Doors and fronts are taken off for booth spraying, hard enamel laid over a primer chosen for the material, with the boxes handled on site. Kitchen cabinet painting then puts the lot back in a new colour.
Guelph kitchens from the 1980s tract homes in Kortright Hills to the factory-white shaker doors in the South End all go through the same steps, with the prep adjusted for the material. The work is insured, and nothing comes off a hinge until the quote is in writing.
A Cabinet Painting Quote Should Name Every Step, Not Just A Price
A proper kitchen cabinet painting quote states the door and drawer front count and their material, then the degreasing, the sanding, the primer and topcoat by name, the coat count, any hardware work, and the total. A quote reading "paint kitchen" beside one figure compares with nothing, and it leaves room to swap in a cheaper primer or drop a coat later.
Ours is written after the visit and holds once you sign it. If the doors turn out to be thermofoil under a coat of someone else's paint, we tell you before the price changes, not after.
Cabinet Painting Fails At The Prep, Never At The Colour
Almost every failed cabinet painting job in Guelph traces to the first day, not the last. Grease left on a door above the stove stops primer from bonding. An unsanded door offers the primer no grip. Wall paint used on a cabinet stays soft for months and lets go at the cutlery drawer first. A thick coat brushed on instead of thin coats sprayed on cracks at the panel edges when the wood moves in the dry winter air.
So day one of kitchen cabinet painting is spent degreasing and labelling. Each door and drawer front gets numbered to its opening, the hinges get bagged, and the surfaces get washed with a degreaser that cuts years of cooking film. Sanding to a dull surface follows, then the primer the material calls for: shellac over oak and cherry against tannin bleed, a bonding primer over melamine and laminate, a regular primer over maple and previously painted MDF. The cabinet spray painting page covers what happens next in the booth.
Days On Site And Days Without Doors Are Two Different Numbers
The crew is in the kitchen for two or three days at the start and one day at the end. The boxes are degreased, sanded, primed and sprayed behind sealed plastic during the first visit, and the kitchen can be used as open shelving that same evening. The doors spend one to two weeks at the booth, depending on the size of the kitchen and the drying schedule of the product, and they come back cured hard enough to hang.
Dry and cured are different states. Waterborne alkyd enamel is touch-dry within hours, takes about a week before normal use and close to a month to harden fully, while 2K polyurethane is hard the next day. Whichever product goes on, the week that follows kitchen cabinet painting means gentle hands and no harsh cleaners.
What Kitchen Cabinet Painting Costs In Ontario Right Now
Kitchen cabinet painting in Ontario runs from about $1,500 for a small kitchen of eight to twelve pieces, through $2,500 to $5,500 for most kitchens, to $6,000 to $9,000 and beyond for a large kitchen, a two-tone kitchen or one with an island and crown moulding. Per door the market sits around $130 to $250. Grain fill for oak, bonding primer for laminate, a third coat for a deep colour, and fresh hardware holes each add to the number.
Market ranges only; the one price that applies is the written quote. Refacing costs $3,000 to $10,000 and a new kitchen $15,000 to $40,000 and up, which is why cabinet painting gets priced first whenever the boxes are solid. The refacing page explains when it is not.
Built-Ins Cannot Leave, So Cabinet Painting Comes To Them
A wall unit that runs floor to ceiling, a mantel that is nailed to the chimney breast, or a window seat that is part of the wall cannot go to the spray booth. They get sprayed where they are. Poly seals the room, the floor and furniture get covered, the vents get masked, and the air runs through a filter while spraying happens. Whatever doors and shelves do come off travel to the booth with everything else.
The result is the same finish a kitchen gets, with no brush marks on the long flat sides where they would show most. On-site cabinet painting for a big built-in usually runs two days plus curing, and by the following morning the room is usable again. The cabinet spray painting page describes the containment.
Old Holes Are Filled Before The Cabinet Painting Primer, Never After
When new pulls need different spacing, a hard two-part filler goes into the old holes, gets sanded flush and primed along with the door, so nothing shows under the sprayed enamel. Filling after paint leaves a bump or a colour shift, and that is the surest sign of a rushed job. The visit records the old hole spacing and the new hardware's spacing so the fill is in the quote from the start.
Drilling waits until the cabinet painting has cured, and a jig sets every pull at the same height and distance from the edge across the whole kitchen. A single crooked pull on a white door is visible from the doorway, and the jig is what prevents it.
Book A Free Kitchen Cabinet Painting Visit In Guelph
A visit takes half an hour and ends with a cabinet painting quote in writing, step by step and product by product. Send the form, or call +1 (226) 271-3466 and give us the address plus a guess at the door count. Everything else we paint, from vanities to century home kitchens, is on the Guelph Cabinet Painting home page.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Questions
How long is the kitchen out of use?
The boxes are finished in two or three days and work as open shelving right after. The doors spend one to two weeks at the booth being sprayed and cured. Most kitchens are fully back together within two weeks of the doors leaving.
What goes on the doors besides paint?
Each door is degreased and scuff sanded, then primed with a product that suits its material. Oak gets shellac, and melamine and laminate get a bonding primer. Two or three thin sprayed coats of enamel follow, sanded between each one.
Do you paint the insides of the cabinets?
Not unless you ask, because interiors add time and cost and are rarely seen. Open pantries and glass-front uppers are the exception. Interiors always appear as a separate line on the written quote.