Cabinet refinishing leaves the wood on display: the worn finish gets stripped or sanded away, fresh stain goes on where the colour is shifting, and instead of paint the doors get sealed beneath a sprayed clear coat.
Barrie has plenty of kitchens worth refinishing rather than painting. The cherry and dark maple kitchens of the 2000s in Painswick South and along Big Bay Point Road, the walnut-stained plywood of Allandale and the East End, and the white oak in newer custom homes in Midhurst and Shanty Bay are all good wood under a tired finish.
Refinishing is the right call when the species is attractive, the doors are solid, and only the finish has failed. Cherry darkens and its lacquer yellows and crazes around the sink and the range. Maple stained sienna or natural goes orange and shows wear at every handle. Walnut goes dull. In each case the wood is fine and the top few thousandths of an inch are the problem.
Cabinet painting is the right call where the wood is plain, the doors mix species or veneer, or the owner simply wants colour. At the free visit we say which side of that line a kitchen falls on, and we never push cabinet painting onto a kitchen that would look better refinished.
Doors and drawer fronts come down, get tagged and travel to the shop. The old finish is chemically stripped or sanded to bare wood, depending on its thickness and whether the doors are solid or veneered. Veneer is thin and tolerates little sanding, so it gets stripped. Solid raised panels can take sanding.
Fresh stain goes on where the colour is changing, wiped and tested on a door back first. The clear coat gets sprayed in the booth in thin passes, sanded between, using either a waterborne clear or 2K clear polyurethane, both of which shrug off water and cleaners. Boxes get refinished in place inside an enclosure, just as they would for cabinet painting. The booth itself is described on the cabinet spray painting page.
A cherry kitchen cannot go blond. Stain adds colour rather than removing it, so refinishing can move maple from orange to mid brown or cherry from red to a deep walnut tone, but neither can reach a pale Scandinavian look. Owners wanting light wood from a dark kitchen usually settle on cabinet painting in warm white or greige, or a two-tone with a refinished island. That gets said at the visit, not after stripping.
The pairing we see most in Barrie is a painted perimeter with a refinished wood island, or painted uppers over refinished lowers. Each gets quoted separately so the owner sees both prices. The island and two-tone page shows the combinations. Refinishing generally lands toward the top of the cabinet painting market range because stripping is slow, and your price is the written quote.
Twenty minutes at the free visit settles the question, and the quote that follows prices whichever answer fits. Request it here or phone +1 (705) 230-7220. The painted side of what we do for kitchens across Barrie, Innisfil and Springwater is on the Barrie Cabinet Painting home page.
A good cherry or walnut kitchen deserves a refinish before anyone reaches for a can of paint, and honest cabinet painting advice says so plainly.
Prep, primer and a sprayed coating of the very same kind go onto whatever other cabinets a house holds.
Kitchen cabinet painting starts with the doors, the drawer fronts and the boxes already in the house, cuts the grease and old sheen off them, primes each for its material and sprays on a new colour that cures hard enough for everyday use.
See Kitchen Cabinets
Tannins in golden oak get sealed under shellac before anything else happens. Filler then closes the open pores until they disappear, and sprayed colour finishes doors that were solid all along. Oak cabinet painting suits them well.
See Oak Cabinets
Cabinet spray painting is sprayed cabinet painting: primer and topcoat go on as a fine mist in thin, even passes, so doors and boxes finish with a smooth, level film free of brush ridges, roller stipple and thick edges that chip.
See Spray Painting
Thermofoil, melamine and laminate doors take paint only over a bonding primer made to grip slick factory surfaces, followed by a sprayed topcoat, which lets doors that would otherwise shed ordinary paint within months hold a new finish instead.
See Thermofoil and Melamine
Two-tone work puts one colour on the perimeter cabinets and another on the island or lower run, giving a plain kitchen depth and a focal point without buying a single new cabinet.
See Two-Tone and Islands
Refacing means fresh doors and drawer fronts hung on boxes worth keeping, while a single damaged door simply gets swapped for a new one; old and new then pass through one booth together so nothing looks different.
See Refacing and New Doors
Cottage kitchen cabinet painting deals with knotty pine that bleeds through paint, small kitchens that need to stay usable, and buildings that are cold and closed for half the year, by using shellac primer and timing the work for the warm months.
See Cottage Kitchens
Hardware and hinge work fills old handle holes, drills fresh ones on a template once the finish has cured, and swaps tired self-closing hinges for soft-close ones, so new pulls and quiet doors arrive with the new colour.
See Hardware and Hinges
Bathroom vanity painting brings the kitchen routine of degreasing, priming and a sprayed topcoat to the small cabinet under the sink, over one or two days, paying extra attention to the doors that sit closest to the water.
See Bathroom Vanities
Pantry, laundry and built-in work covers cabinetry that cannot travel to a booth, from walk-in pantries and laundry or mudroom runs to fireplace wall units, mantels and bookcases, every piece sprayed in place inside a sealed enclosure.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
Small galleys, building rules, elevator bookings and parking are what condo kitchen cabinet painting has to manage, so doors go out for spraying and the unit stays livable while the boxes take a day or two.
See Condo Kitchens
A cabinet colour consultation fixes the colour and sheen ahead of cabinet painting by spraying one of your own doors in the real product and leaving it in the kitchen, so the decision gets made under the room's own light.
See Colour ConsultationWe visit, count the doors, work out the material and write the quote up, at no charge and with no obligation.
Tell us about the kitchen in whatever detail you have and a call follows to arrange the visit. The form goes through as soon as it has your name and a phone number on it. When a call is simpler, dial +1 (705) 230-7220.
