooden and you plan to spray automotive paint on them, make sure you use some kind of compatible primer under there! That hardener is a good idea too. Let us know what you do!

 

[maa139]

No auto paint here...just regular old rustoleum, but thanks for the head's up!

Matt

 

[DIGGER_DAVE]

Sorry, not online much. Have the net here at work but am living in the camper at the new place while I finish it up. Havent got around to the cabinets yet

Tman; so your on here too! Digger Dave back at you!

Cabinet finishing. When it came time to install benches and cupboards in my shop; the thought of having to paint all of them drove me to look for "another way." (32 drawers and cabinets!)

First of all; all my fixed bench tops have steel (14 ga) tops that a friend sheared and folded for me. (6 inches up the wall and a double folded front edge) For the first while I left them plain and if any stains appeared, a "scotch brite pad" and some elbow grease would keep then fairly clean.

When we were getting North of 49's frame ready for powder coating, I had a "flash of inspiration" (doesn't happen very often!) why not powder coat the bench tops?? Well .. now all my bench tops are YELLOW! (with the exception of the welding table) The powder coat stands up darn good considering how much stuff gets slid around on it.

Next, my Snap-On tool box is red and I had considered doing all the cabinet doors RED as well, until I was wandering through one of our local building supply and discovered that they had "odds and ends" of ARBORITE in small size panels. (left over from a cabinet shop who sold the un-used pieces back to the building supply company)

In most cases the pieces were big enough to cover ALL the cabinet doors, (had to do a couple of wide doors with pieces side by side) AND drawer fronts.

One wall has the upper cabinet doors done with BLUE (light) and WHITE (alternating) the drawers below in YELLOW, and the cupboards below the drawers in DARK BROWN.

On the other wall, drawers RED and WHITE.

Now if you think all the "Rainbow" of colors is a bit much; really, it turned out pretty good!

The beauty of using the Arborite to cover all this stuff is,
(1) Fast to install.
(2) Consistant color. (even can cover previously painted surfaces)
(3) Easy to keep clean.

So ... when it comes time to do yours ... just a thought.
Dave

 

[Vincent Vega]

I used Ace Hardware oil based enamel. I wanted to match my Craftsman toolbox. I removed the locking bar from the top cabinet and had them scan it for color match. I removed a small drawer for scanning to match the dark gray. I did one wall in all red. The other in red with gray/black doors. These were all kitchen cabinets. For the red/black I removed the doors and cut them down to fit inside the openings. I flipped them around(inside out) and installed. They look more like shop cabinets than kitchen cabinets.

 

[BoostAddiction]

In my garage, the color scheme is red cabinets and large objects (like a lift), and grey walls and floor (and countertops, where applicable). Note the dove grey Corian countertops in the back, and the red welding table and floor jack (partially visible on the left).

As has been mentioned many times, the Ferrari factory uses gray floors to increase reflectivity up onto the bottom of the cars during assembly. I think it does a good job of that in my garage.

The pic:

-Will