With refinishing, the worn topcoat comes off by stripping or sanding, new stain balances the colour, and a sprayed clear layer protects the wood. It is our pick over paint when the timber is the most attractive feature of the kitchen.
Applewood holds more of this wood than a quick look suggests. A few Applewood Acres houses still have solid birch or fir built-ins that no owner ever painted, some 1960s Applewood Hills kitchens have teak or walnut fronts, and a cherry kitchen from a 2000s renovation can be a strong candidate too.
Paint hides grain for good. Once walnut, cherry, teak or quarter-sawn white oak is primed and sprayed, getting back to the wood costs far more than the original refinish would have. We would rather point that out at the visit than find out after.
Plain builder oak with an orange cast is a different story. That wood rarely looks better with a fresh stain, and painting the oak usually gives the better room for similar money. Our job at the visit is to tell you which group your doors fall into.
Many wood kitchens are thin veneer over plywood or particleboard. A clean refinish is out of reach when veneer has blistered, peeled up at a corner or been sanded through in a past attempt. When we find that, cabinet painting becomes the better answer, since primer and enamel cover repairs that stain cannot.
We check the edges, the doors near the sink and the lower rails before quoting. Those are the spots where water and wear show up first.
Not every refinishing plan survives the visit. Deep water stains, burns near the stove and patched veneer can all show through a clear coat. When that happens, we switch the plan to cabinet painting, since primer and enamel hide repairs that stain and clear coat would reveal.
Some owners do both. The best-looking doors are refinished for an island or a hutch, and the rest of the kitchen gets cabinet painting in a colour that suits the wood. That mix keeps the character of real wood without paying to rescue every damaged piece.
A thin, even clear coat from the 1960s often sands off cleanly. Sanding is faster and costs less, and it suits most original lacquer finishes.
Thick factory finishes, toned lacquer and painted wood need chemical stripping, which is slower and priced higher. Any finish that may predate 1960 is tested for lead before anything is sanded or stripped. If lead is present, we use contained chemical methods only, never dry sanding or a heat gun, the same rule we follow for original bungalow cabinets.
Even colour across thirty doors takes control. Maple and birch take stain unevenly, so we apply a conditioner first and wipe each door back on a set timer. That keeps the tone steady from the first door to the last.
The clear coat is sprayed in the same booth we use for cabinet painting, most often a two-part polyurethane. A few thin layers, lightly scuffed in between, hold up to everyday wiping for many years. Satin looks like a good piece of furniture and masks smudges, but high gloss exposes each dip in an aging door.
Refinishing a full kitchen in Mississauga typically costs $2,500 to $6,000, much like cabinet painting. Stripping, toning and high door counts push it upward. A doors-only job is cheaper than one that also covers frames and boxes.
Splitting the kitchen is popular. A natural wood island with a painted perimeter gives warmth without the whole room turning brown, and two-tone and island work explains how we price that mix. Your own price comes on the written quote.
After studying the wood type, veneer thickness, existing finish and the way light hits your kitchen, we tell you straight which option wins. There is no charge for the visit or for a written refinishing or cabinet painting quote. Call +1 (289) 206-9979, pick a visit time or view our service list.
Bathroom vanities, pantry cupboards, laundry cabinets and basement bars in side-splits get the kitchen's primer and enamel.
We unhang every door and drawer front, strip off the grease, scuff and prime it to suit its material, spray on a tough enamel and put it back up. Kitchen cabinet painting recolours the whole room while counters, sink and flooring stay exactly as they are.
See Kitchen Cabinets
Original bungalow kitchens are small, closed rooms with solid wood or plywood cabinets that have often been painted several times already. Cabinet painting in these houses starts with the old layers, because what is under the top coat decides how the job is done.
See Bungalows
Oak lets brown tannin seep up through water-based primer, and its open grain telegraphs through colour unless it gets filled. So the first coat in oak cabinet painting is always a shellac-based primer that seals the tannin in.
See Oak Cabinets
Spray equipment breaks the enamel into a fine mist that settles into one even film, with no brush lines or roller texture. That is the difference between cabinet painting that looks factory-made and a finish that looks homemade.
See Spray Painting
Shiny factory doors call for a bonding primer built to stick to slick faces, since an ordinary one just lets go. Sound melamine and laminate accept cabinet painting well, while thermofoil that has started lifting needs stripping or replacing first.
See Thermofoil and Melamine
With refacing, fresh doors and drawer fronts go onto the boxes you already have, and the frames are sprayed to match them. We can also swap just one or two damaged doors and finish them with everything else during cabinet painting, so the fix blends in.
See Refacing and New Doors
Two-tone cabinet painting puts one colour on the uppers and a deeper one on the lowers or the island. Plenty of people paint only the island, which is usually the simplest way to give the room a fresh centrepiece.
See Two-Tone and Islands
Painting a bathroom vanity usually takes one or two days, and the room is back in use quickly. We treat vanity cabinet painting as a full job, with primer and enamel chosen for daily steam and splashing.
See Bathroom Vanities
A condo galley usually has ten to fifteen doors and turns around quickly. Condo cabinet work depends on planning the elevator booking, the parking and the odour control with the building before any work starts.
See Condo Kitchens
Pantry cupboards, laundry cabinets, closet doors, bookcases and rec room bars go through the same steps as a kitchen. Since nearly all of them are fastened to walls, they are coated where they stand inside a plastic enclosure.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
We plug old knob holes until they disappear under the new colour and bore new ones through a jig so pulls line up exactly. While doors are off for cabinet painting, worn hinges are replaced with soft-close hinges.
See Hardware and Hinges
Our most requested shades are white, cream, greige, sage, navy and charcoal, but a tiny paper swatch rarely predicts how any of them will look at home. Our cabinet painting colour process sprays one of your real doors and leaves it with you for a few days.
See Colour ConsultationWe come out, count every opening, name the material and put the job in writing, free of charge.
Any detail helps, from door style to the year the house went up. We will call to pick a time, and only a name and phone number are required. If you would rather talk, call +1 (289) 206-9979.
