The Kitchen Cabinet Painting Process in Oakville, Step by Step
Two and a half to three weeks from the day the doors come off, and only five of those days cost you the kitchen. Here is what happens in each of them.
Before the first day
The process starts with photographs rather than a visit. Wide shots of every cabinet run give us the door and drawer count, the condition of the finish and the layout, and the quote comes back inside 24 hours. It is a fixed price, and it does not move after a visit. Once the contract is signed and the ten per cent deposit paid, painting projects typically start within one to two weeks, which is faster than most of the trade books.
If you want to see the samples before that, or there is something awkward about the kitchen you would rather show us in person, a visit is easy to arrange. It is a design visit, about colour and options, not a pricing visit — the photographs have already settled the price.
Day one: the doors come off
The crew arrives, and every door, drawer front and removable side panel comes off. Each one is labelled to its opening, so a door that hung on the third upper on the left goes back on the third upper on the left, with its hinge positions unchanged. Handles and hinges come off and stay with you. Many people take the fortnight to clean them properly, and they go back on at no charge when the doors do.
Before we leave, the colour is settled. We bring physical painted samples — real finish on real substrate, not printed cards — and hold them against your countertop, your floor and your walls in the light you actually use the room in. If you already know exactly what you want, we spray it. If you do not, this is the point to decide, and deciding here delays nothing. Forty per cent of the price is paid on this day.
The fortnight without doors
For the next two weeks your kitchen has open shelving where the doors were, and otherwise nothing changes. The boxes stay, the countertops stay, the sink and the appliances all work. Everything you own is exactly where you left it, only easier to reach. People expect this to be the hard part and it very rarely is.
In the booth, the doors are degreased with a solvent, sanded, sprayed with a tinted 2K primer, sanded at 180 grit, then given two coats of catalysed polyurethane topcoat with a 240-grit sand between them. The spraying itself takes three or four days. The rest of the fortnight is cure time, and it is not padding — the two components need it to reach full hardness before the doors are handled, packed and hung. A rushed door is a softer door, so we do not rush them.
The five days on site
Week three is the part that costs you the kitchen. The first half-day is containment: zipper walls and plastic sheeting close the kitchen off from the rest of the house, appliances and counters are masked, and HEPA filtration and extraction fans go in. The next day and a half is preparation — the frames, boxes and exposed end panels get the same solvent degreaser the doors had, then sanding, then any filler repairs. Nothing is sprayed onto a surface that has not been through this.
The spraying takes the following day and a half: tinted primer, an eight-hour cure, a sand, first topcoat, cure, sand, final topcoat. This is when we ask you out of the house, for two or three days, for the air quality. The frames then get a minimum of 24 hours from the final coat before anything is hung on them, and the on-site days are timed to guarantee it.
Hanging, and the walkthrough
On the last full day the doors come home. Each goes back to its labelled opening, your hardware is refitted — or new handles fitted, if you chose them — and every door and drawer is adjusted until the gaps run even and the soft-close, if you have it, catches as it should. The containment comes down, the masking comes off, and the kitchen and the rooms around it are cleaned.
Then we walk through it with you, cabinet by cabinet. Anything you notice is dealt with there rather than noted for later. The remaining fifty per cent is paid after you have approved it, which means half the price arrives after the work is done. The colour and the products used on your kitchen go on file, so a matching built-in or a repaired door three years on is sprayed to the specification rather than matched by eye.
The service this schedule belongs to
This page is the calendar. What is being done in each of those days — the solvent degreasing, the sanding between every coat, the catalysed two-component polyurethane and the reason the doors go to a booth while the frames are sprayed in place — is set out on the page above, along with the price band and the warranty. Reading the full service page for the painting itself alongside this one gives you the whole picture — what is being bought, what it costs, and how the weeks fall while it is done.
The decision made on day one
The colour is chosen on the day the doors come off, with physical samples held against your countertop and floor in your own light, and it surprises people how late that is. It is late because the fortnight in the shop leaves more time than the spraying needs, so deciding on day one delays nothing. What to decide is a separate question, and the next page takes up which colours Oakville kitchens are actually being painted — what has held up, what has dated, and how a colour behaves once it is on a sprayed door.
Questions
Common questions
- How long does it take to paint kitchen cabinets?
- Around two and a half to three weeks from the day the doors come off to the walkthrough. The doors are away for about a fortnight and the crew is on site for five days at the end. You are without the kitchen for the five days, not the three weeks.
- What happens on the first day?
- Every door, drawer front and removable side panel comes off and is labelled to its opening. Your handles and hinges stay with you. Before we leave, the colour is settled from painted samples held against your kitchen, unless you have already specified it.
- Can I use my kitchen while the doors are away?
- Yes. The boxes, the countertops, the sink and the appliances all stay exactly where they are, so for the fortnight you have a working kitchen with open shelving where the doors were. People report it is less inconvenient than they expected.
- Do I have to leave the house?
- For the two or three days the frames are being sprayed, yes, and we recommend it for the air quality. The setup and preparation days before that, and the hanging and walkthrough after, do not need you out.
- How do you protect the rest of the house?
- Zipper walls and plastic sheeting close the kitchen off from the rest of the house, appliances and counters are masked, and HEPA filtration runs with extraction fans while anything is sprayed. Containment goes up on the first on-site day and comes down on the last.
- Will you tell me if something goes wrong?
- Small repairs and adjustments found during the work are handled inside the quoted scope without a phone call. Anything that changes the job — damage under the old finish, a substrate that will not hold a coating — is discussed with you before we go on. The quoted price is the price charged unless you approve an addition.
- When can I use the cabinets after the doors go back on?
- That evening. The doors have cured for a fortnight in the shop, and the frames get a minimum of 24 hours from the final topcoat before we hang anything. Nothing goes back into service before it is hard.
Ready to see where the weeks would fall for you?
Send wide photographs of every cabinet run. The quote comes back inside 24 hours, and painting projects typically start one to two weeks after the contract is signed.
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Refaced. Repainted. Refinished.