Kitchen and Bathroom Cabinet Refinishing

What kitchen cabinet refinishing includes

Doors and drawer fronts come off, get labeled by position, and are stripped and finished on racks in a controlled space. The boxes, face frames, end panels, island sides and any crown or light rail stay in place and are done in the kitchen under containment. Everything gets cleaned of grease before any stripping starts, because degreasing a cabinet properly is half the job and skipping it is why so many kitchens fail at the topcoat. Damaged edges, chipped corners and worn areas around the pulls are repaired. Then color, then multiple coats of a hard-wearing, low-odor topcoat suited to a kitchen. Doors go back exactly where they came from.

Cabinet refinishing vs refacing vs replacing

Three different jobs, three very different prices. Refinishing keeps your existing doors and changes their color and finish. Refacing keeps the boxes but replaces doors and drawer fronts and skins the face frames, so you are buying new fronts. Replacing is a full kitchen tear-out with countertops, plumbing and often flooring involved. If your doors are solid wood and the layout works, refinishing gives you the largest visible change for the smallest spend and the least disruption. If your doors are damaged beyond repair or you want a different door style, refacing is the honest recommendation and we will tell you so.

Can oak cabinets be stained darker or painted white

Both are possible and they behave differently. Going darker on oak is straightforward: the existing color is not in the way and the grain reads through beautifully. Going lighter, or to a painted finish, means dealing with oak's open pores, which hold old stain and will show as dark flecks unless the surface is filled and sealed properly first. That grain-filling step is what separates a white oak kitchen that looks finished from one that looks like painted oak, and it is the step most often skipped. We show you a finished sample door, done the way your kitchen would be done, before the rest of it is committed. If you want the grain to stay visible under a lighter color, that is achievable too and we will show you what it looks like first.

How we refinish cabinets in place without a kitchen tear-out

The kitchen stays a kitchen. Doors leave, boxes stay, and we run containment with plastic walls and floor protection so the rest of the house is not living in it. Appliances stay connected, the sink stays usable through most of the job, and countertops are masked rather than lifted. We work with low-odor finishes and ventilation because people have to sleep in the house. The kitchen is generally usable throughout with the doors off, and the doors go back at the end labeled to their original positions. There is no demolition dumpster, no plumber, no electrician and no plaster repair to book afterwards, which is where a good part of the cost of a new kitchen actually hides.

Cabinet refinishing cost

Cabinets are priced by the count of doors and drawer fronts plus the linear footage of exposed boxes and end panels, not by a per-door band, because a galley kitchen with eighteen doors and an island kitchen with fifty-four are different jobs. Color change up or down, grain filling on open-pored wood, and repairs to damaged fronts all move the number. So does the finish specification: a kitchen that gets cooked in every day earns a harder topcoat than a guest bath vanity does. Send photos of the whole run plus a close-up of one door and we will give you an itemized written price.

How long do refinished cabinets last

The finish outlives the fashion in most kitchens, provided the preparation was right and the topcoat suits the use. What ends cabinet finishes early is not wear, it is contamination: grease that was never fully removed, or a topcoat applied over a silicone-polished surface, which fails in months rather than years. The second cause is water, specifically the cabinet under the sink and the fronts nearest the dishwasher, which take steam every time it is opened at the end of a cycle. Both are addressed in how we prepare and where we build extra film. Beyond that, a refinished kitchen wears like any other finished woodwork: the areas around the pulls go first, and they are touched in rather than redone.

Related Services

• Interior Door Refinishing
• Door Refinishing Cost
• Front Door Refinishing

Areas We Serve

• McLean, VA
• Great Falls, VA
• Vienna, VA
• Arlington, VA
• Alexandria, VA
• Falls Church, VA
• Bethesda, MD
• Potomac, MD
• Chevy Chase, MD
• Georgetown, DC
• Silver Spring, MD
• Fairfax, VA
• Ashburn, VA
• Leesburg, VA
• Reston, VA
• Herndon, VA
• Oakton, VA
• Burke, VA
• Springfield, VA
• Capitol Hill, DC
• Kalorama, DC
• Spring Valley, DC
• Cleveland Park, DC
• Rockville, MD
• Annapolis, MD
• Middleburg, VA
• Tysons, VA
• Annandale, VA
• Centreville, VA
• Chantilly, VA
• Sterling, VA
• Manassas, VA
• Woodbridge, VA
• Gainesville, VA
• Haymarket, VA
• Brambleton, VA
• Aldie, VA
• Wesley Heights, DC
• Chevy Chase DC, DC
• Woodley Park, DC
• Massachusetts Avenue Heights, DC
• Kensington, MD
• Cabin John, MD
• Glen Echo, MD
• North Bethesda, MD
• Gaithersburg, MD
• Germantown, MD
• Olney, MD
• Clarksville, MD
• Columbia, MD
• Ellicott City, MD
• Fulton, MD
• Laurel, MD
• Bowie, MD
• College Park, MD
• Frederick, MD
• Hyattsville, MD
• National Harbor, MD
• Upper Marlboro, MD
• Fort Washington, MD
• Waldorf, MD