Refinishing keeps the timber visible. Off comes the old coating by stripper or sander, stain corrects the tone wherever correction is wanted, and a sprayed clear seals the figure rather than burying it beneath a solid shade.
Cabinet painting is not where every kitchen belongs, and saying so costs us work now and then. Sound veneer in white oak, cherry or walnut nearly always reads better as timber, and so do the plywood slab and birch fronts in North End bungalows and the East City infill of the 1950s and 1960s.
Refinishing Beats Cabinet Painting When The Timber Is Better Than The Finish
The test is simple. Where the carcasses are square, the fronts are solid, and the whole complaint is a coating gone yellow, crazed or worn, taking it back to bare timber makes a better room than any cabinet painting would.
Timber is also back in fashion. Cabinet painting still accounts for most kitchens, yet natural and medium tones have climbed year after year, and a 1970s walnut run buried under orange varnish frequently turns out to be the finest thing in the house.
Once veneer has worn through along a drawer edge, or somebody has already taken a sander too far, refinishing drops out and oak cabinet painting or a solid shade becomes the sensible reply.
Stripping And Sanding Are Slower Than Prep For Cabinet Painting
Chemical stripper, patient scraping and progressively finer abrasive are what remove old varnish and lacquer, and no quick version exists. Veneer runs thin, occasionally under a millimetre, so a heavy hand with a sander destroys a front in seconds.
Not a trace of the old finish may remain when stain goes on, because stain takes unevenly over any surviving film. Species that blotch, birch and maple among them, get a conditioner first so the tone spreads evenly across the figure.
Fronts then head for the booth while carcasses are dealt with in the room behind containment, the identical split cabinet painting uses. Clear coat is even less tolerant of airborne dust than colour is, which is exactly why the fronts leave the property.
New Stain Colours Shift A Kitchen Without Hiding The Grain
Darker is straightforward and asks for no cabinet painting at all. A honey oak run from the 1980s shifts to warm mid-brown or a smoked grey-brown with the figure still legible, which suits century houses in the Old West End and around Monaghan Road.
Lighter means bleach or a great deal of abrasive, and it does not always succeed, so we say plainly when a tone lies out of reach. Clear coat arrives as matte, as satin or as semi-gloss, and satin is what most kitchens end up wearing.
Plenty of rooms end up split, refinished timber below on the island, cabinet painting above it. That combination is covered under pairing two colours in one room.
Refinishing Costs Track The Same Count Cabinet Painting Does
Fronts drive the price here just as they drive it in cabinet painting, though stripping hours lift a refinished kitchen above a painted one of the same size. Count the stripping, the staining and the clear coat together and a medium room generally comes to $3,000 to $5,500.
Badly damaged fronts, deep gouges and burn-through in veneer all add to that, and occasionally the honest advice is a new front instead of one more hour of abrasive. Before anything starts, the written quote names the count, the stripping method, the stain and the clear coat, exactly as a cabinet painting quote does.
Find Out At A Visit Whether This Timber Is Worth Keeping
One look at the fronts settles it, and no photograph settles it properly. Phone +1 (705) 230-9056, tell us about the kitchen on the contact page, or head back to the services overview to see how refinishing compares with cabinet painting on price and on timeline.
Refacing Makes Sense When Doors Are Past Cabinet Painting
Cabinet painting corrects colour and it corrects a tired finish. What it cannot correct is a front that has lost its shape, a vinyl skin lifting across half a kitchen, or particleboard that swelled and stayed swollen.
Where most fronts are still fine, cabinet painting wins on price and on result every time. Where most are gone, fresh fronts on old carcasses are the honest advice even though the invoice is bigger. Where that line falls is set out by the material page.
Cabinet Refinishing Questions
When is refinishing better than painting?
When the timber is better than the finish on it. Sound walnut, cherry, birch or white oak is worth keeping visible. Refinishing strips the old coating, restains where wanted and seals the grain under a sprayed clear coat.
Why does refinishing take longer than painting?
Stripping and sanding are slower than prep for cabinet painting, and they have to be done carefully to protect the veneer. That extra labour is most of the price difference. The quote counts stripping, staining and clear coat together.
Can the stain colour be changed?
Yes. New stain can warm, deepen or even out the tone without hiding the grain. A colour is chosen at the visit, and the quote says which stain and which clear coat are going on.