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.
The cathedral door was the most common upper cabinet style in East Credit houses built from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Most are red oak or honey maple, with an arched top rail over a raised centre panel on the uppers and plain square raised panels on the lowers. Those doors are well made and worth keeping. The question is whether the arch stays.
The arch is what makes a 1990s kitchen read as a 1990s kitchen. Even in a fresh colour, the curved top rail and the deep bevel around the panel point back to the year the house was built.
Some people like that look, especially in cream, soft white or sage, where the arch reads as traditional rather than dated. Others want a clean modern kitchen and see the arch as the main thing to fix. Both are fair, and cabinet painting can serve either, but the choice needs to be made before any primer goes on.
Cabinet painting the doors as they are is the lowest-cost route. The doors are degreased, sanded, primed with a shellac-based primer to block oak tannin or maple yellowing, and sprayed.
A raised panel has deep inside corners and a sloped bevel around the edge. Those areas trap old grease and are hard to reach with a brush, which is why spraying matters even more on cathedral doors than on flat ones. The spray reaches into the profile and leaves an even film with no pooled paint in the corners.
If the doors are oak, the grain question still applies. Filled versus open grain is weighed on our oak cabinet painting page.
The arch can be squared by fitting a shaped wood piece into the curve of the top rail, gluing it in place and sanding it flush. After priming and cabinet painting, the upper doors read as square raised-panel doors that match the lowers.
This is careful work done door by door, so it adds to the per-door price. It suits a kitchen where the doors are solid and sound and the owner wants the curve gone without buying new doors.
There is one limit to know about. The filled piece and the original rail are separate pieces of wood, and in a dry East Credit winter a fine seam can show along the joint. We explain that at the visit and show where it would appear.
Replacing only the arched upper doors with flat shaker doors, then painting everything together, gives the most modern result. The lower doors in most of these kitchens are already square, so they stay and get painted.
New doors are cut to fit your current openings and drilled for your current hinges. Old and new doors then share one primer and one set of topcoats on the same day, so nobody can pick out which is which. Buying new doors costs more than cabinet painting alone, and cabinet refacing and door replacement breaks down that pricing.
Start with the budget, then the look. Cabinet painting the doors as they are costs least, filling the arch sits in the middle, and new uppers with cabinet painting on the lowers cost most. All three keep the existing boxes, counters and sink.
A sample helps more than a drawing. We can finish a door from your own kitchen in the shade on your mind so you can see how the arch reads in that shade before deciding. A cabinet colour consultation covers that step.
Maple arched doors are smooth, so cabinet painting on maple skips the grain filling that oak needs. The one problem is colour. Honey maple can push a yellow cast through a white topcoat, so it gets the same shellac-based primer as oak.
Maple is also hard and close-grained, which keeps the edges of the arch and the panel crisp after cabinet painting. A maple kitchen with arched uppers is one of the best candidates for cathedral door cabinet painting in East Credit, because the doors are smooth and the only real question left is the curve.
We inspect the arched doors, count how many there are, confirm the species and put a written price beside each route. Neither the visit nor the cabinet painting quote costs anything. Call +1 (365) 217-9589, pick a visit time, or go back to the home page for the full service list.
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
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
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.
See Refinishing
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.
