Painting or kitchen cabinet doors

[neeraj_da]

I have question about possibility of painting kitchen cabinet doors instead of putting laminate. The kitchen doors would be made of marine ply. Most of the doors I have seen made of ply are completely flat with laminate on top. I instead want to put have a elevated border. The side cross section like this.

|~~~~\_____________/~~~~|
|_______________________|

The green part is the front. Now laminate cannot be applied properly here. So I am considering the option of painting it ( olive green) and want to get a very smooth finish.

Is painting of kitchen cabinets advisable?
Would it be durable, and cleanable?
Is there any specific process to be followed or specific kind of paint to be used?
Lastly do I need to put veneer on top of ply or can the ply wood directly be smoothed and painted.


thanks,
Neeraj

[ardesarchitects]

Hi Neeraj_da
You can paint directly on plywood with out any veneer. The best finish in painting is called "Ducco" paint, this is the same done on automobiles .They use metal paste and rub it water sand paper till they get smoothest finish. This will cost you any where between 80 to 100 rs per sft .In fact this is much costlier than laminate.
You can also create offsets with plywood as you are looking for. The only limitation in ply is that you can’t make heavy carvings.

Regards,
Ardes Architects and Interior Designers
ardesarchitects@yahoo.co.in