Attaining Antique White on Kitchen Cabinets

Give your plain white kitchen cabinets an aged appearance with an antique white finish by applying a glaze with a hint of color. 

What You'll Need

• Sandpaper at least 120 grit
• White water based, latex satin paint
• Two or three inch paint brushes
• One quart clear paint glaze
• Acrylic craft paint in raw umber, burnt sienna, taupe, or black
• Clean cloths
• Bucket of water 

Step 1 - Preparing Cabinets for Painting

You can decide to either take off the cabinet doors or leave them attached. It may be easier to remove the doors and hardware. Clean the kitchen cabinets making sure that they are free of dirt and grease. Sand all of the kitchen cabinets. After completing the sanding, get rid of the dust by wiping them down with a clean dry cloth. 

Step 2 - Priming the Surface of the Kitchen Cabinets

Adding primer to the kitchen cabinets gives them a good bond for the paint. Without primer the paint can chip or peel. If your cabinets have a varnish on them you definitely need to use a primer because paint doesn’t stick to varnish. 

Step 4 - Painting the Kitchen Cabinets

Paint the cabinets white. The white paint is your base color that shows through the antiquing color. 

Step 5 - Making the Cabinets Antique White

After painting on the base coat sand the kitchen cabinets. Make the edges of the doors and around the drawer pulls rough. This gives the cabinets a worn look. Wipe the dust from the cabinets with a cloth.

Step 6 - Choosing the Accent Antique Color

Chose from raw umber, burnt sienna, taupe or black depending on the look you want to achieve. Mix your color selection into the glaze. The tint of the glaze gets darker with the more color you add.

Step 7 - Antiquing the White Kitchen Cabinets

Apply the glaze to the cabinet with a brush. Fill in any tight spots or corners with the tined glaze. Once the glaze is on the kitchen cabinet you have about fifteen minutes before it dries. Using a damp cloth wipe off the glaze following the grain of the wood. You can decide how much of an antiquing effect you want by taking off a little of the glaze or a lot of it.