Kitchen cabinet painting removes every door and drawer front, degreases and sands the lot, primes for the substrate and sprays thin coats of a hard enamel so an existing kitchen looks new without replacing a single box.
The kitchens around St. Catharines run from 1950s birch slabs in the north end to golden oak in Vansickle and builder MDF in Martindale, and each one gets its own prep. Insurance covers the work. The quote is where the prep for your particular doors is spelled out.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Is Mostly Prep, And The Paint Is The Last Ten Percent
Roughly three quarters of kitchen cabinet painting happens before any colour goes on. Doors and drawer fronts get labelled, photographed and taken off with their hinges. Everything is washed with a degreaser, because cooking grease is the most common reason cabinet paint peels. Then each surface is scuffed to a dull, even texture, dents get filled, and hardware holes get plugged if the handles are changing.
The primer depends on the door. Oak and stained wood get a shellac primer that blocks tannin bleed. Melamine, laminate and thermofoil call for a bonding primer. Already painted MDF and maple get a standard high-build primer. Skipping this choice is how wall paint ends up on cabinets, and wall paint on cabinets fails within a year.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Takes Roughly Two Weeks Start To Finish
Plan on two or three days of cabinet painting work at the house and seven to ten days with the doors away. Removal, degreasing and sanding fill the first day. While the doors are away, the boxes get primed and sprayed over the following day or two. The doors come back cured, get rehung and adjusted, and the hardware goes on.
During the gap the kitchen keeps working without its doors, so the stove, fridge and sink stay in use. The finish feels dry within hours and is hard within a day, but it keeps curing for two to four weeks depending on the product. Gentle use in that window is what keeps the cutlery drawer and the area around the handles from chipping later. Older kitchens in Secord Woods or Merritton with peeling DIY paint add a day for stripping.
Old Holes Get Filled Before Cabinet Painting, And New Ones Get Drilled After
Switching from a 3-inch pull to a 5-inch pull, or swapping a knob for a bar, leaves one or two old holes in every door and drawer front. A hard two-part filler goes into them, gets sanded flush and primed along with the rest of the door, so after cabinet painting they are invisible. Then a jig set to one position drills the new holes on every door, so the handles line up across the whole run. Drilling into a freshly painted door without a jig is how handles end up crooked, and that is the hardware mistake we fix most.
Pantry And Laundry Cabinets Are Quick Wins
A pantry with four to six tall doors, or a laundry run of six to ten pieces, takes one or two days of cabinet painting and usually joins the kitchen job for a modest addition to the quote. Laundry cabinets see detergent and damp, so they get the same sealed edges as a bathroom vanity. Mudroom lockers and bench cubbies are done the same way, and bathroom vanity painting covers the moisture side.
What A Kitchen Cabinet Painting Quote Lists, And What It Costs In Ontario
The quote counts doors and drawer fronts, identifies the substrate, describes the prep, states the primer, the topcoat, the coat count and the colour, prices the hardware work, and gives the total. Across Ontario in 2026 a whole kitchen most often comes in at $2,500 to $5,500. A small kitchen can start near $1,500, and a large kitchen or a two-tone kitchen with an island runs $6,000 to $9,000 and up, which comes to about $130 to $250 a door.
Those figures describe the market. Your kitchen's own price is the one in the written cabinet painting quote after the free visit, and that is the number the job gets done for. Cabinet colour consultation is included, and one door gets sprayed in the chosen colour before the whole kitchen is committed.
Book A Free Kitchen Cabinet Painting Visit In St. Catharines
Count the doors if you can, or do not, and we will count them on the visit. Book the visit or call +1 (905) 367-8017 and we will come out anywhere from Port Dalhousie to Thorold. The St. Catharines Cabinet Painting home page covers the other cabinet painting work we take on, vanities and built-ins included.
Cabinet painting is the one job that changes a whole kitchen without touching the counters, the plumbing or the floor, and the first visit costs nothing at all.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Questions
How long does kitchen cabinet painting take?
Plan on roughly two weeks from the first day to the last. The doors spend several days away in the booth while the boxes are sprayed at home. The kitchen still works in between, just without its doors. After the doors go back on, a cure period of gentle use follows.
Why is a primer needed on every kitchen?
The primer is chosen for the door, not for whatever is on the truck. Shellac blocks tannin on oak, bonding primer grips melamine and laminate, and a high-build primer levels painted MDF. Skipping that choice is how paint starts to peel within a year.
Is hardware work part of the quote?
Yes, on its own line. It covers filling old holes, drilling new ones with a jig so handles line up, and swapping in soft-close hinges while the doors are off. You can supply your own pulls or ask us to source them. The holes are drilled to the exact pull.