Doors and drawer faces come down, get cleaned of grease, scuffed, primed for their substrate and sprayed with durable enamel, then go back up. Kitchen cabinet painting changes the colour of the entire room without touching the counters, the flooring or the floor plan.
Local kitchens sort into a handful of familiar groups, and each group carries its own cost. An original slab-door kitchen in a 1950s bungalow, a golden oak refit in a Parkwoods side-split and a white shaker kitchen in a Banbury-Don Mills rebuild are three different cabinet painting jobs. Each one has its own prep, its own primer and its own price. Original 1950s kitchens get their own write-up under mid-century cabinet work.
Our quote starts with counts. Doors, drawer faces, carcasses, end panels and filler strips are each tallied, since every figure below them depends on those numbers.
Below those numbers you will see the substrate, which primer suits it, what enamel we picked, the sheen and how many layers. Cabinet interiors are priced separately, because painting shelves and box sides adds nearly as much surface as the outside. Crown moulding, glass doors, filling old handle holes and new hardware are each priced on their own. If the scope grows partway through, you get the new cost in writing before that extra cabinet painting begins.
Kitchen cabinet painting fails when a step is skipped. The doors come off first. Each one is numbered, its hinges are bagged and the layout is photographed so everything returns to the right spot.
Cleaning is the step that matters most. Sixty years of cooking film builds up on the face frames of an original Don Mills kitchen, and a mild cleaner slides right over it. We use a strong degreaser, then fill dents, sand everything to an even dull surface and apply the right primer. Oak and cherry get a shellac primer. Laminate and melamine get a bonding primer.
Then the colour is built up in two or three sprayed layers, each lightly scuffed before the next. Our spraying page explains why doors are done off site and boxes are done in the house.
The crew is usually in the house for two or three days. Counting the booth time, the full cabinet painting job usually wraps up in about two weeks. Dark colours like navy and charcoal need a third coat and add a little time.
You keep water, the stove and the fridge the whole time. With the doors gone, plates and glasses simply stay on the bare shelves. The single inconvenient day comes when the carcasses get their spray coats.
A fresh cabinet coat feels dry within hours, yet it is still soft underneath. Water-based enamel can be used gently after roughly seven days, and it keeps getting harder for around four weeks. A two-part polyurethane is hard in a day.
Toronto summers slow the cure. On a muggy July week, the gap between coats gets longer, and we plan the cabinet painting schedule around it rather than rushing. A soft finish that gets handled too soon will show fingerprints for months.
Most whole kitchens in Toronto run $2,800 to $6,000. A compact kitchen can start near $1,700, and a large or two-tone kitchen can land between $6,500 and $10,000 or more. Per door, the range is about $145 to $275.
Four things move the price: the number of pieces, the material, how big the colour change is and whether an island or built-ins are included. Refacing with new doors costs more than cabinet painting, and full replacement costs far more. These are Toronto market ranges. What you actually pay is the figure on your own quote after we see the room.
The visit takes under an hour and costs nothing. We tally the openings, work out the material, study the most damaged door and leave the cabinet painting scope and cost in writing. Phone +1 (647) 370-5216, fill in our short form, or head to our main page.
Wall units, vanities, laundry rooms, mudroom lockers and pantries in Don Mills bungalows get a kitchen-grade primer and spray.
Flat slab doors, clean lines and simple pulls make mid-century kitchens some of the best candidates for cabinet painting anywhere in Toronto. The job is about keeping the style of the house while giving the cabinets a hard, fresh finish.
See Mid-Century Kitchens
Tannin inside oak stains water-based primer, and the deep pores telegraph through colour unless someone fills them. Oak cabinet painting starts with a stain-blocking primer and a decision about the grain.
See Oak Cabinets
Good wood can be kept in view by sanding or stripping the old finish, adjusting the stain and sealing it under a sprayed clear coat. Refinishing makes sense whenever the timber itself is more valuable than any paint colour could add.
See Refinishing
Sprayed enamel lands as a fine fog that settles into a single even layer with no bristle tracks. Cabinet painting applied like this resembles a new factory door rather than a home repaint.
See Spray Painting
Glossy factory doors call for a specialty bonding coat, since standard primer has nothing to hold on to. Paint works well on sound melamine and laminate, and on thermofoil only while its vinyl skin is still tight.
See Thermofoil and Melamine
Fresh doors can go onto your existing carcasses, and the frames are then painted or veneered so everything agrees. A single damaged door can also be replaced and sprayed with the rest of the kitchen during cabinet painting so it blends in.
See Refacing and New Doors
People most often ask for pale upper cabinets above deeper lowers in sage, charcoal or navy, with the island carrying the darker shade. Painting just the island counts as a complete booking too.
See Two-Tone and Islands
One vanity usually needs a day, two at most, and barely interrupts household routines. Its doors are sprayed off site and its box is coated in place, so this short cabinet painting job returns the bathroom to you fast.
See Bathroom Vanities
Most condo galleys hold ten to fifteen doors and drawer fronts, so the work goes fast. Cabinet work in a tower runs smoothly once the elevator, parking and odour plan are agreed with the building.
See Condo Kitchens
Laundry uppers, pantry doors, entry lockers, shelving units and fitted wall cabinets are finished with the kitchen's exact primer and sprayed enamel. Because they are attached to the house, the work is done on site inside plastic sheeting.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
Unused handle holes get plugged and hidden beneath the finish, while a jig places each new hole so pulls sit perfectly level. Loose hinges get swapped at the same time, since cabinet painting already has every door down.
See Hardware and Hinges
Cream, greige, soft white, sage, charcoal and navy are the current favourites, yet a tiny store swatch proves almost nothing. We spray one of your doors in the actual cabinet painting colour and set it back in your room.
See Colour ConsultationWe come to the house, count every opening, check the material and set out the scope on paper. The visit and quote cost nothing.
Birch, walnut, painted or not sure, jot it down and we will call to set a visit time. Your name and phone number are all it takes. Or talk to us now at +1 (647) 370-5216.
