Residential · Cabinets
Cabinet Refinishing & Spray Finishes
Doors and drawer fronts sprayed to a smooth, hard finish that gives kitchen cabinets a factory level look.
Chapter 01
Why does cabinet paint chip and show brush strokes?
Cabinets live a harder life than walls. Hands grab the same edges every day, cooking grease settles on the doors around the stove, and the corners of every drawer front take knocks. Paint brushed over a glossy or greasy surface has nothing to bite into, so it chips at the handles first, then peels in strips, and the brush strokes stay in the film as a permanent texture.
Oak makes it harder still. Its open grain telegraphs through thin coats, and its stain can bleed up into a light colour. A cabinet job that skips degreasing, sanding and a proper bonding primer will look fine at first and wear badly. A smooth, hard finish comes from the method, not just the colour in the can.
Kitchen cabinets sprayed white around a butcher-block island and black granite counters
How do orange oak cabinets become a clean white?
Doors and drawer fronts come off and are labelled, so every one returns to its own opening. The cabinet boxes stay in the kitchen under protection while the doors are worked separately. Each surface is degreased to remove years of cooking film, then scuff sanded so the primer has a profile to grip.
A bonding primer goes on next, followed by sprayed finish coats. Spraying lays the paint down flat with no brush marks, which is what gives cabinets the factory level look Olympus aims for. The orange oak kitchen in our gallery, with its butcher-block island, was done this way and came out a clean sprayed white.
Chapter 03
How long before the cabinets can take a full load?
A sprayed finish feels dry long before it is hard. Cure time is the stretch when the coating keeps hardening, and heavy use too early, such as stacking dishes against a door or scrubbing it, can leave marks that stay. Nate tells you when the kitchen is safe for light use and when it is ready for everything.
Once cured, cleaning is simple: a soft cloth and mild soap, with no abrasive pads. Hardware goes back on as the last step, so every pull lands on a finished door. Nicki M. had Nate handle several projects in her new home, and the kitchen cabinets were the one she singled out in her review.
“One project I was really impressed with was the painting of my kitchen cabinets, they look amazing.” Nicki M.