What to Expect While Your Cabinets Are Being Painted

View of the kitchen with the cabinet doors removed

One thing we have noticed since we started painting cabinets is that the process can be confusing. Nobody knows what expect to see each night when they come home and see what has accomplished each day. I’m not sure why this was such a surprise to us, but it was. It’s one of those things where, when you’re really familiar with something, you assume that everyone knows what you know. But the fact is, they don’t. Otherwise we’d all be cabinet painters!

Painting kitchen cabinets is a very specific process. There’s lots of (tedious) steps involved. And all of them are either dirty, messy, or both. As careful, neat, and organized as we are, we still go home covered in paint each day – but you’ll look marvelous.

So if you’re going to have your cabinets painted, here’s what you can expect to see:

1. The 1st day we’ll remove all your doors and drawers (if the front panel isn’t removable) and take them back to our shop.  So all the items in your drawers (in the rare case where we need to take them with us) would be left on your counters.  You will see what’s inside your cabinets because the insides don’t get painted, so they’ll be on display for the world to see. Ok, maybe not the world, but to your close friends and family. It’s hard to live like this – we totally get it!  That’s why we strive so hard to finish each job in under a week.
2. We’ll thoroughly clean, degrease, degloss and sand your cabinet bases (both upper cabinets and base cabinets).  After this step we’ll probably look like hot messes, but we’ll leave your kitchen looking as clean as we found it.  We’re always tidy and pick up after ourselves… we’re like painting elves.  You can’t see us, but you know that we’ve been there. You will be able to cook and eat in your kitchen that night.
3.  Next, important or complicated areas may need to be taped off, just to make the priming and painting steps go faster.  There’s lots of areas where freehanding is the way to go, but we worry less if the tricky spots are taped off.
4. Then you’ll see the first coat of primer go on.  Most likely, you’ll still be able to see the wood through the primer.  Rest assured that the final step won’t look like this.  With the 2nd coat of primer things should start to look more even and opaque.  You may see drip marks here and there, but no worries. Those are all sanded away before the final top coat goes on. Sometimes everything will look perfect and smooth when we leave, but drips can happen after we leave for the day.
5. Other times, when the painters tape is pulled off, some of the paint will have run underneath.  We can fix that too!  One of the many benefits of latex paint.
6. Before we leave we’ll check everywhere, from top to bottom, to make sure that your home looks perfect.  We want you to be thrilled and tell all your friends, so we don’t leave until the job is done to your satisfaction.

We also have a whole page on the site that talks about our process for refinishing cabinets. It’s got some great pics too, to help you visualize.