Painting laundry room cabinets: colors, finishes and humidity

Why laundry room cabinets are worth painting

Many laundry cabinets are simple: a run of uppers over the machines, maybe a tall utility cabinet and a base cabinet by a sink. They tend to be plain, which makes them a good canvas. Wikipedia's article on kitchen cabinets notes that cabinet boxes are typically made from wood derivatives such as MDF, plywood or particleboard, and MDF can be painted. If the boxes are sound, refinishing changes the whole room without the cost and mess of replacing them.

A laundry room also sits on the route between other rooms, so it helps to think of it as part of the house rather than a closet. A color that echoes the kitchen or the mudroom ties the back of the house together, and a deliberately different one can make the room feel like its own small space.

We refinish laundry room cabinets along with kitchens, vanities and built-ins, and the process is the same: clean, degrease, sand and prime, then spray the doors and finish the frames in place. Our guide to painting laminate cabinets matters here, since some laundry cabinets are laminate.

What a laundry room does to paint

A laundry room produces moisture every day. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns that improperly vented clothes dryers raise the humidity in a room and can lead to mold growth, and says dryers must be vented to the outdoors. It advises keeping indoor humidity below 60 percent, ideally between 30 and 50 percent.

Humidity affects the paint, too. In a technical bulletin on dry time and cure time, Dunn-Edwards says high humidity slows the drying of coatings and poor air circulation can prolong it. A properly vented dryer, a working fan and an open door while the room dries out protect the cabinets as much as the paint does.

Add detergent splashes, spilled cleaners and the lint that settles on every surface, and you can see why this is a room for a finish that wipes clean.

Which cabinets to paint

• Uppers over the washer and dryer, which are seen from across the room.
• A tall utility cabinet for brooms and supplies.
• A base cabinet under a folding counter or beside a sink.
• Open shelves or a built-in hutch if the room has one.

Painting all of them in the same color makes a small room feel larger and more orderly. Two colors can work too: lighter uppers with a deeper base, as covered in our post on two tone kitchen cabinets.

Color ideas for a small laundry room

Laundry rooms are often small and windowless, so light matters more than usual. A few directions that tend to work:

• Crisp white. Brightens a room with little natural light and makes it feel clean. It also shows splashes, so pair it with a wipeable sheen.
• Soft sage or gray-green. Calm and a little forgiving, and it pairs well with white appliances.
• Navy or deep blue. Adds personality and looks good with brass or black pulls, if the room has good lighting.
• Warm gray. A neutral that sits easily with most flooring and walls.
• Black. Dramatic and modern, and best where a window or bright bulbs give it light.

Look at a painted sample board in the room itself, under its own bulbs, because laundry rooms are lit very differently from the rest of a house. Remember the walls, too. Navy cabinets against pale walls stand out, while the same navy against a mid-tone wall can disappear. Our guide to choosing a cabinet color works through five real kitchens and applies here too.

Sheen and durability

Dunn-Edwards lists satin for kitchens, laundry rooms and bathrooms because it has good cleaning properties, and describes semi-gloss as stain resistant and easy to clean. Both suit laundry cabinets. Satin is softer and shows less. Semi-gloss wipes cleaner, which counts when detergent drips down a door.

Our post on the best paint finish for kitchen cabinets compares them in detail, and the same logic holds in a laundry room. For how a finish wears over time, see how durable painted cabinets are.

Prep for a laundry room

Preparation decides whether a finish lasts, and a laundry room has a few extra things to remove and check:

• Detergent and cleaner residue, lint and dust, which are cleaned and degreased off every surface before sanding.
• Slick laminate or thermofoil, which needs a primer made to bond to it.
• Swollen or soft board near a sink or under a leak. Wikipedia notes that particleboard swells irreversibly if water reaches its core, and paint can't repair that.
• Past leaks. The EPA advises drying water-damaged areas within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth, so ask yourself whether anything here stayed wet.

George checks the condition of your cabinets before he quotes, and he'll tell you plainly if refinishing isn't the right call. For MDF and particleboard doors, see our MDF cabinet guide for edge sealing and what to do about swelling.

Hardware and small upgrades

New pulls are an easy way to finish the look, and the best time to choose them is before the paint goes on. If the new pulls are a different size, the old holes need filling first. Hinges are adjusted when everything goes back on, so the doors close evenly.

The space around the cabinets is worth a look at the same time. Walls and trim in a laundry room can take as much wear as the cabinets, and a fresh cabinet color against scuffed walls looks unfinished. We paint walls, ceilings and trim too, so interior painting can be planned alongside the cabinets. If you're curious about the inside of the cabinets, our post on whether to paint inside cabinets covers when it's worth doing.

Caring for the finish

A fresh finish needs a gentle few weeks. Dunn-Edwards puts the full cure of latex coatings at 14 to 30 days, and says humid air slows it. In that window:

• Wipe spills quickly with a soft damp cloth and mild soap.
• Open doors by their pulls rather than their edges.
• Don't set wet baskets or damp detergent bottles against the shelves.
• Keep the dryer vented outdoors and the room ventilated.

Our post on how to clean painted kitchen cabinets covers the long-term routine.

Planning the job

Cabinet work is priced per cabinet, with the paint included. The written quote is the price, no extra charge if the job takes longer than expected. If you want a laundry room done along with a kitchen, mention it on the estimate call, together with a mudroom, a vanity or a hutch. Our post on mudroom cabinet ideas covers the entry the same way.

We refinish cabinets across Madison and Dane County. See our cabinet refinishing in Madison page, or go straight to our cabinet refinishing service and ask for a free estimate.