Doors, drawer fronts and boxes already in the house get degreased, sanded, primed for their material and sprayed in a new colour. That is kitchen cabinet painting, from the first door count to the final hinge adjustment.
Kitchens here range from site-built boxes in old Woodbridge near Market Lane, through the honey oak of Brownridge and East Woodbridge, to thermofoil and factory shaker in Patterson and the towers at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. Each of those substrates takes a different primer, which is why the oak cabinet painting page and the thermofoil and melamine page exist separately.
Every Kitchen Cabinet Painting Job Runs In The Same Order
Tag, cut the grease, sand, prime, fill, spray, sand again, spray again, then cure. Changing that order, or dropping a step out of it, is how cabinet painting goes wrong months later rather than on the day. Numbering against a photographed layout happens before anything comes off, which is what returns each hinge to the hole it started in.
Kitchen grease and polish build-up come off next. Water-based cleaners will not shift years of wax, so a solvent degreaser gets used where the build-up calls for it, and that shows up as a line on the quote rather than as a surprise. Sanding to a dull, even surface follows, then filler in the dents and caulk in the gaps.
Substrate decides the cabinet painting primer. Oak and cherry take shellac. Melamine, thermofoil and laminate take a waterborne bonding product. Maple, MDF and doors with paint already on them take a standard cabinet primer. After that come two or three thin topcoats, each given a light sand first.
A Kitchen Cabinet Painting Quote Lists Every Part Of The Job
Counts first: doors, drawer fronts, boxes, end panels and any glass or open shelving. Then the material, the primer, the topcoat family, sheen, how many coats, grain fill where oak needs it, and the hardware work. Islands, pantries, crown moulding and cabinet interiors sit on their own lines so they can be added or removed without the whole price moving.
A lone total for the kitchen compares with nothing and leaves space for extras once the doors are off. Half an hour is usually enough for the free visit behind a cabinet painting quote, and the paperwork arrives a day or two afterward.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Takes Two Weeks, With Two Or Three Days In The House
Most kitchen cabinet painting runs two or three on-site days inside a two-week window. Day one goes to removal, degreasing, masking, containment and sanding. The boxes and frames are primed and sprayed where they stand across the next day or two.
Shop time on the doors is roughly a week to ten days, covering primer, filler, colour and the hardening that follows. Meanwhile the boxes stand open as shelves and every appliance keeps running. A final day covers hanging, hinge adjustment, hardware and cleanup. Why the doors leave the house at all is explained on the cabinet spray painting page.
Dry And Cured Are Different Stages Of Cabinet Painting
Touch-dry inside a few hours, careful use at about a week, full hardness near the thirty-day mark: that is a waterborne alkyd enamel. A catalysed 2K polyurethane gets there far faster and is close to full hardness within a day or two of spraying.
Until the cure finishes, the finish is softer than it looks. Chips around handles and along the cutlery drawer nearly always trace back to hard use during those first weeks, so the care notes left behind spell out what to avoid and for how long.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Prices Sit Inside Ontario Market Ranges
$2,500 to $5,500 is the common Ontario band for a whole kitchen. A small one can begin at $1,500, and a large or two-colour kitchen reaches $6,000 to $9,000 and further. Reckon $130 to $250 on a single door. Oak that needs its grain filled, laminate that needs bonding primer and a dramatic colour change all push upward.
Those figures describe the market and are not a price list. Once signed, the written quote from the free visit is the number that holds.
Pantry And Laundry Cabinet Painting Is Cheapest Added To A Kitchen Job
Adding a pantry or a laundry run while the equipment is already in the house costs far less than calling someone back for it later. Setup, masking, containment and the colour are all already handled, so the extra is mostly doors and time.
Walk-in pantries with cabinetry of their own, butler's pantries between kitchen and dining room, and finished basement second kitchens turn up constantly in the larger houses of Patterson, Vellore Village and Kleinburg, where four and five bedroom homes are normal. Most are finished to match the main kitchen, or deliberately one shade deeper. Full kitchen work is covered on the kitchen cabinet painting page.
Old Handle Holes Show Through Cabinet Painting Unless They Are Filled
A filled hole that was rushed reappears as a shallow dimple under a sprayed topcoat, and it is more visible in a deep colour than in white. Doing it properly means filler in two stages, sanding flush after each, then primer over the repair so the surface takes colour evenly.
Knobs moving to bar pulls always means new holes, and so does a change from a 90mm centre spread to 128mm. A single knob hole being reused for a single knob is the only case where nothing has to be filled, and even then the old hole gets checked for a blown-out back face before the cabinet painting begins.
Book A Kitchen Cabinet Painting Visit In Vaughan
A rough door count and the neighbourhood are enough to get started, whether that is Maple, Sonoma Heights, Kleinburg or out toward Nobleton. Use the contact form or call +1 (289) 201-7165 and a visit gets booked inside a business day. Every other service, from islands to vanities, starts on the Vaughan Cabinet Painting home page.
Written kitchen cabinet painting quotes that name doors, primer, topcoat and coats are the only ones worth comparing, and the visit behind ours costs nothing.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Questions
How long does kitchen cabinet painting take?
Most kitchens take two weeks overall, with two or three days of work inside the house. Doors spend a week to ten days in the shop for primer, colour and hardening. The boxes stand open as shelves meanwhile, and every appliance keeps running.
Which primer goes under kitchen cabinet paint?
The substrate decides. Oak and cherry take shellac. Melamine, thermofoil and laminate take a waterborne bonding primer. Maple, MDF and doors with paint already on them take a standard cabinet primer. Two or three thin topcoats follow, each lightly sanded first.
Why do painted cabinets chip near the handles?
Chips around handles and along the cutlery drawer nearly always trace back to hard use in the first weeks. Enamel is touch-dry in hours but reaches full hardness near thirty days. The care notes spell out what to avoid and for how long.