How to Paint IKEA SEKTION Cabinets {One Room Challenge Week 4}

Learn how to paint IKEA SEKTION cabinets to get a modern updated look. Transform regular kitchen cabinets into custom cabinets using a paint sprayer.

Want more home projects? Learn how to DIY a grid board and batten wall, easy craftsman window trim, and modern shiplap.

Welcome to week 4 of the One Room Challenge. If you missed the past few posts, I’m joining in with a group of other bloggers on a room makeover challenge.

I’m working on my modern and bright creative home office, and you can see my design plan here.

Last week I shared how to install removable wallpaper. The built-in desk is starting to look so good! I can’t wait to show you more. This week, I’m sharing all about the cabinet painting process.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information, see my disclosures here. A huge thanks to HANDy for providing product for this post! My favorable opinion of their amazing painting tools is 100% my own.

One of my favorite parts of my original design plan was the navy lower cabinets on the built-in desk. I love the look of the white upper cabinets and dark lower cabinets. It creates a great contrast and it’s a fun way to add some color.

When I was designing my built-in desk, I decided to use IKEA SEKTION cabinets which are kitchen cabinets. IKEA has a good selection of cabinet fronts, but they didn’t have exactly what I was looking for. The frames of the cabinets were white and the other “color” option they had was gray.

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So I decided to buy all white cabinets and drawer fronts. The plan was to leave the upper cabinets white and paint the lower cabinets navy blue.

IKEA SEKTION cabinet fronts are already finished and painted. They are made of laminate wood which means they have a glossy texture. And that laminate finish is something that can’t easily be painted over.

If you tried to just paint the cabinets right out of the box, the paint will definitely chip off. Not the look that I’m going for with my built-in desk.

I did some research and looked up the best ways to paint IKEA cabinets. I found so many recommendations for a shellac based primer that promised to help paint stick to IKEA cabinets.

The primer that I decided to used is called Zinsser B.I.N. Primer. It’s a shellac based primer and is essential if you want to paint IKEA cabinets. You can’t use a water-based or oil-based primer to paint over laminate. It won’t work.

Right on the can it says that it will stick to all surfaces. I was sold!

Now there are a few cons to using this primer. First, it’s a little expensive compared to other primers. Second, it has a very strong smell when you are applying it. It goes away after the primer is dry, but you will definitely need to be in a well-ventilated area when you are using this primer.

I’ve never painted laminate furniture before, so this was a learning experience for me. There were definitely things that I wish I did differently. Nothing went wrong, but I did a lot more work than was necessary for some of the steps.

Overall, it all worked out. And now I know exactly what to do the next time. Hopefully, you can learn from me so you don’t create extra work for yourself.

Here’s how I painted the lower IKEA SEKTION cabinets for my built-in desk.

How to Paint IKEA SEKTION Cabinets

Materials

• Zinsser B.I.N. Primer
• Semi-gloss Enamel Paint — I used BEHR Marquee in the color Rush Hour

Tools

• Very Fine Sandpaper
• HomeRight Paint Sprayer
• Paintbrush
• Foam Paint Roller
• HANDy Pro Pail
  • HANDy Pro Pail Liners
• HomeRight Spray Shelter
• Kraft Paper or Drop Cloths
• Frog Tape
• Microfiber Cloth

To get the look I was going for, I needed to paint all the drawer fronts for the base cabinets. I also needed to paint the base cabinet frames themselves.

I started with the drawer fronts. Before I actually painted, I did a test using a piece of side trim that I bought for the cabinets from IKEA. I had a few scraps left over and it had the same finish as the cabinets.

PS: I’ll be sharing about the trimming process in a future blog post.

I tried a section with primer and without primer. Then, I tried sanding vs not sanding before applying the primer. And finally, sanding vs not sanding after applying the primer. Then, I applied the enamel paint over each one of the test areas.

After it dried, I tried to scratch the test piece with my nails and see how the paint held up.

On the section without the primer, the paint came right off without even really trying! For the rest of the test areas, It was hard to tell the difference between sanding vs not sanding.

Overall, I thought the one test area that seemed to hold up the best was where I sanded first, then primed, and then painted.

Sand with a Fine Grit Sandpaper

To prep all of the cabinets for painting, I sanded all of the surfaces with a fine grit sandpaper.

This is where I made my first small mistake. At first, I used a fine grit sandpaper, but not fine enough. It created some scratches on the surface of the drawer fronts. Now that the dark paint is on the cabinets, you can’t see the scratches. But if I was going to do this again, I would have used a VERY fine grit sandpaper and only lightly sanded. I would recommend a 220 grit or higher.

Once everything was sanded, I used a microfiber cloth to remove any dust from the surfaces.

Prep the Paint Area

Next, I set up a painting area in our garage. I decided to use this large spray shelter from HomeRight. It goes together just like a camping tent and provides good protection so you don’t get paint all over the place.

The spray shelter doesn’t have a base, so I decided to use kraft paper. I’ve had one of these rolls of kraft paper for years now. It’s perfect for just about any project, and it never seems to run out. In our home, we call it the “never-ending kraft paper.”

DISCOVER YOUR HOME STYLE

Are you frustrated because the things you buy for your home just don’t “go together.” You need to find your home style!

This guide will reveal your unique home style as you create a vision board. It’s a game-changer for your home — Get it free for a limited time!

GET MY FREE GUIDE

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Prime the Surfaces

This is where I made my second mistake. I knew that I wanted to use a paint sprayer for the navy enamel paint. But I also thought it would be really handy to use the paint sprayer for the primer too.

So, I put the primer into the paint sprayer and primed all of the cabinets.

It worked really well and provided that nice even finish.

But…YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS!

Never use Shellac-Based Primer in a Paint Sprayer

I was so eager to get started that I didn’t read all of the instructions on the paint sprayer. I didn’t realize you can ONLY use water or oil-based paints and primers in this tool.

The other part that I didn’t think about was the cleanup. Because the primer is shellac-based, you can’t clean it with water. Which is a HUGE hassle when you need to clean a paint sprayer.

I put the paint compartment and the other pieces of the sprayer into the sink to clean and the leftover primer started to solidify. It got almost crumbly and stiff and would NOT come off of the surfaces.

And then I started to panic because I thought I had just ruined my new paint sprayer!

Ben came to the rescue and told me to try using rubbing alcohol to clean it off. So, I sat there for a VERY long time using rubbing alcohol and the tiny cleaning tools that come with the paint sprayer to try and unclog all of the primer from the little paint sprayer components.

Let me repeat — do NOT do this! It was such a hassle. And I could have ruined my paint sprayer. It would have been much quicker to prime with a paint brush and foam roller.

Prep the Paint Sprayer

To paint the drawer fronts, I knew that I wanted to use a paint sprayer. Paint sprayers create a nice, even finish. That way I could avoid any brush strokes from paint brushes and rollers.

This paint sprayer from HomeRight is a really affordable option. It comes with easy to follow instructions on how to prepare your paint so you have the right consistency for spraying.

I had to water down my navy enamel paint considerably to get it to be the right consistency. It seemed like I was adding a lot of water, but it all worked out once I started spraying.

Paint the Surfaces

After the primer was dry, it was time to finally paint the drawer fronts.

To get the best results with a paint sprayer, you need to keep it moving at a constant speed. You want to lightly cover the surface and avoid paint build-up.

Don’t worry if it looks slightly patchy in a few areas. The first coat won’t completely cover everything.

I did two coats to get a full and even coverage of paint.

Then, I just kept painting!

Using the paint sprayer was so satisfying! It was actually fun to watch the navy paint cover the white surfaces. And it went very fast. Much faster than painting everything with a brush and roller.

The paint sprayer was very easy to use. I would definitely recommend it if you are going to be painting cabinets of any kind. Or if you are painting lots of surfaces, like shutters or trim.

Next, I painted the base cabinets. I moved the middle cabinets into our garage to prime and paint them since they weren’t attached to anything yet.

I also flipped them upside down so I could paint over the base that I created using MDF. You can see it attached to the bottom of the cabinet (at the top of the picture). Now they look like they were part of the cabinet originally.

I used this HANDy Pro Pail and it was so helpful! It’s my new favorite “pail” from HANDy. I needed to use both a paintbrush and a foam roller to paint these cabinets. And the HANDy Pro Pail has a spot for both of those tools while still being portable.

I love the magnet that holds the paintbrush! It’s the little things…right?!

This tool was much easier to use than my previous method of trying to balance a paint tray and not get paint drips everywhere! Do yourself a favor and buy one of these HANDy Pro Pails! 

And don’t forget to grab the liners for super quick cleanup!

To make the cabinets look built-in, I also painted the wall and the trim in the section that would be underneath the desk where my chair will go.

This next picture isn’t the most glamorous, but it gives you a good idea of how I painted the large cabinets that were already installed.

We have carpeting in the basement and I did not want to get navy paint all over the gray carpet. But I also didn’t want to have unpainted cabinet bases. That would ruin the “built-in” look.

So, Ben grabbed a few thin scrap pieces of wood and wedged them underneath the large cabinets. We made sure to really push them in to make sure the wood was covering the carpet. We also did this under the trim that I painted against the wall.

This trick worked PERFECTLY! I was a little nervous when I was painting and tried to apply light coats and not just glob on the paint.

But once everything was dry and we removed the wood, there was not a drop of paint on the carpet!

Sneak Peek!

Once the painting was done, I got to work attaching the drawer fronts to the drawers. Then, I brought the middle base cabinets back inside and put them in place. Here’s a sneak peek at how everything is looking!

The built-in desk is coming together so well! The navy blue base cabinets are exactly what I imagined when I was designing the space.

We’re getting even closer to the big reveal. and I’m so excited!

Stay tuned for more updates on the built-in desk. Next up is the DIY bookshelves.

If you’d like to see how the other bloggers are doing with their One Room Challenge spaces, you can do so in this link up.

You can follow along as we transform (a section of ) our basement into my modern and bright creative home office via the links below:

Planning a Modern and Bright Creative Home Office {One Room Challenge Week 1}

How to Build a Desk using IKEA SEKTION Cabinets {One Room Challenge Week 2}

The Best Removable Wallpaper Patterns

How to Install Removable Wallpaper {One Room Challenge Week 3}

6 Must-Have Painting Tools

How to Paint IKEA SEKTION Cabinets {One Room Challenge Week 4} (You’re Here)

The Best Craft Room Tables

DIY Bookshelves for a Built-In Desk {One Room Challenge Week 5}

Modern and Bright Creative Home Office Reveal {One Room Challenge Week 6}