Some cabinets have wood that deserves to be seen. Refinishing takes the worn finish off, evens out the colour with new stain and seals it with a sprayed clear coat, so the grain stays in view instead of disappearing under paint.
The best candidates we see are in the older homes of Meadowvale Village and in custom kitchens added to larger houses near Lake Aquitaine. Solid cherry, walnut and clean white oak are usually the woods worth saving.
Ask yourself if you would pick this wood today. If yes, refinish it. If it is standard red oak with an orange stain from the mid-1980s, painting the oak usually gives you a nicer kitchen for similar money.
The shape the wood is in counts too. Thin veneer that has bubbled, peeled at a corner or been sanded through by someone else will not refinish cleanly. Then cabinet painting is the smarter route, and we will say so at the visit.
Sanding is enough when the old clear coat is thin and still in one piece. It goes quicker, makes less mess and suits most 1970s and 1980s finishes that have been looked after.
Stripping is for heavy factory finishes and for any finish with colour mixed into it. Chemical stripper works slowly and needs careful containment, which adds cost. Here, unusually, refinishing can outprice cabinet painting on an identical kitchen.
Both ways, the doors travel to our booth and the frames are handled at home behind plastic, just like our spray work.
Stain soaks in unevenly on some woods. Maple and birch go blotchy much more easily than oak. We use a conditioner first and wipe the stain off on a timer so every door comes out the same shade.
We then spray two or three thin clear coats, usually the same two-part polyurethane we use for cabinet painting. It is picked because it handles years of wiping with a damp cloth.
Sheen matters more on wood than it does in cabinet painting. Satin looks like good furniture and hides fingerprints. High gloss shows every dent in an older door.
Meadowvale Village became the first Heritage Conservation District in Ontario in 1980, and a few of its houses on Old Derry Road date back to the 1800s. Built-in cupboards, china cabinets and old pine in those homes are often worth refinishing rather than covering.
Old wood like this has usually been finished more than once. We test a hidden spot first to learn what is on it, then pick sanding or stripping to suit. Where a built-in has already been painted many times, cabinet painting over a cleaned and levelled surface is often the better route, and we will explain why before any work starts.
A whole-kitchen refinish lands close to cabinet painting prices, around $2,500 to $6,000, and stripping or colour matching pushes it toward the upper end. Just the doors cost less than the doors plus frames and boxes.
A mix often works best. Many people keep the island as refinished wood and paint the cabinets around the walls. We price that layout often, and our two-tone and island page explains it.
Make the call with one of us in the room. We look at the wood type, the veneer thickness, the old finish and your window light, then tell you plainly whether refinishing or cabinet painting will look better. Phone +1 (289) 206-9922, set up a visit, or browse our home page.
Backsplit bathrooms, laundry rooms, mudroom lockers and rec room bars get the coatings we trust in kitchens.
We take your doors and drawer fronts down, clean off the grease, sand them, prime them for their material and spray a hard enamel before hanging them again. Kitchen cabinet painting recolours the entire room while your counters, tile and sink stay untouched.
See Kitchen Cabinets
Dark stain, slab doors with routed grooves and printed wood-grain fronts all accept new colour once the grease and old gloss are gone. On a kitchen this age, cabinet painting is mostly careful prep, and that prep decides how long the finish lasts.
See 70s and 80s Kitchens
Oak brings two problems to the job that maple and MDF do not. Tannin in the wood stains through water-based primer, and deep grain lines show through cabinet painting unless they are filled flat first.
See Oak Cabinets
Spraying puts the coating on as a fine mist that levels itself before it dries, so there are no brush lines left behind. With a sprayer, cabinet painting comes out looking like it left a factory, not a hobby bench.
See Spray Painting
Melamine, laminate and thermofoil are slick by design, so cabinet painting on them depends on a bonding primer built to grip plastic surfaces. Sound doors finish beautifully, while vinyl already curling away from its board is past saving.
See Thermofoil and Melamine
With refacing, fresh doors and drawer fronts are hung on your current cabinet boxes and the frames are finished to suit. If just one door is ruined, we swap that one out and spray it with the others during cabinet painting so nobody can tell.
See Refacing and New Doors
Soft white or greige on top with sage, navy or charcoal below is the combination we are asked about most, and the island usually gets the darker shade. Painting an island by itself also counts as a full cabinet painting job.
See Two-Tone and Islands
A single vanity needs a day or two of our time, which makes it the least disruptive cabinet painting job we offer. Its doors travel to our booth, we spray the base where it sits, and the bathroom is ready again soon after.
See Bathroom Vanities
Most condo kitchens hold between ten and twenty doors, which means the spraying is quick once building approvals are in place. Cabinet painting in a condo townhouse or apartment runs smoothly only when parking, work hours and smell are planned ahead.
See Condo Kitchens
Laundry uppers, pantry cupboards, bench-and-locker units by the garage door, bookcases and fireplace built-ins all go through the primer and sprayed enamel your kitchen gets. Because nearly all of them are attached to the house, cabinet painting for these rooms happens on site behind plastic.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
Leftover knob holes get plugged and filled flush, and every new pull is bored through a jig so the whole row sits straight. Tired hinges get replaced during the same window, since cabinet painting already has the doors off.
See Hardware and Hinges
Meadowvale kitchens we quote mostly end up in one of six shades: sage, greige, cream, warm white, charcoal or navy. A little paper chip under store lights cannot show how any of them behaves in your room, so one of your own doors gets sprayed in the shade you like and propped up in the kitchen before any cabinet painting goes on the calendar.
See Colour ConsultationWe drop by, count doors and drawers, check the wood or board underneath and spell out the work in a written quote. No charge for any of it.
Jot down anything you know about the cupboards, and we will call to choose a day. A name and a number are all it takes. Want to talk right now? Call +1 (289) 206-9922.
