How Much Does Cabinet Refinishing Cost?

Replacing the cabinets in an average kitchen runs well into five figures once the boxes, doors, countertops, plumbing and a week of demolition are counted. Refinishing the same cabinets, done properly with the doors off and sprayed, is a few thousand dollars and about a week. That gap is why it is the most asked-about job we do. The exact number comes from a written estimate after we have seen the kitchen, and here is what decides it.

What moves the price

• The count. Doors, drawer fronts and the exposed box faces are what get prepped and sprayed, so a kitchen with forty doors costs more than one with twenty. Islands, pantries and glass-front uppers add pieces.
• The condition. Grease, old chipped paint, peeling thermofoil, water damage at the sink base and old hardware holes that need filling all add prep time, and prep is most of the job.
• The colour change. Dark to white, the most common request around here, takes more primer and more coats than a like-for-like refresh. Two-tone kitchens, with a dark island and light perimeter, are two setups.
• The finish. Sprayed is smoother and costs more than brushed, because of the masking and the setup. We spray. A brushed cabinet job is cheaper and it looks it.
• Hardware and extras. New hinges and pulls, soft-close upgrades, painting the interiors of open shelving, and repainting the kitchen walls to match all add to the scope, and all of it is listed separately on the estimate.

What a proper estimate includes

A real cabinet quote lists the number of pieces, the prep steps (removal and labelling, degreasing, sanding, filling, bonding primer), the product being sprayed, the number of coats, the dry time between them, reinstallation and adjustment, and the number of days. If a quote is one line and one number, it is missing something, and the missing thing is usually the prep. How our cabinet process runs.

When refinishing is the wrong call

We will tell you at the estimate, because refinishing a cabinet that should be replaced wastes your money and our name. The usual reasons:

• Thermofoil or laminate doors that are peeling at the edges. Paint will not reattach them.
• Boxes with water damage, usually under the sink, where the particleboard has swollen.
• A layout that does not work. Paint changes how a kitchen looks, not where things are.

Solid wood, MDF and plywood doors in sound condition, which is most kitchens built in the last forty years, are good candidates, including the oak and espresso kitchens that fill Vancouver and Beaverton subdivisions from the 1990s and 2000s.

The offer applies

Most cabinet jobs clear the threshold for 10% off all qualifying jobs over $2,500. Mention it when you book the estimate and, if it applies, it is on the written proposal before work starts. Offer terms. Cabinet refinishing happens indoors and runs all year, so the wet months are a good time to book it. Call or text (360) 785-6225.

Refinishing, refacing or replacing

There are three ways to change a kitchen without moving the walls, and they sit at very different prices. Refinishing keeps everything and changes the finish: doors and drawers off, degreased, sanded, bonding primed and sprayed, boxes done in place. It is the least expensive by a wide margin and the least disruptive, about a week with the kitchen usable in the evenings. Refacing replaces the doors and drawer fronts and veneers the box faces, keeping the boxes. It costs several times what refinishing does, and the result is new doors on old boxes. Replacing is new boxes, new doors, usually new countertops, plumbing and electrical work, and weeks without a kitchen. It is the right call when the layout is wrong or the boxes are gone. For a kitchen with sound boxes and solid doors, which is most kitchens built in the last forty years, refinishing gets you most of the visual change for a fraction of the money.

How to get an accurate cabinet quote

Send photos of the whole kitchen, including the island and any pantry, and a rough count of the doors and drawer fronts. Mention what the cabinets are made of if you know, whether they have been painted before, and what colour you have in mind. That is enough for a conversation. The actual number comes from the in-person estimate, where the surfaces get looked at closely, the pieces get counted properly, and the proposal gets written with every step on it. A quote that arrives by text from a photo alone is a guess, and the guess usually leaves out the prep.

What the week looks like

Day one is removal, labelling and setting up the kitchen: counters covered, appliances masked, a plastic wall between the kitchen and the rest of the house. Days two and three are degreasing, sanding, filling and bonding primer, with the doors sprayed flat in our setup and the boxes sprayed in place. Days three to five are the finish coats, with full dry time between them, which is the part that cannot be hurried. The last day is rehanging, adjusting every door so it closes the way it did, resetting the hardware and the walkthrough. You can cook on the stove in the evenings; you will be living without doors on the cabinets for a few days, which is less of a problem than it sounds.

Why the cheapest cabinet quote usually costs the most

A cabinet job that chips at the handles in a year has to be done again, and the second time it has to be stripped first. The usual shortcuts are the ones you cannot see on day one: no degreaser, a quick scuff instead of a real sanding, a wall paint instead of a cabinet-grade enamel, and doors brushed on their hinges instead of sprayed flat. Every one of those saves an hour and costs the finish. When you compare quotes, compare the steps, not the number, and ask what the doors are being sprayed with and where.

Cabinet cost questions