Geneva Metal Kitchen Cabinets: Painting, Removing Dents, Replacement Handles

A. We have Geneva Metal Cabinets in our kitchen and we had a company come and spray paint the inside and outside. They did a great job. I believe they used a special hvlp paint sprayer [on eBay or Amazon] and paint for working on metal. They look great and were finished in a few hours. Well worth the money since we can't afford to gut the kitchen. I would look under appliance and metal painters in the phone book. Our guy was local to our area.

A. When you don't really care how much it costs, you can do as I did with the 15 piece Geneva Kitchen I salvaged: Disassembled all chrome and plastic, Soda blast to bare metal ($3000) and powder coat ($3200),then reassemble.

A. I also have a kitchen that featured metal cabinets made by Geneva. They were dirty and ugly. After cleaning them up, I used a roll-on, epoxy appliance paint manufactured by Rustoleum. When you roll the paint on, the surface will be covered with tiny bubbles. This freaked me out at first. As the bubbles began to pop (immediately after application) they formed a nice, orange peel texture. It took two coats of white appliance paint to cover. I love the result.

My cabinets have white, plastic inserts that fit behind the chrome handles. I painted these with white spray paint intended for plastic to clean them up a bit. They also turned out great.

A. I have Geneva Metal cabinets in great condition and I can not justify replacing them. I have painted them with regular acrylic paints - use a sponge, not a brush - and then polyurethaned them. You can get a low odor, flat to gloss finish with the polyurethane. My parents and my aunt have both painted their cabinets with different methods, but have not had my success with durability. My aunt had her's sanded down to the metal, primed and painted with car paint. These cabinets started to yellow and degrade within a couple of years. My parents sanded and sprayed their cabinets with an initial great finish, but, alas, they too, started to yellow and the paint is wearing off as we speak (or, rather, read). Painting with the acrylics and polyurethaning has had the most lasting effects. Painting with a sponge is scary, but the air bubbles "dried out" and the finish is a matte finish that is very smooth. The polyurethane just makes the cabinets very cleanable. From the voice of twenty years of experience...
Lori

A. Hi, Luby. Any auto body shop (collision repair shop) will have the right equipment and the competent people to spray the cabinets. Although not all auto body shops want to do that kind of work, some are happy to.

Regards,

A. I have Geneva cabinets in my kitchen that were installed in 1951 by the original owner. We have had them painted twice using epoxy paint.They did wonderfully and I am considering painting them again. The shelves are coated wire so no bugs on the shelves and you can see up into the top shelf easily. If you use epoxy paint you must not stay in the house for 24 hours as the fumes are toxic.

A. Hi, Jomain. Just scrub them with detergent to remove any film of kitchen grease, very lightly sand them to remove some of the gloss from the existing paint, and spray them with a rattle can of paint. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Okay, well, I painted these myself. I have the textured fronts and smooth sides and I am not a painter but with a small air compressor [adv: air compressors on eBay or Amazon] and a gravity feed paint gun and some 1-step auto paint, this did an awesome job. I however removed all the cabinets to the garage and lightly scuffed them with a green scuff pad, prepped the surface with some cleaner used for auto paint, and taught myself how to do this... and only one paint run on the whole job.

A. Hi Donna. The powder coating shop may have or be able to make touch-up paint to use as your topcoat which will quite closely match your cabinets.

Regards,

A. I have a huge kitchen, 14x25. My house is from the 1850's. When we bought the house it had no cabinets in the kitchen just a stove. 5 years ago I acquired a bunch of Geneva cabinets.
As a D-I-Y-er, I sanded all the cabinets down with 220 and heavier grit where kitchen food had gotten into space between old cabinets. All work done in the garage. Use masks and eye protection when working on the cabinets. After repairing and making sure the cabinets looked good, I sprayed them with rustoleum hammer primer/ paint. They look fantastic and are easy to wipe down. If a door gets scratched or paint gives an issue, remove the door, repaint. 5 years haven't had to yet. 29 cabinets, 750 dollars paint and supplies, a little over 30 man hours. I spread the time out over a few weeks. A lot a paint colors to choose from.

A. Hi Carolyn. You can certainly try various paint removers in inconspicuous spots if you wish. But personally I don't think it's a realistic project trying to remove two layers of paint while leaving the third unharmed. A dab of a vandal's paint removed from a Masterpiece by an art specialist for five figures maybe ... but all the non-original paint from metal cabinets? Unfortunately, I doubt it. Maybe someone else will be more encouraging.

Luck & Regards,

A. Try various solvents and solvent mixtures too (9 parts water, 0.9 parts alcohol, 0.1 part ammonia [on eBay or Amazon] 25%), acetone [on eBay or Amazon], white spirit, toluene, 3 parts acetone/1 part ammonia 25%).
Hope it helps and good luck!

A. I found this recommendation and link earlier from several people that were looking for replacement parts for old metal kitchen cabinets. Am going to contact them to find replacement sliders for drawers in my own similar cabinets.

www.swisco.com/cl/Drawer_Cabinet-Replacement-Hardware

A. Hi Stephanie. Many people asked on this page, and I'll bet a lot of readers didn't bother asking after seeing the question left unanswered many times :-)

I'm sure a local plastics fabricator could easily make them, or a guy with a 3-D printer could as well; but if you can put up with endless running in circles first, exhibiting more patience than me, google just might find you a supplier :-)

Luck & Regards,

A. If someone would post a good picture it would probably help. Some of us who don't have Geneva cabinets have seen various metal and plastic shelf holders elsewhere but have no clue whether they'd be appropriate for a Geneva metal cabinet.

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi folks. Removing a dent from a metal cabinet is probably very little different from removing a dent from a car, so you can google for endless advice. But just as most people will make a mess of it if they try to fix a dent in a car -- leaving crinkles or ripped metal, they'll probably make the same mess of it with a metal cabinet.

The best way is probably to find a shop which does body work and repainting. Baring that, you'll probably have to read a lot but -- mostly -- practice on scrap metal before trying your hand on actual cabinets and ruining them.

Luck & Regards,