Refinishing kitchen and bathroom cabinets for homes in Edwardsburg, Cassopolis, Niles and the surrounding southwest Michigan communities.
Refinishing instead of replacing
Replacing a kitchen means tearing out boxes that are usually sound, working around a gap for weeks, and paying for carcasses nobody ever sees. Refinishing keeps the layout and the boxes and changes the doors, the drawer fronts and the color, which is the whole of what you look at.
It is worth being straight about what it does not do. It does not change the layout, add a cabinet, fix a door that never closed properly, or turn damaged particleboard into something it is not. We will tell you at the estimate if what you want is a replacement job rather than a refinishing one.
What takes a finish well
Solid wood, wood veneer and MDF doors with a sound factory finish all coat well. Oak takes a finish nicely, though its open grain stays visible through paint unless it is filled, and some people want that texture kept while others do not.
Thermofoil and laminate need a closer look. Where a plastic film has lifted or bubbled at the edges, coating over it does not reattach the film, so we will tell you honestly what we think the result would be and let you decide.
How the finish is achieved
Doors and drawer fronts are removed, carefully prepared, and sprayed in a controlled setting before being reinstalled. Frames and boxes are prepped and finished in place.
That is the difference between a cabinet that reads as factory-made and one that reads as painted. A door is looked at from a foot away, at eye level, and a brush leaves marks at exactly that distance. A door coated lying flat has no brush texture in it at all.
Everything comes off labeled so it goes back to the opening it came from, on its own hinges. Doors and fronts are degreased before anything else, because kitchen surfaces pick up cooking residue over the years and adhesion suffers if it is still there when the primer goes on.
What it is like to live with
You will have open shelving while the doors are away, and we will tell you how long that is when we quote. The kitchen stays usable throughout. Clearing the countertops helps, and emptying a few base units near the work makes the in-place coating quicker.
A cabinet finish keeps hardening after it stops feeling wet. We will tell you when to put things back and when to stop being careful with the doors, and the waiting is worth it: an early knock leaves a mark that a cured finish would have shrugged off.
What affects the price
How many doors and drawer fronts there are, what they are made from, the finish currently on them, whether the boxes are included, and the finish chosen. Cabinet work is priced by the piece, not by the square foot of kitchen. We use Sherwin-Williams products.
Hardware is worth deciding early. Changing from knobs to pulls, or to a different hole spacing, is much easier while the doors are off and unfinished than afterwards.
Request a free estimate, or read how we refinish cabinets. You can also see interior painting in Edwardsburg or everything we do in Edwardsburg.