Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I flip houses. This is house #4 this year. The previous owners literally took a 4" cheap paint brush and threw on some old semi gloss house paint on the kitchen cabinets. Cheap looking and they didn't even bother to paint half of the back sides and worst of all, they painted over all the hardware. I have used a lot of cabinet refinishing products over the years to try to avoid the cost of having to replace the cabinet fronts which can be a lot more costly than advertised. The original base of these cabinets appeared to be beechwood. Really nice grain and if I had bothered to strip off some of the crappy job the previous guys did, I would have preferred to keep the wood, sand it down and restain. But I had already installed the new backsplash to match the dark grey granite tops. So I wanted to stick with the original white color for the cabinets as all the new appliances were stainless steel, which I hate but that's another story. When you're in resale like me, they demand stainless. Which means you need bright contrast colors in the kitchen especially with the dark granite countertops I inherited. I initially bought the Nuvo Kit in titanium plus white. Save your money and buy the paint by the quart. The DVD is useless if you know how to paint. The brush was low quality and the foam roller is useless as all it does it leaves bubbles in your project and ruins the finish. The sanding pad they included was in the garbage within one second of opening the kit box. As with all projects, it's ALL in the prep you do. The quality of this paint is very high. But its end result will only show if you do the proper prep work. Forget their promise of just paint over paint and away you go. I did this on one section of the crown molding at the top of the cabinets to see the finish. All the brush marks of the horrible first paint job came right through. I was pretty discouraged with this product at that point, but realized I didn't follow my usual protocol. It's all in the prep. So out came the paint stripper and I stripped all cabinets, frames and top molding down to the original wood. This is when I discovered the beautiful beech wood with a really nice grain. Too late, didn't match the new backsplash. So after stripping and sanding everything down to the original, I put on the first coat of Nuvo. This is not a thick paint. Not thin like Valspar, but not thick like Behr.. Just a nice fluid paint. You need to go MINIMUM two coats with this paint. This is not a large kitchen but I have an island bar so had to order a third quart just to keep the color match theme. Do your brush work first for the trim. This paint dries quick but not too quick so don't overwork the paint. MOST important, invest in the best roller and brush you can find. I went with a cloth 6" roller and the Wooster best quality trim angled brush from Home Depot. For the extra $5 investment, well worth it. The second coat of my project went on like glass. No brush marks, full coverage and after looking at the dried finish two hours later, I was very impressed. I am still working on the bottom cabinets as my sander decided to die on me.. But the top row of cabinets are done. It's been two weeks. I live in FL and it's summer and very humid. I kept the air at 73 throughout this project because of this. Now after testing the cleanability of the cabinets two weeks after curing and dry time, I was in awe at how easy they were to clean. Just like the expensive cabs we pay thousands for. Good product, easy to work with, easy to clean, good workability just don't overwork it. The important thing with this paint, do the prep work and use the best rollers and brushes you can find. DO NOT brush the larger areas of your cabinets. Use the brush only for the spots were a roller won't work. The roller is the best way to go with this product for a perfect finish. Also, I used the Titanium finish in White Semi Gloss. It is a true semi gloss finish. The white has a misty grey blue undertone which is normal for white. I noticed it was a cooler white than my ceiling molding which was finished in Behr semi gloss untinted ultra white. But in natural light and evening light very hard to notice unless you're looking for it. This was a plus for me as it caught the natural light from the granite tops and everything blended perfectly. For my next flip, yes, I would definitely use this product again if I run into the cabinet mess I did in this house. Great product, a little more expensive than your basic house paint, but stood up to the test of easy cleaning and offered a beautiful, quality looking finish.