Our process
- Consultation: The cabinet painting process is a little different from regular interior painting. We start with educating our customers about the different types of paint available that WORKS for a long lasting and permanent finish. Why? Because despite what you read in Better Homes And Gardens and see on Pinterest, cabinet refinishing is not a simple project that we can complete in a day or two. In fact, cabinets have one of the highest rates of failure in the coatings industry, mostly due to house painting companies that do not understand the prep process or materials required for a lasting finish (See KCMA standards, which I will tell you all about during our initial consultation). All of our product choices for cabinets are KCMA-rated industrial topcoats, which are the same industry standards for cabinets you would buy off of a showroom floor.
- Prepare the room: We take care to protect your furnishings and appliances before we get started. We’ll come with a wide array of masking materials ranging from tape and plastic to drop cloths, butcher block paper, and roofing under laminate. From there we will quarantine off your kitchen with heavy duty plastic to make it airtight (think of the TV series Dexter), other than openings for our negative air machines to evacuate odors and fumes and keep them OUT of your house and AWAY from people and pets. And there will also be a HEPA/charcoal filtered air scrubbing system on-site taking care of the INSIDE of the booth and keeping our staff safe. PS – There will be a temporary plastic door installed so you still have use of your kitchen during the process.
- Ensure optimal surface for adhesion: The prepping process for cabinet refinishing is no joke, and we take the process very seriously. This involves a thorough cleaning with a degreaser, mechanical sanding with a wide variety of sanders (we use Festool HEPA certified dustless sanding systems to keep dust to a bare minimum), and then follow up with a solvent wipe to make sure that any remaining residue is gone before priming begins.
- Complete any repairs: Cabinet refinishing prep varies from house painting in that much of it is done after the initial prime coat. This is for 2 reasons: First, it is much easier to see damaged areas on wood once they are painted. Also, caulk and putty tend to “bite” into a primed surface better than when applied directly to wood.
- Paint, the right way: This can vary from job site to job site, but for the better part our process is spray 2 coats of primer, spray 2 top coats in a KCMA rated industrial topcoat, with sanding between all coats. Variations occur when there is not enough room for in-house spraying (usually in bathrooms or tiny kitchens) in which case boxes may be brush and rolled. And Oak typically requires an additional coat of primer to ensure the wood is properly sealed.
- Finishing touches: We clean-up after the project is complete by removing all tools and equipment, including drop cloths and plastic, and vacuuming with a certified HEPA vacuum system to remove all traces of our paint crew (other than your gorgeous new cabinets that is…)
- Final walk-through: We conduct our own final inspection and then invite you to join us on a final walk-through where we can address any final questions or concerns and ensure that we have exceeded your expectations.