These come up on almost every East Credit visit, and each one gets a plain answer.
Questions that hinge on your actual doors are best settled at the visit, which is free.
Cabinet painting relies on coatings built for cabinets, not the paint on your walls, and that single choice separates professional cabinet painting from a weekend attempt. We spray either a waterborne alkyd enamel, which flows out smoothly and comes in nearly any colour, or a catalyzed urethane, which cures much harder. Neither smells much. The quote tells you which one your kitchen is getting.
The answer depends on keeping or losing the arch. Painting the doors as they are costs least and keeps the curve. Filling the arch to a square line costs more and removes it. Replacing only the upper doors with shaker doors costs most and gives the most modern look. We price all three at the visit.
Yes, and the cabinet painting finish relies on it. In the booth, the air is filtered, the temperature stays steady and each door dries lying flat. Boxes and face frames never leave the wall and are sprayed on site inside a plastic tent.
Solid melamine and firmly bonded thermofoil accept cabinet painting nicely once a grip-coat primer for glossy plastics is on. Once thermofoil begins to peel, though, painting it is pointless, because the paint cannot re-stick the vinyl. We always inspect the doors flanking the dishwasher and range first.
Most cabinet painting jobs are booked a few weeks out, and spring and fall calendars fill quickest. Booking ahead also gives a sprayed sample time to sit in your kitchen for several days before you choose. Replacing one damaged door can usually happen sooner.
Only if the quote lists them, since interiors come close to doubling the sprayed surface. Each adjustable shelf must come out and get coated front and back. Most people have the doors, drawer fronts and face frames done and leave the insides alone.
A new door in the same profile takes its place and gets sprayed with the others, which makes it impossible to spot. A leak-swollen sink door or a split panel is a single-door issue, and one new door is a few hundred dollars.
No. The strongest smell comes from spraying the doors, and that happens at our shop, not in your home. The product used on the boxes is a waterborne, low-odour product, and any smell clears fast once windows are open.
Yes, if they are being replaced at all. Installing a new countertop after cabinet painting can chip or scratch the new finish. Cabinet painting belongs at the end, after the counter, the tile and any plumbing changes. When the counter is staying, we hold the sample door up against it.
To clean painted cabinets, use a soft cloth, warm water and a little dish soap. Scrub pads, abrasive powders and harsh spray cleaners can dull or scratch the coating, above all in the first month. Wipe spills promptly, particularly near the sink.
Solid wood shrinks when a furnace dries the house out and swells again in humid summer air. On a raised-panel door the centre panel moves inside the frame, and a thin unpainted line can show at the edge in February. It usually closes by summer. That is wood movement, not the cabinet painting failing.
Yes. Built-in desks, hutches and wall units are counted like any other cabinet and go on the same cabinet painting quote. Glass-front doors take a little longer because the glass has to be masked or removed.
Often, yes. Buyers spot a 1990s oak kitchen with arched uppers right away, and cabinet painting updates it for a fraction of a new kitchen. Calm, neutral shades like warm white or soft greige tend to work best for a listing.
Yes, and the gap is large. Full-kitchen cabinet painting in this market mostly costs from $2,500 up to $5,500. Refacing mostly costs from $3,000 up to $10,000, and a complete replacement kitchen usually begins around $15,000. For your own kitchen, go by the written quote from the visit.
For more detail on the answers above, follow these links.
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
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 ConsultationShare 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.
