Oak cabinet painting begins with shellac primer, which locks brown tannin inside the wood so it never stains your new colour. After that, deep pores are either packed flat with filler or allowed to show as soft texture.
Golden oak became the standard builder kitchen in the mid-1980s, just as the western part of Erin Mills was being built. It stayed popular through the early 1990s, so a large share of detached homes, semis and townhouses in the neighbourhood still have it.
Oak contains tannin, a natural chemical in the wood. Waterborne primer draws that chemical outward, leaving amber streaks across pale colours. Sometimes it appears days after the job is finished.
Shellac locks it down. That is the first coat on every oak cabinet painting job we do. After that, a waterborne or two-part enamel goes on over the sealed wood with no bleed.
Oak has deep, open pores. Paint alone does not fill them, so the grain pattern shows through the colour.
For a glass-smooth face, filler goes on over two or three rounds, each one sanded flat. This adds labour, so it adds cost. If you like a bit of texture, we skip the filler. The grain then shows through the paint, which suits a more traditional or cottage-style kitchen and lowers the price of the oak cabinet painting.
Most 1980s and 1990s oak doors have a raised centre panel inside a frame. The panel floats so the wood can move with the seasons. Muggy summers and dry furnace winters here make that panel swell and shrink slightly every year.
We spray thin coats and do not flood the joint around the panel. A heavy coat would glue the panel in place, and then it would crack when it moves. A thin crack line beside the panel during winter is normal and usually closes again in summer.
Oak cabinet boxes and doors from this era are usually solid and square. Painting them keeps good material in the house. Whole-kitchen cabinet painting across the GTA generally sits from $2,500 up to $5,500, before any grain filling is added. New cabinets for the same kitchen usually start around $15,000.
If the oak is in very good shape and you like wood, refinishing is also an option. When fresh stain and clear coat beat colour is covered under cabinet refinishing.
Oak kitchens from the 1980s have had thirty or more years of cooking. The open grain holds grease deeper than a smooth door does, so oak cabinet painting always starts with a thorough degreasing. We scrub the doors, frames and edges with a cabinet degreaser and rinse them clean.
Around the stove, the range hood and the handles, the build-up is often heavy and sticky. Those spots get a stronger cleaner and a second pass. Skipping this step is the most common reason oak cabinet painting peels a year later. The degreasing is listed on your written quote so you can see it is part of the job.
Some oak kitchens in Erin Mills also have a thin factory lacquer that has worn through near the sink. We sand those areas carefully so the primer bonds evenly across the whole door.
In person, we study your oak, test its old finish and show filled next to unfilled samples. Your price arrives in writing and costs nothing. Phone +1 (289) 206-9908, upload a picture of the oak, or head back to our home page.
The bathroom vanity, the laundry uppers and the hall shelving in a South Common town get the kitchen's exact coating system.
Kitchen cabinet painting puts fresh colour and a tough sprayed coat on the cabinets you already own, with counters, sink and boxes left in place. Doors come off, get cleaned, sanded and primed for their material, then return with two or three smooth coats.
See Kitchen Cabinets
Townhouse kitchens are compact, usually galley or L-shaped, and the cabinet painting work has to fit around shared walls, visitor parking and condo complex rules. The boxes stay in place, the doors leave for spraying, and the family keeps cooking.
See Townhouses
Cabinet refinishing keeps the wood grain in view by stripping or sanding the old clear coat, adjusting the stain and spraying a fresh protective finish. It is the right choice over paint when the wood itself is worth showing.
See Refinishing
Cabinet spray painting lays down thin, level coats of hard enamel that dry without brush marks or roller texture. In our cabinet painting work, doors get sprayed in a filtered booth and the boxes get sprayed at home behind plastic sheeting.
See Spray Painting
Glossy factory fronts accept new colour after hand scuffing and an adhesion primer built for plastic faces. Peeling thermofoil is different, so we strip or swap those fronts before cabinet painting starts.
See Thermofoil and Melamine
Cabinet refacing hangs brand-new fronts on the boxes you keep, and those boxes get coated or skinned to match. It suits kitchens where the boxes are solid but the doors are damaged, dated in shape or too worn for cabinet painting alone.
See Refacing and New Doors
Two-tone cabinet painting uses a darker colour on the island or lower cabinets and a lighter colour above. An island-only job brings in colour while leaving everything else alone.
See Two-Tone and Islands
A bathroom vanity gets the same degreasing, primer and sprayed enamel as a kitchen, with extra care for moisture and steam. No cabinet painting job in your home is smaller, and one or two days usually covers it.
See Bathroom Vanities
Condo kitchens are small, and the cabinet work schedule has to follow building rules for elevators, loading and working hours. The doors leave the unit for spraying, so odour stays low and the kitchen keeps working.
See Condo Kitchens
Pantry units, laundry uppers, mudroom lockers and fitted shelving receive kitchen-grade primer and sprayed enamel. Adding them to kitchen cabinet work lowers the cost per cabinet and makes the whole house match.
See Pantries and Built-Ins
Fresh pulls, knobs and quiet hinges complete a painted kitchen, and fitting them goes quickest with every front already down. Before cabinet painting, unused pull holes are packed and sanded so no trace survives under the colour.
See Hardware and Hinges
Choosing a colour is easier with a real sprayed door in your kitchen than with a small paint chip. We spray a sample in the colour you are considering and leave it in your room so you can see it in your own light before the cabinet painting starts.
See Colour ConsultationSomeone stops by, tallies each front, checks the material and lists the work in detail. The trip and the price sheet are free.
Fill in what you can about the kitchen, and we will phone to settle on a day. We just need a way to reach you. Or skip the form and call +1 (289) 206-9908.
