Slick factory surfaces need a bonding primer made to grip them, because ordinary primer slides off. Sound melamine, laminate and thermofoil all accept cabinet painting, although a vinyl face that is already peeling is beyond what paint can rescue.
Builder kitchens in Churchill Meadows are full of these materials. Thermofoil shaker doors in white or espresso were a common package through the 2000s, melamine covers most box interiors and many end panels, and the stacked and condo townhouses often have melamine or laminate doors throughout.
Melamine is a resin-soaked paper pressed onto particleboard. It takes a bonding primer well once the shine is scuffed off. Its weak spot is the edge banding, which chips and exposes raw board, so we fill and seal those edges first.
Laminate works the same way and is even tougher. We sand both until the shine is gone, since bonding primer holds much better on a dull face than a glossy one.
Thermofoil is a vinyl skin vacuum-formed onto a routed MDF door. While that skin is glued tight from edge to edge, cabinet painting holds. When it lets go, paint just sits on a skin that keeps peeling underneath.
Heat and steam break the glue under the vinyl. So the first failures show up next to the dishwasher and above the range, usually as a curled corner or a blister along an edge. In a kitchen that is fifteen or twenty years old, we check those doors before anything else.
A lifting door has two honest fixes. We can warm the film and pull it away to raw MDF, though that is slow work that only suits a handful of doors. Or we order a new door and put it through the cabinet painting with the others so the run matches. Once we have handled the doors we tell you which fix fits, and cabinet refacing and door replacement explains the ordering side.
A bonding primer typically adds somewhere around $150 to $400 on a full kitchen, because it means one more product and one more coat. Filling chipped melamine edges adds a little more.
The primer also needs time. It can be recoated in a few hours, but it takes several days to reach full grip. That means there is a short window when the cabinet painting looks finished but the doors still need gentle handling.
When a painted melamine kitchen starts peeling in its first year, a missing bonding primer is almost always the cause. Ordinary primer never grips the factory face, and adding more topcoat later does not change that.
Many 2000s kitchens here use frameless boxes with melamine sides, and the exposed end panels often match the door colour. When the doors change colour, those panels and the box edges need to change with them. Those parts are written into the cabinet painting quote, so no dark or unmatched surface stays visible.
Interiors are optional. Some owners leave the inside of the boxes as they are, while others want the shelves and walls painted to match. The quote lists either option separately.
Landlords with a freehold town or condo townhouse here often have a melamine kitchen that is solid but tired. A new kitchen rarely pays for itself in rent. Cabinet painting a small kitchen like that takes a day or two inside the unit and sits at the low end of the price range. Board rules and timing are explained under condo kitchen cabinet painting.
Thermofoil and melamine are judged in person, never from a photo. We press the edges, check the doors near the heat and tell you what cabinet painting can and cannot fix. Call +1 (289) 206-9978, send us the details, or open the main service list.
Vanities, pantries, laundry rooms, mudroom lockers and basement bars are primed and sprayed with the kitchen's enamel.
We unscrew every door and drawer front; each one is degreased and sanded, takes a primer chosen for its material, and receives a tough sprayed enamel before it is rehung. Kitchen cabinet painting gives the room a new colour while the counters, sink and floors stay exactly where they are.
See Kitchen Cabinets
Dark espresso maple and brown thermofoil can be painted white, greige or any light colour when the factory finish is scuffed and sealed under a bonding primer first. Espresso cabinet painting takes one more primer step than a light kitchen, and that step is what keeps the brown from showing through.
See Espresso Cabinets
Oak needs a stain-blocking primer so its tannin does not rise through the new colour, and a choice about whether to fill the open grain. When oak cabinet painting follows those two steps, the finish stays clean and even for years.
See Oak Cabinets
Refinishing leaves the grain on show: we sand or strip the old coat, stain the wood to a new tone and spray a fresh clear finish over it. It is the right choice when the wood is worth showing, and paint is the right choice when it is not.
See Refinishing
Sprayed coats land as a fine mist that flows level before it dries, so the finished door has no brush lines at all. Cabinet painting done with a sprayer looks like a factory finish instead of a weekend project.
See Spray Painting
New doors and drawer fronts hang on the boxes you already own, and the frames and end panels are coated to match. When only a few doors have failed, those pieces are replaced and finished along with the rest in the same cabinet painting job.
See Refacing and New Doors
White or warm white on the upper cabinets with navy, sage or charcoal below is the look most people ask about, often with the island in the darker colour. Island cabinet painting on its own is also a full job we quote separately.
See Two-Tone and Islands
One vanity usually needs a single day, now and then two, which makes it our smallest booking. The vanity's fronts ride to our booth and its base is finished where it sits, so the bathroom is usable again soon after the cabinet painting wraps up.
See Bathroom Vanities
Stacked townhouses and condo towns usually have compact kitchens with ten to twenty doors, so the work moves quickly. Condo cabinet painting goes smoothly when parking, access and the board's rules are sorted out before the first day.
See Condo Kitchens
Pantry cabinets, laundry uppers, mudroom lockers, basement bars and built-in desks all get the same primer and sprayed enamel as the kitchen. Since most of them are anchored in place, we carry out this cabinet painting on site inside a sealed plastic enclosure.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
Unused pull holes are plugged and filled flush, and fresh holes are bored with a jig so the pulls sit level along each run. Tired hinges can be changed to soft-close models while the doors are down for cabinet painting.
See Hardware and Hinges
Warm white tops the request list, followed by soft cream, greige, sage, navy and charcoal, yet a tiny chip from the paint store gives little idea how each will read in your house. We spray one of your doors in the actual shade and leave it in the kitchen, so the cabinet painting choice happens in your own light.
See Colour ConsultationWe come over, count each door and drawer, confirm the material and spell out the work. The visit and quote are both free.
Colour, door style, rough age: note whatever you can, and expect a call to pick a day. Just a name and number will send it. You can also call us at +1 (289) 206-9978.
