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.
Barrie kitchens run from 1970s plywood boxes in Allandale and Cundles, through the golden oak of Letitia Heights and Painswick North, to thermofoil in the newer south end. Each material gets its own primer, and the oak cabinet painting and thermofoil and melamine pages cover the two we see most.
Degrease, tag, sand, prime, fill, spray, sand, spray, cure: that is the cabinet painting order, and no step gets dropped to save a day. Down come the doors and drawer fronts first, tagged by position so each hinge returns to its own hole. Grease and wax come off using a cleaner that is strong enough to cut them, since paint laid over grease lets go within months.
Next comes sanding to a dull, even surface, then primer. Shellac goes on oak and cherry to hold back tannin. A bonding primer goes on melamine, thermofoil and laminate. Maple, MDF and previously painted doors take a standard cabinet primer. After a scuff sand, two or three thin sprayed topcoats follow, sanded between. Whether a finish lasts or chips comes down to whether every cabinet painting step happened.
The written quote counts doors and drawer fronts, boxes and end panels, and records the material, primer, topcoat, sheen, coat count, any grain fill and the price. It also says whether an island, crown moulding or pantry is included. A quote showing one lone total for the kitchen compares with nothing, and it leaves room for surprises.
The visit that produces the cabinet painting quote is free. We count, we open a few doors to check the hinge side, we look under the sink for swelling, and we talk about colour.
Most kitchen cabinet painting jobs involve two or three days inside the house and about two weeks overall. Removal, degreasing, masking and sanding fill day one. Boxes get primed and sprayed inside the enclosure across the following day or two. The doors then spend a week to ten days at the shop being primed, filled, sprayed and left to harden.
Through that stretch the kitchen runs as open shelving, with the sink, stove and fridge all in service. Once the doors return they get hung, adjusted and fitted with hardware in one day. Our cabinet spray painting page explains why doors go to a booth instead of being brushed in place.
A waterborne alkyd enamel dries to the touch within hours, takes normal use after about a week and reaches full hardness in roughly a month. A 2K polyurethane cures far faster and nears full hardness within days. Either way, those first weeks want a soft cloth and nothing abrasive. Chips at the cutlery drawer and around handles almost always come from hard use before curing finished, which is why our care sheet lays out the timeline.
Whole-kitchen cabinet painting across Ontario most often costs $2,500 to $5,500. A small kitchen starts near $1,500, while a large or two-tone kitchen runs $6,000 to $9,000 and beyond. A door lands somewhere around $130 to $250, and grain fill on oak, bonding primer on thermofoil or a deep colour change each push the count up. Market figures, all of them. Your actual price is the written quote that follows the free visit, and it stays fixed once signed.
The free visit takes about half an hour, and a couple of days later the written quote arrives. Send the form or phone +1 (705) 230-7220 with a rough door count and your neighbourhood, whether that is Holly, Ardagh, Painswick or out in Innisfil. Every other service we offer, from islands to vanities, is described on the Barrie Cabinet Painting home page.
A written cabinet painting quote listing doors, drawers, primer, topcoat and coats is the only fair basis for a price, and the visit behind it costs nothing.
Prep, primer and a sprayed coating of the very same kind go onto whatever other cabinets a house holds.
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
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.
See Refinishing
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.
