Kitchen and bathroom cabinet refinishing for homes in Spartanburg, Boiling Springs, Valley Falls, Inman, Greer and Greenville.
How to judge a cabinet finish
Every painter says their cabinets look factory-finished. Here is what to look at when you are deciding whether they do.
- Stand a foot away, at an angle to a window. Brush marks and roller stipple only show in raking light, which is exactly the light a kitchen has in the morning.
- Look at the inside edge of a door. It is the surface most likely to have been rushed, and it is the one your hand touches.
- Look where the door meets the frame. Paint that has run into the gap is paint that was applied on the hinge.
What we do about it
Doors and drawer fronts are labeled and removed, carefully prepared, and sprayed in a controlled setting before being reinstalled: flat, horizontal, dust-controlled, with no brush anywhere near them. That is the whole reason the doors come off rather than being coated where they hang.
Frames and boxes are prepped and finished in place. The doors come back to their own openings, on their own hinges.
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 that is a preference rather than a fault.
Thermofoil and laminate need a closer look. Where a plastic film has lifted or bubbled at an edge, 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. Refinishing changes the surface, not the structure: a sagging shelf or water damage under the sink is worth dealing with first.
Color, hardware and the decisions worth making early
Cabinet color reads differently from wall color, because the doors are vertical, close to you, and lit from whatever the kitchen window happens to be doing. A white that looks warm on a wall can look yellow on a door under an LED under-cabinet strip. Looking at a sample in the actual kitchen, at the hour you actually cook, is worth the delay.
A two-tone kitchen, uppers one color and base units another, is a common request. It is priced on the extra setup rather than on the extra color.
Hardware is the other early decision. Existing hinges and handles can go back on, or new ones can go on instead, and if you are moving from knobs to pulls or changing the hole spacing, say so before we start. Filling and redrilling is far easier while the doors are off and unfinished than after they are coated.
What it is like to live with
You will have open shelving while the doors are off, and we will tell you how long that is when we quote. The kitchen stays usable. 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, and in humid weather that takes longer. We will tell you when to put things back and when to stop being careful with the doors.
What affects the price
The number of doors and drawer fronts, their material, the finish already on them, whether the boxes are included, and the finish chosen. It is priced per piece. We use Sherwin-Williams products, and the estimate is free.
Request an estimate, or read how we refinish cabinets. You can also see interior painting in Spartanburg or everything we do in Spartanburg.