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.
Barrie has more honey oak kitchens than any other kind, and more oak cabinet painting requests, because Letitia Heights, Painswick North, Cundles and the early streets of Holly and Ardagh were built between about 1982 and 1998, when oak was what every builder installed. The doors are usually sound. The colour is what the owner wants gone.
Oak carries tannins that migrate through water-based primer and appear as blotches of pink, yellow or brown, along the edges and in the grain first. A white topcoat over ordinary primer on oak stains within weeks, and extra coats of white do nothing to stop it. Oak cabinet painting solves this with shellac-based primer, which locks the tannin inside the wood before anything else goes on.
So oak cabinet painting begins with degreasing and sanding, then a full coat of shellac primer over each door, each drawer front and each box. Cherry and walnut follow the same rule, since both bleed harder than oak. Honey maple, common in early-2000s kitchens, has tight grain and no tannin issue, so it takes standard primer and paints easily.
Filling the grain is a choice, and it is the choice that decides how oak cabinet painting looks when it is done. Oak has deep, open pores, and a sprayed topcoat follows them. Without fill, a painted oak door still reads as oak from across the room, which some owners like and some do not. With fill, the surface becomes as smooth as a factory MDF door.
In oak cabinet painting, grain fill means two or three thin rounds of water-based filler, each sanded level before the next, applied after primer and ahead of topcoat. It adds a day at the shop and one line on the quote. When an owner is torn, we spray a sample door both ways, since the difference is easier seen than described.
The raised-panel and cathedral-arch doors of the 1980s and 1990s have a routed profile with a lot of edge. Those profiles collect grease at the top rail, wear at the handle end and show every brush mark. They are the reason this cabinet painting is sprayed rather than brushed, since only a sprayed coat lays evenly into a curved profile. The cabinet spray painting page explains the booth and the thin-coat method.
Owners who want the arches gone can keep the boxes and fit new shaker doors, sprayed in the same booth to match. Our refacing and door replacement page explains that option and what it costs.
Shellac primer and grain fill add labour, which places oak cabinet painting a step above the bottom of the Ontario market range, where a whole kitchen most often costs $2,500 to $5,500 and a door roughly $130 to $250. Leaving the grain visible pulls the number down. Our written quote shows the grain fill on its own line so the choice is plain, and that quote, not the range, is your price.
If the kitchen is 1980s or 1990s honey oak, most of what the quote needs is already known. Request the free visit or phone +1 (705) 230-7220, and a painted oak sample comes along so filled and unfilled grain can be compared side by side. Everything else we do across Barrie, Innisfil and Springwater is on the Barrie Cabinet Painting home page.
Honey oak is the easiest kitchen to picture in a new colour, and oak cabinet painting done with shellac primer and filled grain is the job that makes that picture last.
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
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.
