Painting the cabinets of your kitchen is one of the most important processes of decorating it. You need to choose the right type of paint to enhance the beauty of your kitchen. In today’s article, we will discuss how long it takes to dry the cabinet paint.
How long does cabinet paint take to dry?
When you consider painting your kitchen cabinets, the process of painting and curing the kitchen cabinets takes approximately 2 to 3 weeks. Providing this time to dry the cabinets will help the paint to become less vulnerable and resistant to scratches. It will also make the surface hardened.
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If you have cabinets in your house, you will need to paint them as a part of maintenance. Generally, the cabinets are made of wood and wood-like materials that include hardwood, plywood, particle board, and even fiberboard.
In most cases, the type of wood used in cabinets depends on the budget and preference.
Once you determine the type of wood that you will use to make the cabinets for your kitchen or any other purpose, you have to paint them to maintain their quality and increase their life span.
Before you apply paints on your cabinets, you need to remove or strip the previously applied layer of paint and clear coat. However, the time it requires to paint cabinets including all these preparations may become your concern.
Generally, painting and curing the cabinets will enhance the beauty of your kitchen and extend its lifespan of it. So, the process of painting and curing the cabinets should take around 2 weeks.
In addition to that, depending on paint type and quality, the painting process may take up to 3 weeks if it has a clear coat or external varnish that needs to be removed before applying a new layer on top of the cabinet surface.
If you can provide such an amount of time for the cabinets to dry properly, your cabinets will become scratch-resistant, hardened, and less vulnerable to impacts. Once the paint gets dried up, the cabinet surface will also reach its maximum hardness.
So, curing needs to be done properly so that the paint remains intact on the surface for a long time. Generally, you can speed up the curing time for your paints to dry by letting them get dried in a less humid place.
However, you need to keep in mind that when painting the cabinets, try to maintain an interval of at least 2 to 3 hours before applying a new coat over a previously applied coat.
Below is a brief discussion on how long does a different types of cabinet paints take to dry:
Latex-based cabinet paint:
Generally, latex-based cabinet paints are available in water-based and oil-based formulas. Water-based latex paints can dry within two hours.
It takes a lot of time in the curing process. Curing the latex-based cabinet paints requires up to four weeks.
Oil-based cabinet paint:
Usually, the average time for the oil-based cabinet paint to dry is about 6 to 8 hours. You can apply another coat on top of it within the next 24 hours. But it is safe to keep the paint for one to two weeks for drying properly.
| Cabinet paint | Drying time |
|---|---|
| Valspar cabinet paint | 8-12 hours |
| Behr cabinet paint | 2 hours |
| Benjamine moore cabinet paint | 24-48 hours |
| Nuvo cabinet paint | 4 Hours |
How to dry cabinets after painting?
Drying the cabinets after the painting is one of the most important parts to make them more hardened and list vulnerable to scratch damage.
In addition to that, if the paint on the cabinets is not dried properly, it may leave sports on the surface of the cabinets when you touch them. That is why you need to be very careful when painting the cabinets and make sure that they are dried.
Generally, the drying time of paint depends on the type of paint that you are using on the cabinet surfaces. Two types of paint are available for the cabinets, oil-based and water-based.
Generally, the water-based paints require less time to dry and there are quite easy to use.
However, most people tend to go for water-based paints because they are quite cheap and efficient to use on cabinet surfaces.
You can reduce the paint drying time by applying some techniques. You can simply follow the techniques mentioned below to dry the cabinet paints quickly:
Place fans surrounding them:
The first thing you can do to dry cabinet paints is to place fans around them. They will provide the cabinet services with air circulation that will help the paint to dry quickly.
Use a dehumidifier:
You can speed up the curing time by providing a dehumidifier that will help to remove extra moisture and humidity out of the air circulating inside of your room and fasten the process of drying.
However, the dehumidifier is quite a cheap and expensive option to dry the paints quickly. But it will provide you with the best results when it comes to drying the paint.
Dry in a warm but well-ventilated room:
You can try drying your cabinet painted surface is on a warm but well-ventilated room. This will ensure proper airflow throughout the room. If you can open the windows and doors of it and dry the paint quickly.
How many coats of paint should you put on cabinets?
Painting your cabinets is one of the most important parts of decorating your kitchen or rooms.
Having painted cabinets will enhance the beauty of your room and extend the life span of cabinets. So, when you decide to paint the cabinets, you need to apply multiple coats of paint to cover the cabinet surface properly.
In addition to that, it will provide you with a professional finish. That is why you could apply three coats of paint on the cabinet surface. The first quote should be of stain-blocking primer, after that you can apply two coats of base paint.
How long does cabinet paint take to dry between coats?
Applying multiple coats of paint to cabinet service will provide you with a professional finish. In addition to that, multiple layers of paint applied on the cabinet surface hardens the cabinet.
But you need to follow the right type of procedure when applying multiple coats of paint on cabinet surfaces. It should have at least an interval of two to three hours between each coat.
This will eventually let the previously applied coat of paint sit on the surface properly and prepare for the next coat.
How long should kitchen cabinet paint cure before putting stuff on it?
Painting your kitchen cabinet is not the only way that you can do to increase its life span and maintain the quality of your cabinets.
You need to pull off the curing process of painted cabinets to enhance the color. That is why you need to continue curing the kitchen cabinets until they become a hard and durable surface.
If the curing process is not done properly, your cabinets will easily get chips and marks on top of their surfaces. So, it is highly recommended to wait at least 48 hours before you put something on top of your cabinet.
Does waterproof cabinet paint take longer to dry?
No, the waterproof cabinet paint does not take long to dry. Usually dries like the traditional cabinet paints.
In some cases, depending on the paint quality, the waterproof cabinet paint will try within less amount time compared the traditional paint.
Generally, the waterproof cabinet paint takes around one hour to dry. But you need to remember that you need to apply multiple coats of cabinet paint to make it waterproof.
So, the first coat must be dry for at least four hours before you apply the second coat on top of it.
This will eventually help to harden the surface and make it durable. In addition to that, it will also increase the life span of your cabinets. So, you need to follow the procedures properly.
Final thoughts
Painting the cabinets is one of the most important parts to make them durable and extend their life span. It is very important to keep in consideration the curing when you paint the cabinets. So, the overall process of painting and curing the cabinets should take about two to three weeks.