Have your kitchen cabinets refinished

 

What to expect when having your kitchen cabinets painted

Having your kitchen cabinets painted whether you choose to do them yourself or have them professionally painted can be a big leap of faith.

But one thing that will help make that choice is to price new cabinets installed.

We are referring to quality cabinets installed, not the low end mass produced cabinets of today

Most likely you have quality cabinets already installed and for less than half the cost you can have them professionally refinished in most cases.

Your first decision will be who is going to do them?

Having a company who does this day in and day out is a great choice as opposed to a painting company who also "does" cabinet painting

It is a better choice to have someone who does cabinet refinishing every day touch your kitchen cabinets

They will be more experienced with the preparation needed and if anything goes wrong during the process, easily being able to adjust

Preparation is key to any kitchen cabinet painting project, preparing your existing cabinets for a new coating is most important

This can be done many ways, whether chemically with solvents and cleaners or mechanically with sanders or sanding by hand.

We like a combination of both of those methods

After preparing your cabinets you have a few choices here.

A standard paint job using readily available products. This will give a you a very nice job although one that will need slight maintenance down the road in the form of touch ups. We would expect a good 5 years before possible having to fully recoat and yearly touch ups possible after they are painted

This is due to simply the use they will be under, from water, soap, hands, and more. Anyone who promises you more than this is not being honest with today's traditional paints from any manufacturer

Your second option is to move into a high end two part product. This is not one anyone used here locally except for us, this is a more costly option but over the long run it will simply last longer.

Specialized equipment is needed to apply a coasting to get a beautiful finish, usually a combination of special sprayers and in some cases brush and rolling with very smooth rollers.

In the case of brushing and rolling the applicator is most important, they can make or break your project.

There is nothing worse than seeing heavy brush marks or roller marks on a cabinet project. This can significantly be diminished with the proper application.

Here are a few things that could go wrong

Improper pre from an inexperienced painter or crrew

Bad prep can be disastrous for a project, the entire job is only as good as it's base. This is the reason it is hard to come fix someone else's work

The wrong materials were used, without using the proper primers and top coats your project is doomed again.

Not explaining the true expectations of a cabinet refinishing project. The cabinets will not be bulletproof. No coating is, just like your car or existing cabinets they can be scratched, dinged and dented.

How to have a great project

Let the painters paint, they have been trained for this

Know the expectations of the project and what products are being used

How do you touch them up? Does the painter offer a maintenance program such as our three year or lifetime touch ups?

Enjoy the process, talk to the painters, enjoy the amazing before and after