Degreasing, filling, sanding, a primer matched to whatever the doors are genuinely built from, then hard enamel sprayed on and the doors rehung. Kitchen cabinet painting recolours an entire room while counters and backsplash stay untouched.
Kitchens here vary more than the town's size suggests, because the housing does. A birch slab kitchen in Huron Heights, a golden oak set in Armitage and a factory shaker kitchen in a new Holland Landing build are three separate propositions, and the quote tracks the kitchen instead of one rate per opening. Where the doors are 1980s oak, the grain-fill question comes up first, and that is covered on the oak cabinet painting page.
What A Cabinet Painting Quote Names Before Anyone Touches A Door
Every price on a cabinet painting quote sits against a counted number. The quote states how many doors, how many drawer fronts and how many boxes, then names the substrate we found, whichever primer suits it, the topcoat family, the sheen, how many coats and what has been left out.
Cabinet interiors are priced on their own line, because they are real hours and not everybody wants them done. Crown moulding, glass-front doors, plugging old hardware holes, supplying handles and a solvent degrease on heavily waxed cabinets each appear separately. Nothing gets added afterward without a new written line, so the number handed over in the kitchen is the number on the invoice.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Runs In The Same Order In Every House
The sequence is fixed, and skipping steps in it is the reason cheap cabinet painting peels within two winters. Doors and faces come away numbered, hinges go into bags by set, and a photograph of the layout means nothing is guesswork on reinstall day.
Degreasing comes next, everywhere, including the faces nobody looks at, because cabinet painting fails first where grease was left. Decades of cooking grease and furniture wax build a film that water-based cleaner tends to skate over, so badly loaded kitchens get a solvent degrease first. Filling comes next, then an even scuff sand, then the primer that particular substrate needs: shellac blocker across oak and the other tannin-heavy species, waterborne bonding primer across melamine, thermofoil and laminate, an ordinary undercoat across maple, poplar and MDF that has been painted before.
Two or three topcoats are sprayed after that, each one scuffed before its successor. The booth handles doors at a distance from the house while carcasses and frames take their coats in place behind sealed poly, a split explained further on the sprayed finishes page.
The Kitchen Stays In Service Through Most Of A Cabinet Painting Job
Cabinet painting wants a couple of days in the kitchen itself, sometimes three, then closes out within a week or two once booth time on the doors is added. Saturated colours stretch that, since a deep navy or forest green normally wants a third coat before it covers evenly.
Sink, range and refrigerator stay within reach from the first morning of cabinet painting to the last. Shelving does duty as open storage during the days the doors are absent, and the single awkward stretch is whichever day the carcasses get coated. A small galley finishes faster than the full window suggests.
Dry and cured are not one word. Waterborne alkyd enamel accepts careful handling from roughly a week on and finishes hardening nearer a month out, where two-component polyurethane is solid inside a day. Cutlery drawers and the doors either side of the dishwasher deserve patience during that first stretch.
Cabinet Painting Prices Sit Far Below Replacement Cabinetry
Ten to fifteen doors of cabinet painting in this market runs about $1,800 to $2,800. Sixteen to twenty-two doors, which is the standard kitchen in most of the town, runs $2,500 to $4,500. Twenty-six pieces or more alongside an island runs $4,500 to $8,000 and upward. Counted by the piece the rate sits near $130 to $250, and bonding primer under laminate or thermofoil pushes it along.
Choosing a reface over cabinet painting lands between $3,000 and $10,000, while pulling the cabinetry out and starting fresh opens near $15,000 and climbs beyond $40,000. Those figures were collected across Ontario. The quote written for your kitchen is what settles it.
Failed Cabinet Painting Comes Down To A Handful Of Causes
Paint that sheets away nearly always leads back to grease beneath the primer, an unsanded surface, a primer that does not match what it was put on, or ordinary wall paint on the doors. Wall paint stays soft indefinitely and has no business on something handled forty times a day.
Chips turn up around the cutlery drawer and alongside the pulls first, because hands land there. Thick coats chip more readily than thin ones, which is a second reason the finish gets sprayed rather than brushed. A fine line opening at a panel edge in February is seasonal wood movement in a cold-winter town, and by July it has closed.
Pantry Interiors Are A Real Decision Rather Than A Detail
Cabinet painting interiors are quoted separately everywhere, and a pantry is where that shows up most, because a walk-in pantry is mostly interior. Painting the inside means emptying it out, pulling every shelf and adding a day or two onto the schedule.
Plenty of owners paint the outside and leave the inside as it is, which is a reasonable choice in a room behind a closed door. The quote prices it either way so the decision can be made with the number in front of you.
Filled Holes Only Disappear If They Are Filled Before Primer
A hole plugged after the cabinet painting topcoat is on will always show as a shadow under kitchen lighting. Filled before primer, sanded flush and then sprayed, it is genuinely invisible.
Knob holes get a hardwood dowel glued in, trimmed and sanded, then a skim of filler over the end grain, all before cabinet painting begins. Handle holes, being a pair, need both plugged even when only one is moving. On thermofoil and melamine doors the fill has to be more careful still, since the board underneath is soft and the bonding primer will telegraph a sunken repair.
Book The Free Visit And Get Kitchen Cabinet Painting Priced On Paper
The visit carries no charge, takes about forty minutes, and finishes with a figure that stands comparison with anyone else's. We count, identify the material, look hard at the worst door in the room, and set the cabinet painting scope down in writing. Call +1 (289) 206-6921, put the kitchen details on the form, or see the whole range of work.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Questions
How long does a kitchen take from start to finish?
Plan on a couple of days in the kitchen itself, sometimes three, and a week or two overall once booth time on the doors is added. Deep colours such as navy or forest green usually need a third coat, which stretches the schedule a little.
Can I keep using the kitchen while it is painted?
Yes. Sink, range and refrigerator stay within reach from the first morning to the last. Open shelving holds dishes while the doors are away, and the only awkward stretch is the day the boxes are coated behind sealed plastic.
What is left off the quote unless I ask for it?
Interiors, crown moulding, glass-front doors, filling old hardware holes and supplying new handles each get their own line. Nothing is added later without a new written line, so the quote you sign is the invoice you pay.