If you are looking to paint kitchen cabinets, 2 Cabinet Girls has been specializing in painting kitchen cabinets since we started and this is the question we hear the most, “How much will it cost to paint my cabinets?” We have always been as honest and transparent as possible about our pricing and process, even though our competitors try to use it against us 🙂
Although no two painting projects are the same, and your needs may differ from our average, we can tell you what we’ve been seeing over the past year.
Kitchen Cabinet Painting Cost
In 2020, the average cost of the hundreds of cabinet painting jobs we finished was $2,999.72.
The national average, according to Thumbtack was $1,700 – $7,000 for a painting professional.
The size of our average job is difficult to figure because there are so many variables. Most of those jobs were exactly what you would expect, but some had extras added like a pantry or a bathroom vanity. We don’t price out jobs by linear foot or square foot, but by the number of cabinet doors and drawers.
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Some of the things that can influence painting quotes are the type of paint (obviously you want a high quality paint), does it include a topcoat (most of the time you don’t need this, but it depends on your situation), your cabinet design (some are more ornate than others), what condition the old paint or original finish is in, is the quote for latex paint, is it part of a bigger remodeling project, etc.
The Cost of Hand Painting Cabinets
We also offer two different levels of painting. The first, and less expensive option is where the cabinet doors and drawer faces are taken back to our shop and professionally sprayed in our spray booth and the remaining cabinet boxes are painted in-place by hand.
The advantage to having our painters come in and set up for a day, is that you don’t ever lose the use of your kitchen. Although the day the painters are there with their drop cloths it’s best to stay out of the way, by dinner time you can cook away in relative normalcy.
Since our overall average for our 2020 jobs was about $3,000, I would say that the average cost for repainting your kitchen cabinets would be $2,750 – $3,250.
Although our professional cabinet painters are amazingly talented and leave almost no brush strokes behind, some people ask for a fully sprayed kitchen when they decide to repaint.
The Cost of Fully Sprayed Cabinets
For customers who don’t want any hand painting, we can send in the on-site spray team. The on-site spraying usually takes four days. They start cleaning, sanding and prepping on day one, and then as soon as that is finished they start putting up plastic to protect countertops and everything else from overspray.
Putting on multiple coats of primer and multiple coats of paint and waiting for all of it to dry takes time, and there’s no way to speed up the process. When you spray paint, you have to allow it to dry fully before the next coat or else it may not set up properly.
The prep (including masking) can be very time consuming depending on the square footage needed to be protected and also leaves you kitchen mostly unusable for those days. Removing all the plastic and tape is also time consuming, but you are left with what is basically brand new, factory finished cabinetry as your new look.
The average cost for a full spray job is roughly double the cost of the hand painted option. For most fully sprayed kitchens, you should set your expectations to start around $5,000 and go up from there. For high-end homes this seems like a simple choice.
When you are pricing out a paint job always as the painting contractor about the paint colors you’re interested in, because that can be both a time and price factor. Different paint colors need different colored primer. Paint costs have been on the rise lately along with lumber prices.
The Cost to DIY Paint Cabinets
We’ve written 2 posts already on how to paint your own cabinets and the total cost of painting your own cabinets (along with some optional additional costs) if you’re handy homeowners. You can even rent a paint sprayer if you’re really adventurous, although I wouldn’t advise it unless you’ve sprayed paint before.
Regardless of your DIY project skills, no home improvement project gives you more bang for your buck that having professional painters repaint your cabinets. Cabinet refinishing or refacing is always at the top of the yearly lists for homeowners who want a great return on investment. Certainly when compared to buying new cabinets it’s a no-brainer.
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