Century home kitchen cabinet painting deals with site-built wood cabinets that carry decades of old paint, uneven doors, worn hinges and plaster dust, and paints them in a colour that suits the age of the house without erasing its character.
Downtown Guelph, St. George's Park, Exhibition Park, the Ward and Old University are full of limestone and brick houses from the 1850s to the 1930s, and a lot of them still have the kitchen a carpenter built on site. The work is insured, and every century home cabinet painting quote is written after a visit, because no two of these kitchens are alike.
Cabinets In A Pre-1980 Kitchen Are Tested For Lead Before Anyone Sands
Paint applied before 1980 may contain lead, and sanding it without knowing is the risk. A site-built kitchen on Liverpool Street or Water Street that has been painted six times since the 1920s almost certainly carries some of that old paint under the newer layers. So before any century home kitchen cabinet painting starts, the old layers are tested with a kit, or sent to a lab if the kit is unclear.
If the test is positive, the prep changes. Loose paint is removed wet or with a vacuum-shrouded sander, the area is contained, and the sound layers are sealed under primer rather than sanded through. We never describe a finished kitchen as free of lead, because that is not a claim cabinet painting can make. We describe the test. We describe what was tested, what was found and what was done about it, and it goes in the quote.
Old Paint Layers Have To Be Made Sound Before Cabinet Painting Goes Over Them
Thick old paint fails at the edges of doors and around the knobs, where it chips down to bare wood in steps. New paint over those steps shows every one of them. The chipped edges are feathered back with a sander or a scraper until the transition is smooth, low spots are filled, and the whole door is sealed with a shellac primer that sticks to old oil paint, blocks stains from a century of cooking, and gives the new enamel a clean base.
Soft or alligatored paint that has lost its grip cannot be primed over. Those doors are stripped to wood. Where a door is too far gone, a new door is made to match the old profile, as described on the door replacement page, and painted with the rest.
Doors That Were Made By Hand Do Not Hang Square Before Cabinet Painting
A century kitchen has doors that were cut to fit their openings one at a time, on hinges that have worn oval over eighty years. Cabinet painting does not straighten a door, but the doors are planed where they bind, the hinge screws are reset into fresh wood or the hinges are replaced, and the doors are hung to close cleanly before the last coat goes on. Plaster dust from the walls and ceiling is vacuumed out of every joint and corner first, because a sprayed finish shows every speck it lands on.
The boxes are usually pine or poplar and stay in place. They get cleaned, sanded, primed and sprayed where they stand inside a sealed room, like the boxes in any kitchen cabinet painting job.
Century Home Cabinet Painting Colours That Suit A House Built In 1890
A heritage colour reads right on a century kitchen: a warm cream, a soft grey-green, a deep blue or a muted red on the lowers. Bright white can look like a modern kitchen dropped into an old room. Cabinet painting colours are matched to heritage paint decks and sprayed on a real door from the kitchen so the colour is judged in the room's own light. The cabinet colour consultation page covers how that sample is made.
Sheen counts for as much as the colour does here. Satin hides the small unevenness in hand-planed wood; gloss shows it.
Book A Century Home Kitchen Cabinet Painting Visit In Guelph
If the kitchen was built by hand in a limestone house downtown or in the Ward, send the address or call +1 (226) 271-3466 and the test kit comes with us. The Guelph Cabinet Painting home page covers cabinet painting for newer kitchens across the city.
Century Home Kitchen Cabinet Painting Questions
Does old paint on my cabinets contain lead?
It can. Paint older than 1980 may carry lead, so it is tested before anyone sands. If the test is positive, the loose paint is removed wet or with a shrouded sander, and the sound layers are sealed under primer.
Can doors that do not hang square be painted?
Yes. Hand-made doors often sag or sit out of line with the opening. Hinges are reset and edges planed before the primer goes on, so the sprayed finish sits on a door that closes properly.
What colours suit an older house?
Warm whites, soft greens and muted greys sit well in a limestone or brick house. A sample door is sprayed in the real product first, so the colour is judged in your own light before the kitchen is painted.