Cabinet refinishing removes the old clear coat by sanding or stripping, refreshes the stain tone and locks the colour in under a fresh sprayed clear topcoat. We recommend it instead of paint whenever the grain is the best feature in the room.
Some East Credit kitchens have wood that should stay wood. Cherry and solid maple kitchens were upgrades in some of the larger houses near the Credit River, and a well-kept one can look better refinished than painted.
Cherry, walnut, quarter-sawn oak and clear maple with a nice figure are the woods most worth keeping. When the grain is the best thing in the room, refinishing keeps it and cabinet painting would hide it.
Everyday builder red oak with an orange cast points the other way. Refinishing it usually just gives you a fresher version of the same orange kitchen, and oak cabinet painting gives a bigger change for about the same money.
Condition decides it too. Veneer that has bubbled, peeled up or been sanded through will not refinish cleanly, and cabinet painting becomes the right route.
A light sanding suits a clear coat that is thin, even and unbroken. It is faster and cleaner, and it suits most lightly worn 1990s maple and oak.
Thick factory lacquers, catalyzed finishes and any clear coat carrying a coloured toner have to be stripped instead. Stripper works slowly and needs full containment, so a stripped refinish can run higher than cabinet painting the same room.
Fronts travel to our shop. Face frames are refinished where they hang, inside a plastic tent, just like on a cabinet spray painting job.
Maple and cherry drink stain unevenly, far more than oak does, and blotches are the result. We seal them first with a wood conditioner, then apply stain and wipe it off on a timed schedule so every door ends up the same shade.
A sprayed clear coat seals the stain. For the clear topcoat we normally reach for the same tough two-part urethane used in our cabinet painting, laid down in two or three light coats with a scuff between each.
On bare wood, sheen changes the look even more than on paint. A satin clear coat feels like fine furniture and masks fingerprints, while high gloss exaggerates every dip in an older door.
Cherry darkens in sunlight, so a cherry kitchen often has lighter patches where a hanging towel or a small appliance blocked the light. Refinishing sands the old coat back and evens the tone across every door.
If the cherry has turned too dark for the room, cabinet painting over a shellac primer is the other route. Some cherry kitchens are worth keeping and others look better painted, so we show both options at the visit. Refinishing and cabinet painting both keep the original boxes in place.
A complete refinish here usually costs from $2,500 up to $5,500, roughly matching cabinet painting, with stripping or toning adding to it. Refinishing the doors alone is cheaper than doing doors, frames and boxes.
Mixing the two often works best. Many people pair a stained wood island with painted perimeter cabinets, and two-tone kitchens and island painting describes that combination. Your exact number arrives on the written quote.
We study the species, the veneer thickness, the current coating and how the grain looks in your daylight, then say honestly which route makes the better kitchen. Both refinishing and cabinet painting are quoted at no cost. Call +1 (365) 217-9589, ask for a visit, or browse our other services.
Ensuite vanities, laundry uppers, pantry towers and wall units are primed and topcoated just like the kitchen.
Kitchen cabinet painting gives a tired 1990s kitchen a fresh colour and a tough sprayed coat, and the boxes, countertop and sink never leave the wall. Each door is cleaned, scuffed, primed to suit its wood and sprayed before it is rehung.
See Kitchen Cabinets
Arched cathedral doors can be painted as they are, filled to a square top, or swapped for flat shaker doors while the rest of the kitchen is painted. Cabinet painting on these doors starts with one decision about the curve, and we price every option at the visit.
See Cathedral Doors
Oak cabinet painting needs a stain-blocking primer because oak tannin bleeds brown through water-based products. The open grain also telegraphs through paint unless it is filled level before the topcoats go on.
See Oak Cabinets
A spray gun breaks the coating into tiny droplets that flow together and level before they set, leaving no brush lines or roller stipple. Cabinet painting applied this way looks much like a finish from a cabinet factory.
See Spray Painting
Shiny factory doors keep paint only when a purpose-made bonding primer goes on first and the surface itself is still firmly attached. Cabinet painting does well on solid melamine and firmly bonded thermofoil, but a vinyl skin that is already lifting is past saving with a coating.
See Thermofoil and Melamine
Refacing hangs brand-new doors and drawer fronts on the carcasses already in your kitchen, while door replacement swaps only the few doors that are damaged or out of style. Both are often paired with cabinet painting so the new and old parts finish in one matching colour.
See Refacing and New Doors
Light uppers over darker lowers, or a painted perimeter with a contrasting island, are the two-tone layouts people ask for most. A lone island is a full cabinet painting job in its own right and one of the quickest ways to change a room.
See Two-Tone and Islands
Most vanities take one or two days, and no job we do is easier to live around. The doors are sprayed at the shop, the base is sprayed on site, and after cabinet painting the bathroom is back in service fast.
See Bathroom Vanities
Condo and townhouse kitchens are small, usually ten to twenty doors, and the job moves quickly once the building rules are sorted out. Cabinet painting in a shared complex works best when parking, work hours and noise are planned first.
See Condo Kitchens
Pantry cupboards, laundry uppers, mudroom lockers, family room wall units and bookcases receive the primer and sprayed enamel the kitchen does. Since most are fastened in place, their cabinet painting happens on site inside a plastic tent.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
Leftover knob holes are plugged and filled so the new colour hides them completely, and new holes for pulls are bored off a jig so each handle sits level. Tired hinges get swapped during cabinet painting, since the doors are down anyway.
See Hardware and Hinges
Paint chips under store lights are a poor guide, so we spray one of your actual doors in your favourite candidate shade and leave it standing in the room. The shades we are asked for most in cabinet painting right now are warm white, cream, greige, sage and deep green.
See Colour ConsultationWe visit, tally each door and drawer, identify the material and list the whole job on paper. Neither the visit nor the quote costs you anything.
Share any cabinet details you have handy, and we will call to book a time. The form goes through with just a name and a number. To talk it over by phone, call +1 (365) 217-9589.
