If you've painted your kitchen cabinets...

Mama-Bear

What did you do with the underside of the wall cabinets?  We have the yellow builder grade oak and we're strongly considering painting them white.  The bottom is that same laminate that's on the inside, will paint stick to that?  People do paint that right?  I can't imagine leaving that the original color, but nobody ever discusses that are, they just talk about the fronts and doors.

MommyLiberty5013

Good question. I think I'd paint anything that was visible. So, I'd paint the bottoms. To find out if the paint will adhere properly you should find out from the paint store people if the paint will stick to laminate. If it doesn't you could always buy some white contact paper and stick that to the yellow "oak" builder grade color. At least white is better than builder grade oak.

ShellD13

You can do a couple of things.  The easy way is to buy a primer designed to help paint adhere to smooth surfaces.  KILZ is excellent for this, I used it to repaint my existing dining room table and chairs and they turned out really well.  The time consuming and difficult way is you can use a mild abrasive to scuff up the smooth surface to give the surface some texture for the paint to adhere to.  KILZ is much easier!

Mama-Bear

Thanks for the tips.

robheat

You can also use a solid color or patterned wallpaper.  With white cabinets, I like a black and white damask wallpaper.  Something like the wallcovering pattern below.