with the recent purchase of a house, i’m skint (and i need to insure my van in 2 weeks…)

i’m going to replace the doors on the cabinets but am thinking of keeping the shells. 15 years of oily cooking from the previous residents and lots of spicy residue have left the insides looking particularly yellow.

can i paint the insides, with a spray or roller? if so, what paint would I need? would it work ok and not look shit? they’re that plasticy finish on laminate wood – standard cheap cabinets.

You would need to fully de-grease them and then use a plastic primer before using some suitable paint (might be paint sold for the purpose).

But I would suspect it would be a lot of work and probably look shit.

Try some sugar soap or some strong cleaners, maybe even some very fine wet and dry with some water to lubricate it before you waste time and money on painting them.

Ps spray would give a much better finish but will be expensive and you will want to wear a mask spraying in a confined space.

okkie kokkie, thanks for the advice – carcasses aren’t that expensive, so i might just replace…

Give em a real good scrub and see how they come up. By the time you have stuff in them you won’t see much. You can replace the edging if that is particularly grubby. Worktops and doors are more noticeable. You could try something slightly abrasive like whitening toothpaste on the insides or I did spot this: http://www.homecareessentials.co.uk/acatalog/Removal_Of_Smoke_Stains_On_Paintwork_etc.html

Having done this in the past, sugar soap works remarkably well for cleaning them up. If they still look bad after that then replace rather than try to prep and paint.
1 it takes as long to prep and paint them as to replace them.
2 it is a fiddly messy job.
3 when painted they don’t look as good as if you replace them
4 once painted we found plates and things would stick to the painted surface.

I have now replaced the units I painted 2 years ago.