When we bought our Winnie, she was full of old light oak cabinets and a lot of fake wood panelling.
Even the fridge had paneling.
I’m not a big fan of light oak or fake wood paneling, so I urged Mark to paint the cabinets. As we were reading up on how to do this, we came across lots of advice.
Most of the instructions we found stressed the importance of sanding and included primer and enough prep work to make me suddenly fond of light oak and fake wood paneling. I had also read about painting with chalkboard paint to cover the need to primer and sand all-in-one.
We had settled on the chalkboard paint method until I came across a pin Pinterest about Giani Granite’s Nuvo Cabinet Paint. I watched the video and was intrigued. Minimal sanding (for fake wood areas). No primer. You didn’t even have to remove the cabinet doors.
I contacted Giani and was thrilled to be able to test their cabinet paint out. This is what came in my kit.
Everything I needed for the job. I figured I’d need more than 2 cans since there are so many cabinets in our RV, but I wanted to test it out before I bought any extra.
We decided to remove the cabinet doors because we were going to update the hardware and hinges. I prepped my surfaces by wiping them clean, (I used diluted orange oil) and also lightly sanded the fake wood. We used wood filler to fill some (though not all) holes.
Over the slide, we had fabric covered cabinet fronts that needed to be removed and there was a little strip of wood that needed to be prepped.
Next we painted like crazy. The paint went on very nicely and had great coverage. This paint is not normal paint. Which is great. When I was trying to wash the paint of my hands, it required some serious elbow grease. Given the fact that was going on cabinets, I was extremely happy about that.
By the time we were done, we needed 5 cans of paint (but we covered all the cabinets in a 37 foot camper with Nuvo! So for about $175, we dramatically changed the appearance of our camper. I think this update was one of the most important updates we did and the Nuvo paint worked wonders. I love that we didn’t have to sand and primer. It was very easy to do.
The before…
And after…
Amazing right??
If you’re interested in Nuvo’s Cabinet Paint it can be found, here. I can’t imagine having to go through all the steps we’d have had to if we’d gone another route.
I found Giani several years ago when I redid my kitchen, but at that time they only had countertop paint. LOVED it and the way it looked. We spent many, many hours sanding, priming and painting 2 coats on our cabinets. Now I wish we had just waited a few years til this came out! Great job!
Thank you so much Jennie! Nuvo made the cabinets a breeze, which I’m so thankful for because we have so many cabinets in the RV.
Did you end up using the Giani countertop paint? I’m preparing a post to show that redo and I’m so pleased with the results.
I just found your blog through pintrest. I just bought a 1990 park model and all the cabinets are dark and I wanted white – it will bring some light and freshness to the kitchen. Thanks for this post. At 60 years old, I just want to paint and not have to do so much sanding.
I hope you love it Lizzy! Paint was such a rewarding part of our remodel. What a difference!
Hey Julie,
We want to paint the cabinets in our RV. How well has this product held up over the past two years?
We found you on pinterest!
It held up very well! We were happy with the results!
I am looking to update my RV as well so I am so happy I’ve found your blog!! Did you also paint the walls? Did you have any problems with the wallpaper or did you just paint over it (if you had it)? I’m looking forward to doing all this to make it feel like home since my husband and I are full time RVers!
Hi Kelsey! We did paint the walls. Our particular model did not have wallpaper so I cannot speak to that. I’m certain that I’ve read that others paint over wallpaper without problems. Main thing is to make sure you use TSP to clean the walls.
The entire remodel was a lot of work but so worth it. It does feel like home. Thanks for stopping by!!
Do you mind sharing what you painted the walls and ceiling with?
Hi Jenny! I can’t quite remember what we used so many years ago. But we are almost done with another remodel to a camper we bought last summer. On our latest remodel, we used Sherwin Williams Cashmere paint (color Repose Grey) and it looks amazing! This paint is the top of the line from Sherwin Williams but has awesome coverage and we have been very happy with it. We did not prep our walls other than to primer them and are super happy with it.
Ours did have wall paper. We spray painted instead of primed and then applied a textured. After that we used Behr on the textured walls. They look amazing. It was a lot of work (3-4 days) but worth every moment!! Next is cabinets and countertops for us. FYI: those nasty brass ceiling fans look completely different with a little brushed nickel spray paint and new tulips. Amazing. The place is coming along nicely.
We painted the the paper on the Walls 2 year ago with 2 coats of a white paint which already had primer mixed to it. Works well and is durable too. Just make sure to wash with tsp Before painting.
Thank you for all of this!!!!! We bought a 1994 Winnie and your blog is really a invaluable amount of information.
Thank you so much Jennifer! I hope to add more posts about the remodel soon. Take care!
I LOVE this! We have just put the deposit down on our first rig. We ended up getting a new one and it makes me hesitant to paint, but I so want the wood (and fake wood) to be white! This will certainly make it easier!! Loving your blog!
T
Thank you Tanya, and congratulations! I’m a big fan of white cabinets and in the small space of an RV, it’s such a good change!
I was wondering if this paint could be used on Wood Paneling used on walls, not just cabinets. I have 5 rooms in an old house to paint before I move my furniture in, and am looking to skip the step of sanding or primer.
Yes it definitely could David. We used it on paneling on our RV!
Did you use the same brand on the counter top?
Yes I did, Tim.
I've been exact same way with my Inaagsrtm. It's such a great little tool to take pictures. Much easier than lugging around a huge camera. I'll have to follow you on Instagram because I am loving your pictures.
Also how has it held up? I have two kids and I am nervous about peeling and scratches. I saw a blog on the touch up of nuvo. So it seems it might not hold up well?
I think with any cabinet paint, there are chips. I have a friend who had her cabinets (in her stickbuilt home) professionally painted, she still needs to do touchup after a year. Wish it was a permanent fix but touchups seem to be inevitable. I think our cabinets held up fairly well. In our small space, there was way more contact and use. Overall, we’ve been very happy with it.
This looks fantastic! I found your blog because I am buying a used RV and really wanted white cabinets, but it has wood (or wood look, anyway). I had no idea how to refinish them, so I did a search, and I have already found two products – this one and one by Rustoleum. This one sounds like it may be easier. 🙂 It definitely looks great!
Thank you for stopping by Laura! I love the white cabinet look and I really thought the paint was high quality. Of course, white cabinets means that any spill is VERY noticeable…so just keep that in mind. 🙂
When you say fake wood, is it the stuff that has like that really thin laminate almost wood looking paper over it? Because that’s what we have in our RV and I’m surprised if you could paint that but I would love to!
Yes Valerie, that same kind of wood. We sanded it and tore off any paper that was peeling. 🙂