Golden oak accepts a sprayed finish well once two matters are settled. A shellac primer seals the tannin so nothing bleeds, and the deep pores are either filled flush or deliberately left to show.
Nowhere in this city sends more cabinet painting work our way than the 1980s and 1990s subdivisions. Kawartha Heights, the streets off Clonsilla Avenue, the south end below Lansdowne Street and the newer corners of Westmount all went up while raised panel oak was what builders fitted, and a good number of those kitchens have never once been changed.
Tannin Turns A White Oak Door Pink Without A Shellac Primer
Tannin lives in oak, and anything water-based draws it upward into brown or pink staining, heaviest along edges and in the pores themselves. It can show within days of cabinet painting, and it never fades out.
A pigmented shellac primer blocks it outright. Shellac flashes off in about twenty minutes, sands easily and seals the wood against anything migrating upward, which is why it is the standard opener for cabinet painting on oak, cherry, walnut and mahogany alike. Waterborne primers are good products and the wrong products for this one job.
Cherry and honey maple of the 2000s down in the Otonabee end behave much alike, although maple is the kindest material a sprayer ever meets. Both species are covered further under kitchen cabinet painting.
Whether To Fill The Grain Is A Decision With A Price On It
Oak pores are deep, and cabinet painting alone never fills them. Left as they are, the grain telegraphs through the colour, which on a century house or a lake property often reads as honest rather than dated.
To fill, grain filler goes on in a few passes spaced an hour apart, then waits overnight, then takes a gentle 320-grit sand before any topcoat. What comes out is as level as new cabinetry, at the cost of a working day or two on the cabinet painting job plus the filler itself.
Neither answer suits everybody. Ask, and a single front is sprayed each way, so eyes rather than imagination make the choice, which is the same approach described on the cabinet colour consultation page.
Oak Cabinet Painting Costs More Than Painting Maple Or Shaker Doors
Two extra materials and two extra steps put oak above the cabinet painting average. A medium oak kitchen with grain fill commonly runs $3,000 to $5,000 in this market, while the same kitchen with the grain left open lands lower.
Deep colours add a coat to any cabinet painting job. Over shellac, a charcoal or a forest green wants three passes where a pale shade wants two, and the quote says so instead of leaving it to surface later.
Oak Boxes And Face Frames Get Their Cabinet Painting In The Room
Fronts alone go to the booth; the remainder of the cabinet painting happens where the kitchen stands. Carcasses and face frames are sanded, primed and coated indoors behind sealed plastic, and an oak face frame takes grain filler exactly as a front does whenever the room is being filled level.
Solid oak end panels, valances above the sink and the oak crown at the ceiling all belong in the same quote, because leaving any of them in the original stain beside a painted door looks like a job left unfinished. How the fixed parts get sprayed is covered by the cabinet spray painting page.
Hairline Lines At The Panel Edge In Winter Are Wood, Not Failure
A solid oak raised panel front is built to move, its centre panel floating within the rails and stiles so it has room to expand. Once the heating season has dried the indoor air, that panel draws in and a fine line may appear along its edge.
January here averages minus seven, colder than the lakeshore cities, and the heating runs for months. The line closes again through a humid Kawartha summer. Any solid wood door will do this, and it is not a cabinet painting defect, which is why it gets said before the work rather than after.
Get A Written Price For Oak Cabinet Painting With Or Without Grain Fill
Grain fill occupies its own line, which turns the choice into a number instead of a feeling. Call +1 (705) 230-9056, send a photo and a rough door count, or look through everything else we do with cabinets first.
Oak Cabinet Painting Questions
Does the oak grain still show after painting?
That is chosen before the quote is written. Filling takes several passes of grain filler and sanding, and it packs the pores flush. Left open, the grain shows through the finish as texture. The quote says which one is priced.
Why does oak need a shellac primer?
Oak holds tannin that can bleed through water-based primers and stain the topcoat pink or yellow. A shellac primer blocks it. We use one on oak and other tannin-heavy species, and the quote names the product.
Why does a fine line show at a panel edge in winter?
That is timber moving, not the finish failing. A solid raised panel floats in its frame so it can shift, and dry winter air makes it draw in slightly. A humid summer closes the line up again.