MetroWest Boston
Kitchen cabinet painting & refinishing
The same kitchen, a fifth of the price of new cabinets, and you keep the boxes that were built better than anything you can buy today.
- Typical investment
- $1,200 – $6,000 for a typical kitchen — see the full breakdown
- How long it takes
- 4 – 7 working days, kitchen usable most of it
- Season
- Year round — our best value window is November to March
- Warranty
- 3 years, written, on workmanship — terms
Doors and drawer fronts come off, get labelled, and are sprayed off-site in a controlled environment.
Degrease, then sand, then bond-prime. Skipping the degrease is why DIY cabinet paint peels off at the handle.
Boxes and face frames sprayed in place under full containment — your kitchen is not a dust cloud.
A conversion varnish or waterborne alkyd finish that takes a fingernail, not a latex wall paint.
One of ours
Before and after
Why this is the highest-return thing you can do to a kitchen
A full cabinet replacement in Greater Boston starts in the mid five figures once you add countertops and the disruption of a demo. Refinishing the cabinets you already have — solid frames, real hardwood doors, boxes that are usually better built than the current mid-market alternative — costs a fraction and takes a week rather than two months.
The honest caveat: refinishing does not change your layout, and it does not fix a door that is delaminating. If your cabinets are thermofoil that is peeling, or particleboard that has swollen under the sink, painting is the wrong answer and we will say so at the estimate.
Our process, in the order it happens
- Numbered removal. Every door and drawer front is tagged to its opening. Hinges and hardware bagged and labelled.
- Degrease. Kitchen cabinets are coated in years of aerosolised cooking oil. This is the step amateurs skip and it is the reason their finish peels.
- Sand and de-gloss. Profile edges by hand, flats by machine with HEPA extraction.
- Bonding primer. Tinted toward the finish color so coverage is even.
- Spray finish, off-site. Doors go horizontal in a controlled space so there is no dust, no brush mark, no sag.
- Boxes in place. Full plastic containment, negative air, floor and counter protection. Sprayed to match.
- Cure, then rehang. Waterborne alkyds reach block resistance in days, full hardness in weeks. We tell you when you can stack plates again — it matters.
What we will tell you at the estimate
Dark stain to a light color is a bigger job — more coats, better blocking primer, expect roughly 25% more. Oak has open grain that will still read as grain unless you grain-fill, which is an extra step and an extra cost, and plenty of people like the texture. Raised panel doors take longer than slab. We would rather have that conversation before you sign than after.
Recent work
Cabinet painting photographs
Another Great job by Target Painting, thanks to Paulo, Jose L. and Lucas Santos. This time I have a new kitchen! From the get-go every step was flawless. The prep work, execution was extensive, well-coordinated and supervised… the result is spectacular: Artists at work!
FAQ
Cabinet painting — questions we get asked
Can I use my kitchen while you work?
Mostly, yes. The doors are off-site for several days, so you have open shelving. The two days we spray boxes in place are the disruptive ones and we schedule them together.
How long does a painted cabinet finish last?
With a proper degrease, bond primer and a cabinet-grade topcoat, expect roughly eight to twelve years before it needs attention — similar to a factory finish. Touch-up is easy because we leave you labelled paint.
Is spraying really better than brushing?
For doors, yes, and it is not close. A sprayed horizontal door has no brush marks and no sag. We brush and roll only where spraying is not practical, and we say which is which on the estimate.
Do you replace hardware?
We will install hardware you buy, and we will fill and re-drill if you are changing from knobs to pulls. We do not mark up hardware — you buy what you like.