How Many Coats of Primer On Cabinets (Laminate, Kitchen & Bathroom)

Painting your home’s interior furniture needs a lot of attention – As you can lengthen the lifespan by applying primer as an undercoat. How many coats of primer you will be necessary depends on the objects and your goal. 

Generally, one or two coats are sufficient for you when painting cabinets. Most of the time, one coat of primer is enough to protect your cabinet. But, if you have a darker cabinet, you must need to apply two coats. 

Moreover, how many coats of primer on cabinets need depends on the materials, paint colors and the primer. You have to consider them before putting primer. Applying primer before painting helps the surface soak the paint properly and looks better for a longer time. The Darker surface needs more of it for a satisfying result. 

Keep Reading to know how many coats of primer you need to apply on your cabinets.  

Why Wood Cabinets Need The Attention of Primer?

The Primer helps the surface to adhere to the paint properly. When you’re applying it to cabinets, you need to think of it made with wood or not. 

So, before painting a wooden surface, you must prime it. If you don’t prime the wood cabinets, the wood will dry before the paint does its work. Soon you will see many problems are occurring Like:

  1. The paint will starting to peel
  2. Appear differently spotted 
  3. Showing damage on cabinets 
  4. Changing the cabinets natural color

It’s necessary to take a day (24 hours) for priming your wooden cabinet. If you keep yourself patient, you will achieve a good result in the end. 

Do I Need to Apply One Coat of Primer on my Wooden Cabinet? 

You can use a single coat of primer for priming white surfaces or any light color surfaces. Applying a high-quality one coat primer is enough for the paint to adhere perfectly to a light color cabinet. 

When you are finishing applying primer, give it time to adhere and dry properly. Generally, it takes 24 hours to dry completely. We saw many homeowners talk about it, and they share that they saw a better result after applying paint a day later more than rushed into painting. 

If you don’t prime the cabinet correctly, how much quality paint you apply will come out poor. So, it’s essential to priming your cabinet perfectly. If you are applying a light paint, then a single coat of primer is enough. Give at least 24 hours to dry the primer, then start to paint your cabinet. 

Do I Need to Apply Two Coats of Primer on my Wooden Cabinet? 

Darker cabinets do paint absorption at different rates. If you own one, you should think of applying two coats of primer before starting to paint. Because the darker surface most often soaks up the first primer – when you use the second coat, it will refill the primer again. 

Many darker colors are existing in cabinets like espresso, cherry, marble elegance, black & brown. If you are completely sure you have a darker cabinet, don’t think twice about using two primer coats. 

The first coat takes 30 minutes to dry depending on the surface level. If you don’t want to take any risk, give another 30 minutes for drying. After that, apply the second coat of primer and again wait minimum 24 hours before painting.

What will Happen If you’re Applying Three or More?

Adding three coats of primer wouldn’t give you an extra advantage. Using more can cause a lot of troubles. Primer mainly used to ease your painting job, but excessive use of it will ruin all of your efforts.

Some critical issues that can be happened on your kitchen cabinet for excessive use of primer include:

  1. The longer dry time period
  2. Start to show crack on primer
  3. Paint will poorly adhesive 

Publicly a few homeowners said they got an excellent result after applying three coats of primer. We find out they achieve this result accidentally. Luckly, two coats are enough to shine a darker kitchen cabinet. More than that can need more attention. 

Note: Applying three or more coats of primer adds an extra layer and resists drying primer and adhesive paint. 

Do you Need to Sand After Finishing the Priming? 

Sand After Finishing the Priming

Sanding is necessary when you apply the primer with a brush or roller. Because certain brushstrokes or solid droplets can appear anywhere on your cabinets, it can mess the beauty of your cabinets. 

When you finish the priming job and make sure it dry properly, start to sand using a fine-grit sanding paper to make it smooth. 

Note: If you use a spray primer, you don’t need to follow the sanding process. Since you can apply the spray primer without having any brush. 

How Many Coats of Paint Need to Apply After Priming Cabinets?

After waiting 24 hours of drying the primer, you need to apply two more paint coats to your kitchen cabinet. Why two coats? Using one coat doesn’t look good (Blotchy) on the cabinet. 

Take 2-3 hours of time between two coats, and this is all because the chemical reaction of paints needs time to properly solvent. And each side of the cabinet door takes 24 hours to completely dry. For better drying, expose the cabinet and keep a fan in front of it. 

When you apply the second coat of paint, you will see all the painted curves and errors of the first coat will vanish. The last thing is don’t let anyone hang too much with the cabinets until they dry completely. 

Note: Two coats of paint is enough to look great in your cabinet. If you want to play a more secure paint job, you can apply the third coat. Again, the time spent will be the same as before. 

Do You Need to Skip Primer on Cabinet If You Use Self-Priming Paint?

When paint and primer is one, it’s called “self-priming paint”. They are thicker and solid on average. They are budget-friendly and work best in lighter colors. 

Just apply one coat you will finish the priming and paint. Though, many people think it is a time and money saving idea. In reality, it’s a poor activity for anyone. 

Priming and painting on cabinets are used for two different purposes. Primer helps to adhere the paints more correctly, where the paint provides a finishing touch with color and texture. Professional painters are more cautious about it. 

If you are a do-it-yourself painter, be calm and apply the primer and paint differently for better results.

Final Words

How many coats of primer on cabinets you want to apply depends on the surface color. It doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or professional, you have to act smartly or you can surely damage your kitchen cabinet. 

Remember what we try to tell you, two coats are essential for a darker cabinet, whether one for a lighter one. Please don’t take it in a hurry, give it a full day to dry before adding the paints layer, or result in blotches. 

Now do the perfect priming and enjoy the painting job!!

Related Posts:

  1. Best Paint Sprayer For Kitchen Cabinets

Leave a Comment