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.
Many Applewood side-splits and back-splits had a wall removed or a peninsula added during a later renovation. Rathwood kitchens from the 1980s often came with an island or breakfast bar from the start. Both layouts give a natural place for a second colour.
Many Rathwood houses built in the 1980s have a kitchen that opens onto a family room, with a peninsula or island between them. That layout suits two-tone cabinet painting well. The island or peninsula faces the family room, so a deeper colour there works like a piece of furniture.
The perimeter cabinets stay lighter, which keeps the working part of the kitchen bright. We check the sightlines from the family room during the visit, because the side of the island people see most is the one that matters most in two-tone cabinet painting.
White or warm cream over navy is the most requested pair. Sage green under white is close behind, and charcoal under pale greige suits a more modern room. A few people choose a natural wood island under painted uppers, which cabinet refinishing covers.
We keep the darker colour low in most kitchens. Weight at the bottom looks settled, and dark lowers hide scuffs from shoes and chairs. Dark uppers only work in a bright room with high ceilings.
A closed kitchen at the back of a 1950s bungalow has limited light. Painting every cabinet navy there can make the room feel like a cupboard. Keeping the uppers pale and using colour only on the lowers, or only on one wall, keeps the space bright while still giving it character.
A sample door helps most in these rooms. Sample doors taken from your kitchen are sprayed in each shade and left for several days, a process set out under cabinet colour consultation.
The paint is a small part of the extra cost. Another colour brings another round of masking, a full flush of the spray gun, a fresh batch of enamel and one more drying cycle. All of that is labour.
Adding a second colour usually adds $800 to $2,000 compared with a single-colour kitchen. Navy and charcoal generally take an extra coat before they look even, which adds a bit more. That second colour appears as its own cabinet painting line, so its cost is never hidden.
Painting an island alone is quick, usually about a day and a half once its doors are back from the booth. It is the least expensive way to test a bold colour, and changing it again later is easy.
Islands take more knocks than any other cabinet, from chairs, feet and bags set on the counter. We often suggest the harder two-part polyurethane on island cabinet painting for that reason.
The counter usually stays, so we choose colours that suit it. Busy granite from the 1990s narrows the options, while plain quartz works with almost anything. Brass hardware across both colours makes the kitchen read as one plan, and mixing two metal finishes is best kept for clearly separate zones.
Tell us which cabinets you picture in which colour, and we will price each piece. The visit and the written two-tone cabinet painting quote are free. Call +1 (289) 206-9979, tell us about your island and cabinets or head to our home 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
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
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
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.
