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.
Golden oak is the most common kitchen we see in Applewood Heights, Applewood Hills and Rathwood. Many of those houses swapped their original cabinets for oak in the late 1980s or 1990s, and the Rathwood side-splits and back-splits built in the 1980s often came with oak from the start.
Rathwood was built mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, and a large share of those houses came with oak or oak-veneer kitchens. Many still have them today. Oak cabinet painting in these homes often includes a matching oak vanity upstairs and an oak cupboard in the laundry room.
Those extra pieces are worth adding to the same booking, since the shellac primer, grain filler and sprayer are already set up. Folding them into one oak cabinet painting job keeps the whole house consistent and costs less than doing each room on its own.
Water-based primer does not block tannin. The stain shows up as yellow or brown shadows, often along the edges and rails, and adding more white paint does not hide it.
Shellac-based primer seals tannin in permanently. It dries quickly and sands without gumming up. Cherry and walnut get the same first coat, so oak and cherry cabinet painting open identically. Any oak quote that skips a stain blocker deserves a question.
Oak's open pores stay visible through any number of topcoats. Two or three passes of grain filler, each one sanded level, leave the face as even as a brand new slab.
Skipping the filler lets the texture show under the colour. That suits an older Applewood house and trims the cabinet painting price, because filling adds labour to every single door. Both looks are fine, and the choice is yours.
Sample doors end the debate quickly. We can do one filled and one open so you compare them in your own light, using the steps in cabinet colour consultation.
Arched cathedral doors and raised panels were everywhere in the 1990s. They have deep profiles and inside corners where grease hides and where paint can pool. We clean those corners by hand and spray them in thin passes so the profile stays crisp.
Some people want a flatter look after cabinet painting. A raised panel will always read as a raised panel, so if you want a shaker or slab style, new doors are the answer. Weigh that choice under refacing and new doors.
Solid oak doors are built from separate pieces that shrink and swell with the seasons. Mississauga summers are humid, and indoor air dries out once the furnace runs in winter. A fine line can appear where the centre panel meets the frame in January and close again by summer.
Such a hairline comes from the wood itself, and it does not mean the cabinet painting has failed. Every rail-and-stile door in southern Ontario does it, and we mention it at the visit so nobody is caught off guard.
An oak kitchen here usually prices from $2,500 up to $5,500, with grain filling nudging the number higher. Oak cabinet painting works out to roughly $130 up to $250 for each door. Open grain is the cheaper look, and swapping every door for new ones runs from $3,000 up to $10,000. Your written quote is what sets the actual price.
At the visit we measure how deep the grain runs, check the old lacquer and see whether the doors are solid oak or veneer, then quote oak cabinet painting two ways, filled and unfilled. Call +1 (289) 206-9979, set up a visit or head to the main page.
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
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.
See Refinishing
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.
