Latex vs Acrylic Paint for Cabinets — Here’s What Lasts Longer (and Why)

Most homeowners start shopping for cabinet paint and end up more confused than when they started. Professional cabinet painters hear the same question week after week: “Should I use latex or acrylic on my kitchen cabinets?” It sounds like a simple choice, but the wrong one can mean peeling, chipping, and a full repaint within a couple of years. If you’re trying to sort out latex vs acrylic paint for cabinets, this breakdown will give you the honest answers you need before you pick up a brush or hire someone to do it right.

• Latex and acrylic paints are not the same product, even though many people use the terms interchangeably.
• Acrylic paint costs more upfront but typically holds up longer on high-use surfaces like kitchen and bathroom cabinets.
• Latex paint is easier to work with and cleans up with water, but it may not handle daily wear and tear as well on cabinetry.
• Proper surface prep matters more than the type of paint you choose — skip this step and any paint will fail.
• Victoria’s coastal humidity can affect how paint cures and holds up, making product selection even more important in this region.
• Hiring a trained painter who understands these differences can save you money in the long run by getting it right the first time.

Here’s where the confusion starts. Walk into any paint store and you’ll see “latex” and “acrylic latex” and “100% acrylic” all sitting on the same shelf. They look similar. They smell similar. They all clean up with soap and water. But they are not the same product.

Latex paint uses synthetic polymers as a binder, but those polymers aren’t always acrylic. Think of it as the entry-level option in the water-based paint family. It works fine on walls and ceilings where nobody is touching the surface 30 times a day.

Acrylic paint — specifically 100% acrylic — uses acrylic polymers as its binder. That’s a stronger, more flexible resin that bonds tighter to surfaces and resists cracking, yellowing, and peeling better than standard latex.

For walls? Latex is perfectly fine. For cabinets that get opened, closed, splashed, and wiped down constantly? That’s where the difference shows up.

Cabinet doors are one of the most abused surfaces in any home. The average kitchen cabinet gets opened and closed roughly 3 to 5 times per day. Multiply that across 20 or 30 cabinet doors, and you’re looking at hundreds of contact points every single day.

Standard latex paint tends to stay slightly softer after it cures. That soft surface picks up fingerprints, scuffs, and grease more easily. Over 12 to 18 months of heavy kitchen use, you’ll likely notice wear marks around handles and edges where hands touch the most.

100% acrylic paint cures to a harder, more durable film. It resists that same daily contact better and holds its color and sheen longer. Most professional painters report that a quality acrylic finish on properly prepped cabinets can hold up well for 7 to 10 years before it needs attention.

That’s not a small difference. Repainting cabinets isn’t cheap, and doing it twice because the first coat failed is even worse.

The number one reason cabinet paint fails isn’t the paint itself. It’s bad prep.

Cabinets, especially kitchen cabinets, collect a layer of grease, cooking oil, moisture, and grime that builds up over months and years. If you paint over that film, the paint bonds to the grease, not the wood. And grease doesn’t hold paint. You’ll see bubbling, cracking, and peeling within months.

Both latex and acrylic will fail on a poorly prepped surface. But acrylic has a slight edge here. Its resin bonds more aggressively to properly cleaned and sanded surfaces, giving you a stronger mechanical bond between the paint and the substrate.

The prep process for cabinets should include:

• Removing all doors, drawers, and hardware.
• Cleaning every surface with a degreaser (TSP or a TSP substitute works well).
• Sanding with 120 to 150-grit sandpaper to create a surface the primer can grab onto.
• Applying a high-adhesion primer designed for cabinetry.
• Light sanding between primer and paint coats with 220-grit sandpaper.

Skip any of these steps and it doesn’t matter whether you use latex, acrylic, or the most expensive paint on the shelf. It will fail.

Victoria, BC homeowners deal with something that painters in drier cities don’t have to think about: moisture. The humid air rolling in off the Pacific, combined with cooler temperatures for much of the year, changes how paint cures.

Paint doesn’t just “dry.” It goes through a chemical curing process that can take 2 to 4 weeks to fully harden. During that time, high humidity slows the process. If the paint doesn’t cure properly, the final film stays softer and more prone to damage.

Standard latex is more sensitive to humidity during curing. It can take longer to harden and may never reach the same level of toughness as it would in a dry, warm climate.

Acrylic paint handles humidity better during the curing phase. Its resin structure is more resistant to moisture interference, which means it typically reaches full hardness even in the damp conditions Victoria is known for.

If you’re painting cabinets during fall or winter — which is actually a popular time for interior projects in Victoria — acrylic gives you a better margin for error when it comes to cure time and final durability.

Let’s be fair to latex. It has its place, even on cabinets. Here’s when latex can work:

• You’re painting a guest bathroom vanity that gets light use. Maybe it’s opened a few times a week, not a few times a day. In that case, a good-quality latex with a proper primer coat will do the job fine.
• You’re on a tight budget and planning to sell the home within a year or two. Latex costs less per gallon and goes on a bit easier. If the goal is a clean, fresh look for staging rather than long-term durability, it can be a reasonable short-term choice.
• You’re painting open shelving or decorative cabinet faces that don’t get handled. No hands touching them means no wear, so the softer film isn’t a problem.

But if you’re painting your main kitchen cabinets and you want them to still look good in five or seven years, latex is a compromise you’ll likely regret.

For most homeowners painting kitchen or high-use bathroom cabinets, 100% acrylic is the stronger choice. Here’s why:

• It cures harder. That harder film resists fingerprints, grease, and daily contact better than latex. Kitchen cabinets take a beating, and acrylic handles it.
• It cleans easier. Because acrylic resists stains and moisture, you can wipe it down with a damp cloth without worrying about wearing through the finish. Try doing that with a latex coat that’s only a few months old and you might see marks.
• It holds its color. Standard latex can yellow over time, especially in kitchens with gas stoves or lots of cooking heat. Acrylic holds its color longer, so your white cabinets actually stay white.
• It flexes without cracking. Cabinets expand and contract slightly with temperature and humidity changes. Acrylic’s flexible resin moves with the wood instead of cracking against it.

The tradeoff? Acrylic costs more per gallon — typically 20% to 40% more than standard latex. But when you factor in how much longer it lasts and how much it costs to repaint cabinets, the math works in acrylic’s favor.

Even the best acrylic paint will fail without the right primer. Primer is what actually grabs onto the surface and gives the paint something to bond to.

For cabinets, you want a high-adhesion bonding primer. Shellac-based primers are popular for cabinets because they block stains, seal tannins in wood, and create a very hard base layer. Water-based bonding primers have improved a lot in recent years and work well too, especially the newer hybrid formulas.

The primer coat is where most DIY cabinet paint jobs go wrong. Homeowners grab whatever primer is cheapest, roll it on without sanding, and then wonder why the paint peels six months later.

A proper primer coat should be:

• Applied to a clean, sanded surface.
• Allowed to dry fully (check the manufacturer’s recommended dry time, not just the “touch dry” time).
• Lightly sanded with 220-grit before the first coat of paint goes on.

This step alone can double the lifespan of your cabinet paint job, regardless of whether you use latex or acrylic for the topcoat.

Ask a painter who refinishes cabinets every day what they use, and you’ll get a pretty consistent answer: 100% acrylic in a satin or semi-gloss finish, over a high-adhesion primer.

Why satin or semi-gloss? Those sheens are easier to clean and more resistant to moisture than flat or matte finishes. In a kitchen, cleanability matters. A flat finish on a cabinet door next to a stove is going to show every grease splatter and be tough to wipe clean.

Experienced painters also tend to spray cabinets rather than brush or roll them. Spraying gives you a smoother, more even finish with fewer brush marks. It’s one of the biggest differences between a DIY cabinet paint job and a professional one — that factory-smooth look that makes painted cabinets look like they came out of a showroom.

Does it cost more to hire a professional? Yes. But the result lasts longer, looks better, and avoids the common mistakes that turn a weekend project into a frustrating redo.

Cabinet repainting isn’t a quick touch-up job. It involves removing doors, prepping surfaces, priming, painting multiple coats, and reinstalling everything. A typical kitchen with 30 to 40 cabinet doors and drawer fronts takes a professional crew 3 to 5 days.

If you go with a cheaper latex and it starts showing wear after a year, you’re looking at doing the whole process again. That means more money, more time with your kitchen torn apart, and more frustration.

Spending a bit more upfront on quality acrylic paint and proper prep is one of those decisions that pays for itself. You do it once, you do it right, and you move on with a kitchen you’re proud of.

If you’re a homeowner in Victoria, BC, and you’re thinking about painting your kitchen or bathroom cabinets, you don’t have to figure this out alone. The team at Islanders' Choice Painting Co has the experience and the know-how to help you choose the right products for your home, prep your cabinets properly, and deliver a finish that holds up for years — not months.

You’ve done the research. You know the difference between latex and acrylic now. The next step is talking to someone who does this every day and can give you an honest recommendation based on your specific cabinets, your budget, and your goals.

Give Islanders' Choice Painting Co a call at 778-910-5116 to set up a free consultation. No pressure, no sales pitch — just a straight conversation about what your cabinets need and what it’ll take to get them looking their best.