Painted cabinets - turning yellow?
Question:Help!! We are trying to get our house ready to put on the market. We have been in the process of painting our cabinets antique white and applying a "clear" coat of poly. We sanded them, cleaned them, painted them and polyed, but some look yellower and some whiter. It looks terrible. We have been doing this in stages so some have been done sooner than the others. We are trying to figure out if all of them will gradually turn the same. Maybe the poly is "curing" and turning them a more yellow tone? I don't know if we have bad poly, if it even turns bad, or if we did something wrong. Can anyone advise?
Answers:
Tinted paint aquires its color as it cures. The curing process involves evaporation of the carrier (water in the case of latex paints) and a chemical reaction. Most of the change takes place in the first 24 hours or so, but the process will continue for 14 - 30 days depending upon the paint and environment. The effect is more evident in brighter colors (especially reds), but can be noticeable in lighter colors.
By coating over the paint with poly, (which is OK, as long as the products are compatible), you have slowed the full curing process. You may see some variations due to differences in the surface being painted. Also, the amount of time the paint cured before it was topcoated could make a difference -- even half an hour could make a difference.
It sounds like you did a proper prep job. If you are using a water based poly over water based paint, it will probably continue to cure out and come to the same color over a period of time, but it could take a couple of months. For future reference, if you need to poly over paint wait at least five days after painting to apply the poly.
Don't poly over paint
Did you apply a coat of Kilz (primer that prevents colour seeping through paint)? That may be the problem. We painted our wood kitchen cabinets, first with Kilz, then plain white latex paint - no poly. It worked without yellowing.
If the cabinets were darker or painted older you may need to applay a primer and then go over them i had the same problem. the primer helped me alot.
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