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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The same degreasing, primer and sprayed enamel go into every other job we take on.
Cabinet refinishing keeps the wood visible instead of painting over it. The tired finish comes away by stripping or sanding, the wood gets stained or left natural, and a sprayed clear coat lets the grain read through.
See Refinishing
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.
See Century Homes
Oak cabinet painting starts with shellac primer so the tannins stay put. Filler packs the open grain until the face is flat, and sprayed enamel covers both, leaving a 1980s golden oak kitchen looking newly built.
See Oak Cabinets
Cabinet spray painting lays enamel down in thin, even passes from a spray gun rather than a brush, in a booth for the doors and inside a sealed kitchen for the boxes, which is how a finish looks factory-made.
See Spray Painting
Cabinet refacing and door replacement mounts fresh doors and fronts onto cabinet boxes that remain sound, or swaps out only the doors too damaged to save, then finishes everything in one colour so nothing looks replaced.
See Refacing and New Doors
Thermofoil, melamine and laminate cabinet painting relies on a bonding primer that grips the slick surfaces a regular primer slides off, sprays hard enamel over it, and strips or replaces any thermofoil door that has already begun to peel.
See Thermofoil and Melamine
Pantry, laundry and built-in cabinet painting takes in everything outside the kitchen: the walk-in pantry, the mudroom and laundry cupboards, and the wall units, bookcases and mantels that are fixed to the house and get sprayed right where they stand.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
An island or a run of lowers can carry its own colour, navy, green, charcoal or a stained wood, under a lighter perimeter. The island alone is a job worth booking by itself.
See Two-Tone and Islands
Bathroom vanity painting needs one day, sometimes two, and gives the vanity the same degreasing, sanding, priming and sprayed enamel a kitchen gets, leaving a finish hard enough for steam, splashes and wet hands every morning.
See Bathroom Vanities
Condo kitchen cabinet painting handles a galley kitchen, a building that sets rules on hours and elevators, and the melamine or thermofoil doors most condos carry, with the doors shipped out to the booth and the unit kept livable.
See Condo Kitchens
Cabinet hardware and soft-close hinges round off a painted kitchen: old handle holes get filled ahead of the primer, new ones get drilled through a jig afterward, and tired hinges become soft-close units while the doors are down.
See Hardware and Hinges
Cabinet colour consultation locks in colour and sheen before any paint goes on, by spraying a real door from the kitchen in the real product and judging it under the kitchen's light, matched against the decks the showrooms use.
See Colour ConsultationA visit means someone looks at the kitchen, counts what is there, and writes the price down. It is free, and saying no afterward is fine.
Say as much or as little about the kitchen as you like. A phone call follows to set the visit, and the form sends once it holds a way of reaching you. For a conversation instead of a form, call +1 (226) 271-3466.
