The Best Primer for Cabinets

Priming your kitchen cabinets is a step that helps paint to adhere to the surface, but it also can be used to cover stains, smells, and wood bleed through.

If you’re planning to paint the cabinets in your home, it’s important to prime them first with the correct type of primer for your project. This post will give you all the information you’ll need to understand the purpose of primer and to select the right primer for your cabinets.

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If you are planning to paint your cabinets, I’d highly recommend reading about the best type of paint for kitchen cabinets. The kind of paint you choose for your cabinets definitely matters in durability and finish!

Okay, let’s take a deep dive into all things primer!

The Best All-Around Primer For Cabinets

After using all of the primers listed in this post, there are a few that I most recommend for priming cabinets.

1. Best Primer for All Types of Cabinets: Zinsser B-I-N Synthetic Shellac Primer
   • This primer has amazing adhesion to all surfaces (including laminate) and will hide any causes of bleed through on cabinets. Plus, it can be easily cleaned up with water!
   • It’s more expensive than many of the other primers in this post, so continue reading to decide if you need a primer with this much “power”.
2. Best Budget-Friendly Primer: Zinsser 1-2-3 Plus Primer
   • This primer has stain-blocking and adhesion properties at a lower price point than some other hybrid primers. However, it didn’t adhere as well as the shellac or oil-based primers.

What is primer?

Primer is essentially a base coat that is used before painting a topcoat of paint on any surface. It is important for adhesion, stain-blocking and paint coverage, all of which help to achieve a professional look on your painting project.

What does primer do?

Using primer on a painting project helps in a few different ways. It helps with adhesion, stain blocking and paint coverage.

• Adhesion: Primer is formulated differently than paint which allows to it grip to many different surfaces very well. Using primer will help you to avoid peeling, flaking or chipping paint down the road. Plus, it adds to the durability of your paint finish. When cleaning your cabinets, rubbing on the paint surface that has been primed first will ensure that the paint doesn’t rub right off from the cabinets with a little bit of pressure.
• Stain Blocking: Primer will block many different stains (and smells) that would otherwise seep through regular paint. Smoke stains, water stains, mold, odor, wood stains (called tannins) or oil stains will show through paint in a matter of days. Using the correct type of primer can block all of these stains from showing through your paint. (More on the type of primer to use for different stains below.)
• Paint Coverage: Using primer will help you to use less coats of paint because it covers up dark colors and it acts as a sealer for porous surfaces that would otherwise absorb the paint. Primer is especially beneficial if you are painting something dark (like wood cabinets, for example) a light color like white. Primer is cheaper than the type of paint you should use to paint kitchen cabinets, so this will save you money as well.
• Grain Filling: Primer helps to slightly fill the grain on wood with tighter graining. However, primer will not completely fill the grain, especially on wood with larger, open graining (like on oak cabinets). You’ll definitely need a grain filler to fill in larger grains if you don’t want it to be visible after painting.

Do I need to prime before painting?

Honestly, you’ll find differing opinions to this question all over the internet. There are plenty of people that claim you don’t need to prime your cabinets. Depending on the paint you’re using and the type of cabinets you are using, this can be true.

However, every professional painter I’ve asked this question to has told me they always prime cabinets before painting (and it’s often accompanied by laughing in my face when the question is asked).

My personal recommendation on this question comes with the experience of painting six sets of cabinets (both with and without priming). Simply put, the sets of cabinets I painted with primer are holding up better than the one set of cabinets I didn’t use primer on.

I ALWAYS choose to prime my cabinets before painting them now. Is it always necessary? No. But it will always give you that added coverage and adhesion that your paint job needs to achieve the best results.

Because no one wants to finish a kitchen cabinet painting job only to realize they actually need to prime their cabinets first. That would be a nightmare!

Types of Primer for Kitchen Cabinets

There are two main groups of primer that can be used on cabinets: General Use Primer and Stain Blocking Primer.

General Use (Water-Based) Primer

These types of primers are great for giving paint a little extra sticking power and helping to make sure your paint stays adhered to the surface for many years to come.

Using a coat of primer also means that you will need to use less paint, especially if you are painting your cabinets a lighter color.  In the end, this saves money because primer is definitely less expensive than cabinet paint! 

I’ve used Zinsser 123 Primer on two sets of cabinets with great success. I primed my camper cabinets and my upper cabinet boxes before refacing them. The paint is holding up very well on both of these sets of cabinets.

If you finish priming with this primer and notice some bleed through, you’ll want to use a second coat of a stain-blocking primer (described below) to stop any future bleed through.

Stain-Blocking Primer (Oil-based, Shellac, or Water-Based Hybrid)

If you have stains that would otherwise bleed through paint, you’ll need to opt for a stain-blocking primer for your cabinets.  Typical situations where this would happen might be:

• water rings or water stains (might see this on RV cabinet doors or cabinets in a basement that have been exposed to water or flooding)
• unfinished, bare wood (new cabinets doors or cabinets where the finish has been sanded down or is not intact)
• cabinets made from cherry, mahogany, cedar, or knotty pine (all of these wood species bleed through paint, and sometimes the pre-existing finish)
• cabinets finished with oil-based stain or sealer (most solid wood cabinets fall into this category, and definitely those installed before 2010)
• stinky odors from smoke, mold, or pets

Oil-Based Primer

Any oil-based primers will usually do the trick at blocking any of these bleed through situations, but oil-based primers also have a much stronger odor and high VOCs (don’t paint with these inside unless ALL windows are open!)

They are also more difficult to clean up because you need to use mineral spirits or paint thinner to clean brushes, rollers and sprayers. 

I recently tested a ton of primers side by side for adhesion, and the oil-based primers didn’t perform any better than the hybrid primers listed in the next section.

Shellac-Based Primer

Shellac primers have excellent adhesion strength and also covers stains and odors, and it can be tinted. It’s a little less stinky than oil-based primer as well.

Shellac primer must be cleaned with a mix of water and denatured alcohol while Synthetic Shellac Primer is easier to clean up with only water (more on this type of primer in the “hybrid” section below).

Hybrid Primers

Paint technology has come a long way in the last ten years, and manufacturers are making paints and primers that have all the benefits of an oil-based or shellac primer in a water-based formula.

Usually, these primers cost a little more since you’re getting the best of both worlds at once, but I’ve found it worth the cost for some projects.

What type of primer is best for My cabinets?

The answer to this question really does depend on the cabinets you’re painting.

For each question, I will break down why this question matters for priming and give my personal recommendation for the type of primer to use.

Are your cabinets real wood?

If your cabinets are real wood and made of cherry, mahogany, cedar, or knotty pine, you need to use a stain-covering primer.

If your cabinets are made of pine, oak, birch or maple, you may not need a stain-blocking primer unless they’re unfinished, have unfinished area, or they’ve been finished with an oil-based topcoat.

If your cabinets are laminate, I would recommend Shellac Primer. This is the best primer for laminate surfaces to ensure your paint adheres well to the surface for years to come.

Are your cabinets unfinished?

If you order new cabinet doors to reface your cabinet frames (I replaced only the doors in my kitchen and saved SO much money!), they will most likely be unfinished wood.

Whenever you are painting unfinished wood, you need to use a stain-blocking primer so that all the wood tannins are sealed and don’t seep through the primer and paint down the road. (Even a lighter colored species of wood like pine have tannins in them.)

I used Zinsser BIN Clear Shellac (because it’s what I had on hand) on my unfinished wood doors and they’ve held up beautifully, but any of the the primers in the stain-blocking primers section will work well!

Is the finish on your wood cabinets intact?

Sometimes, the clear coat finish on cabinets can become worn away, damaged, or too aggressively sanded in the paint prepping process that exposes some of the raw wood. As I mentioned above, any unfinished (unsealed) wood can bleed through general use primer and paint.

So, if some of the finish on your wood cabinets is not intact, choose a stain-blocking primer just to be safe. Or, you can use a small amount of stain blocking primer in those areas where the raw wood is exposed, and then use general use primer everywhere else.

How old are your cabinets?

Generally speaking, most wood cabinets installed before 2000 seem to have been finished in oil-based products that can more easily seep through general use primer. Now, this isn’t always the case, but if your wood cabinets are older, I would ere on the side of caution and use a stain-blocking primer just to be safe.

Do your cabinets have any stains?

If your cabinets have water stains, smoke stains, mold, or other stains that won’t clean up, be sure to use a stain-blocking primer in those spots, at a minimum.

I needed to do this on my pop-up camper cabinets because of some water damage. I used Zinsser Smart Prime and was very pleased with the results.

Are your cabinets already painted?

If your cabinets were painted with water-based paint, using a general use primer should work well. If your cabinets were painted with oil-based paint, you should use a stain-blocking primer that adheres better to oil-based paints.

If you’re unsure, choose one of the stain-blocking primers that also have best adhesion. They’ll be able to stick to either of the paints.

I hope this post helped to answer some of your questions about priming before painting.  If you’re ever in doubt, my recommendation would always be to take the little bit of extra time to prime first. Happy painting!

Thinking about painting or refacing your kitchen cabinets? These posts will help!