Kitchen Cabinet Painting in St. Catharines, Ontario

What Are The Benefits Of Cabinet Painting Over A New Kitchen?

Cabinet painting costs a small fraction of what replacement does. A whole kitchen painted in Ontario usually lands between $2,500 and $5,500, while a new kitchen starts around $15,000 and runs well past $40,000.

Nothing else in the kitchen moves during cabinet painting. Counters, plumbing, backsplash and floor all stay put, which means no demolition and no dust drifting through the rest of the house.

A sprayed cabinet painting finish is smooth and hard. Thin coats of waterborne enamel or 2K polyurethane, sanded between coats, give a surface with no brush marks and no drips.

The colour is yours to pick. Cream, greige, sage, navy and charcoal all come from the same paint decks the showrooms use, and one door gets sprayed first as a sample, so you decide by looking at a real door rather than a chip.

Most kitchens are back in full use within two weeks of cabinet painting starting. Doors are sprayed off site while the boxes are done at home, so in between the kitchen still works, just without its doors.

Solid boxes get another decade or two. Cabinet boxes built between the 1960s and the 1990s are often better made than what replaces them, and cabinet painting keeps them.

Golden Oak Kitchens From The 1980s And 1990s Take Cabinet Painting Well After The Grain Is Dealt With

Oak takes paint well as long as two things happen first: the tannins get sealed with shellac, and a decision is made about the open grain, filling it or leaving it. Skip the shellac and pink or yellow blotches bleed through a white finish within weeks. Skip the grain fill and the finish shows the oak's texture through the paint, which some people like and others do not.

The subdivisions around Vansickle and Rykert, Grapeview and Fairview were built or re-kitchened in the golden oak years, so this is the most common cabinet painting job in the west end. Oak cabinet painting covers grain fill, tannin bleed and whether to go smooth or let the grain show.

Post-War Bungalows In The North End Have Kitchens Worth Keeping

The 1950s to 1970s bungalows, backsplits and sidesplits along Lake Street, Vine Street and through Port Weller, Secord Woods and Merritton were built for GM and canal workers, and most of their kitchens are still original or wear a 1980s oak replacement. The birch and plywood slab doors of that era are plain, solid and thin-veneered, which makes them good candidates for cabinet painting and poor candidates for aggressive sanding.

Previous DIY paint that is peeling has to come off before new cabinet painting goes on. Wobbly hinges are replaced, and hardware holes from old pulls get plugged and redrilled. The post-war bungalow kitchen cabinet painting page covers keeping the mid-century look or going shaker white.

Peeling Thermofoil Cannot Be Painted, But Intact Thermofoil Can

Thermofoil already lifting at its edges will not re-stick under paint, and no primer changes that. The vinyl skin has let go of the MDF underneath, usually from dishwasher steam or the heat beside a range, and the only honest fixes are stripping the door to the MDF or replacing it. Intact thermofoil, along with melamine and laminate, accepts cabinet painting well once a bonding primer has gone on.

Kitchens in Martindale, Grantham and the newer pockets of Western Hill often have these builder doors, and cabinet painting them starts with the bonding primer. The thermofoil and melamine page explains what can be painted, what has to be replaced first, and why the bonding primer is not optional.

Bathroom Vanities Are Cabinet Painting Jobs That Take A Day Or Two

A vanity is only six to ten pieces, so a day or two covers it, and it is often bundled with the kitchen. The catch is moisture: a bathroom vanity lives beside a shower, so the primer and topcoat need to stand up to steam, and the doors need their full cure before the bathroom sees daily use again.

Bathroom vanity painting is the smallest job we quote and a good way to look at the finish in your own house before committing to a whole kitchen. Vanities in the century homes around Yates Street and the downtown often carry several old paint layers, which changes the prep.

Refinishing Keeps Wood That Is Worth Seeing, And Cabinet Painting Covers Wood That Is Not

Cabinet refinishing removes the old finish by stripping or sanding, puts on fresh stain and locks it under a clear coat, which is the right call for walnut, cherry or white oak doors that would be a shame to paint. It is also the right call when the doors are solid but the finish has gone cloudy, scratched or orange with age.

Cabinet refinishing sets out where refinishing wins over cabinet painting and where it loses. The executive homes of Old Glenridge and the ravine lots of Power Glen hold a lot of solid-wood kitchens where refinishing is the better answer.

The Island Can Be Navy, Green Or Wood While The Perimeter Goes White

A two-tone kitchen pairs a painted perimeter with an island in a darker colour or in stained wood, and it is one of the most common requests in cabinet painting right now. The island can also be done by itself as its own cabinet painting job: a six-door island in navy or forest green can be sprayed on its own when the perimeter is fine.

The island page covers colour pairing and how the two finishes meet. Picking the actual colours is its own step, and cabinet colour consultation covers sample doors, sheen, and how a warm white reads under the north light of a Port Dalhousie kitchen against a south-facing one in Martindale.