Caulking Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Probably the most important aspect of any painting project is the preparations.

One thing is with almost all of the kitchen cabinets jobs I have done if I am painting over natural wood doors the center panel needs to be caulked in.  And this job I just finished was no exception.

Take a look at this photo.

The red arrow is pointing to the seam between the center panel and the bordering frame around it.  I would say most of the time with natural wood cabinets this seam is an open crack and it needs to be caulked closed when you paint them or it looks terrible.  The green circle highlights a ding in the door that also needs some attention with some filler and then sanded.

In this next picture you see that after I primed the door the seam really shows up.  You can see how some of the paint will fill the gap in some areas but paint will not do the trick.

After I run a bead of caulk around the seam the gap is closed up and it makes for a much more appealing look.

Also when the center panel is not caulked in it makes a slight chatter when closed.  After being caulked the doors sound so much better when you close them.  I also use the felt bumpers as opposed to the clear plastic ones because I like the sound better with them when you close the doors.