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.
Red oak was the standard builder cabinet in East Credit through the late 1980s and the 1990s, often in a golden or honey stain that has turned orange with age. Most of those kitchens are still in place, and they are the largest share of the work we do here.
Water-based primer on bare oak lets tannin rise into the paint. You see it as brownish or pinkish blotches on the rails and at the panel edges, and piling on more white never hides it.
The fix is a shellac-based primer. It flashes dry quickly, sands cleanly and locks tannin away permanently. Every oak door we handle gets it, and our quote says so by name. If another oak cabinet painting quote leaves out a stain-blocking primer, ask about it before signing.
Honey maple has a related problem. It can push a yellow cast into a white topcoat over time, so maple gets the same shellac primer.
The pores in oak are deep enough to ghost through coat after coat. Sealing them flat takes two or three rounds of paste filler, each sanded back, and the result is a door as smooth as one that left a factory painted.
Skipping the filler leaves a gentle texture under the paint. Plenty of people like that, and it trims the oak cabinet painting price, since filling adds hand work to every door and drawer. Both paths are valid, and we price each one on the quote so the choice is yours.
If you are unsure, we can finish one door each way. Seeing the two side by side in your own kitchen settles it quickly.
Oak raised-panel doors are built as a rail-and-stile frame holding a centre panel that is free to move. Dry furnace air shrinks that panel in winter, and humid summer air swells it back.
On a painted door, the winter shrink can leave a hairline of bare wood along the panel edge. The cabinet painting has not failed. The wood has simply moved, and the line normally disappears by summer. At the visit we show you where this can happen, including the arch joint on cathedral uppers. Those doors have their own page at cathedral door cabinet painting.
Red oak is the wood we see most often on cabinet painting visits between the Credit River and Mavis Road. Some of those kitchens were given a darker stain or an extra clear coat in the 2000s, and that added layer has to be sanded dull before primer.
We test a hidden spot at the visit to see what is on the doors. A thick or waxy old coating changes the oak cabinet painting prep, so it goes on the quote before work starts.
Painting a complete oak kitchen here usually costs from $2,500 up to $5,500 for the full cabinet painting job. Grain filling pushes a job toward the top of that band, since it adds hand work to every piece. On a per-door basis, figure roughly $130 to $250.
Skipping the filler saves money. Buying new doors instead tends to cost from $3,000 up to $10,000. Your written quote, not these ranges, sets the final figure.
Oak has to be judged in person, since grain depth, the old coating and veneer versus solid wood all shift the work. We check the most worn door, write up the grain both ways, and send the oak cabinet painting quote in writing. Call +1 (365) 217-9589, set up a visit, or return to the home page.
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
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.
