Worked case: repainting a full kitchen of cabinet doors and drawer fronts, off-site prep and a move line — steps and cost

The scenario

Picture a kitchen in a single-family home of the kind that is common in Mission-Garin, finished around the turn of the century. The cabinets are a factory-finished wood-veneer box with a clear coat that has worn at the handles and around the sink. The owners like the layout, not the color, and want to keep the boxes.

The kitchen has thirty doors and drawer fronts in all. Counting them is the first job, because the cabinet line is priced per door: upper doors, lower doors, drawer fronts and any false panels, such as the one under the sink.

The finish on a cabinet is rubbed by hands, splashed by water and softened by grease near the stove. Paint will not bond to that film until it is degreased and scuffed. A painter wipes down every surface with a degreaser, rinses it, sands lightly to dull the shine and dusts it off. Skipping this step is the most common reason cabinet paint peels.

The doors and drawer fronts come off and are numbered with tape on the back and on the matching frame. Hinges are sorted in labeled bags. The frames stay in the kitchen and are painted in place. The doors are laid flat on sawhorses or racks in the garage, where they can dry without being touched.

Primer comes first, a bonding type made for slick surfaces. Two thin coats follow, each allowed to dry and lightly sanded between. Thin coats cure harder than one thick coat, and they don't run. Brush marks level out in a good enamel, but a sprayed finish is smoother; spraying needs a masked, ventilated space, and in this example the owners choose brush and roller to avoid masking the house.

The kitchen is unusable during the first days, so the owners plan meals around it. A temporary table in the dining room holds the toaster and the coffee machine, and the painter keeps the dust out of the next room with plastic film.

The house is not a pre-1978 build, so the lead rule is not an issue for the cabinets. Cure time is longer than dry time: the paint feels dry in hours but the film keeps hardening for days, so the owners go easy on the doors for the first week.

The drawer boxes and the inside of the cabinets are left as they are, which keeps the cost down and the job short. The owners also decide to replace the pulls with a new style, and the painter fills the old screw holes only if the new pulls sit in different places. Soft-close bumpers go back on last, because paint on a bumper makes it stick to the frame. Doors are hung back in the order of the tape numbers, so each one returns to its own hinge position and the reveals stay even.

What the job involves

1. Doors and drawer fronts are counted, numbered and removed; hardware is bagged and labeled.
2. All surfaces are degreased, rinsed, lightly sanded and wiped with a tack cloth.
3. A bonding primer goes on frames and doors; small chips and holes are filled and sanded after the primer.
4. Two thin coats of cabinet enamel are applied with a brush and a fine roller, with a light sanding between coats.
5. Doors are left flat to dry and cure; frames are finished in place.
6. Hinges and pulls are reinstalled, doors are adjusted so reveals are even, and the kitchen is cleaned.

Materials and tools

• Degreaser, scuff pads and tack cloths
• Bonding primer and cabinet enamel
• Fine foam rollers and a good angled brush
• Sawhorses, racks and numbered tape

Add-ons often paired with this job

• Kitchen cabinet painting — +$100–$250. The cabinet line is priced per door or drawer front, thirty here. Larger doors and ones with raised panels take longer than flat slabs.
• Move and cover furniture — +$150–$450. The move-and-cover line pays for emptying the counters, covering the appliances and putting the kitchen back; owners who do this themselves can skip it.

Why it is done this way

A cabinet job has no square foot rate because the work is on doors, not walls. The calculator treats it as an options-only job: thirty doors at the per-door range, plus the move line.

The per-door range comes from national guides and one local kitchen figure; it is a market estimate, not a Hayward price list. A kitchen with fewer, larger doors and a kitchen with many small ones can land on the same total.

Prep is most of the work. Degreasing, sanding and priming take as long as the paint, and a short prep is the most common reason for chipped corners later.

What would change the price

• There are more or fewer than thirty doors and drawer fronts.
• The finish is sprayed instead of brushed, which needs masking and ventilation.
• The cabinet boxes are painted inside as well.
• The old finish is damaged and needs repair before priming.
• The owners switch hardware or add crown molding.
• The color is dark, which can need an extra coat.