Cabinet Painting in Peoria, IL

Why cabinets are different

Cabinets are the hardest-working painted surface in your house. They get touched, bumped, splashed, and wiped down every single day. Wall paint can't take that kind of traffic, which is why cabinet jobs fail when they're treated like wall jobs. We use hard-curing enamel designed for cabinetry, applied in thin sprayed coats that level out to a factory-like finish instead of showing brush marks.

The prep is what separates a refinish from a repaint. Kitchen cabinets collect years of cooking grease and hand oils, and paint will not stick to either. Every door, drawer front, and frame gets degreased, sanded to break the old finish, cleaned again, and primed with a bonding primer before the first color coat. Skip any of that and you'll be picking paint off the edges within a year.

How the process works

We take the doors and drawer fronts off and bring them to our spray setup, so most of the messy work happens away from your kitchen. Each piece gets labeled so it goes back on the exact hinge it came from. While the doors are being sprayed and cured, we mask off your kitchen completely and finish the cabinet frames in place.

You can keep using the kitchen through most of it. The doors will be off for several days, which looks odd but works fine in practice. Once everything's cured and reassembled, we adjust the hinges so the doors hang straight and swap in new hardware if you've picked any. Plan on about a week for a typical kitchen, start to finish.

Is it worth it?

If your cabinets are solid wood or good-quality boxes in decent shape, painting is usually the smartest money in a kitchen update. Replacement cabinets run into five figures fast, and refacing isn't far behind. A professional repaint delivers most of the visual change for a fraction of that. If the boxes are falling apart or the layout doesn't work, we'll tell you that too. Painting won't fix a kitchen that's wrong.

Common questions about cabinet painting

How durable is a painted cabinet finish?

With proper prep and a catalyzed or cabinet-grade enamel, the finish holds up to years of daily use. The first week or two it stays slightly soft while it fully cures, so be gentle at first. After that, normal life, kids, and cleanup are fine. Avoid harsh abrasives and it will look good for a long time.

Can you paint oak cabinets?

Yes, and oak is one of the most common cabinets we paint in Peoria-area homes. The grain stays faintly visible through the paint, which most people end up liking once they see a sample door. If you want grain completely gone, that takes extra filling work and we'll quote it separately.

How long will my kitchen be out of commission?

About a week for a typical kitchen. Doors and drawers come off and get sprayed off-site while we finish the frames in place. You can still use the sink, fridge, and countertops for most of the process.

Can I change the hardware at the same time?

Absolutely, and it's the right time to do it. New holes get drilled before painting, old ones get filled. If you're switching from knobs to pulls or changing the layout, tell us at the estimate so it's built into the job.