5-Day Cabinets*

Our Cabinet Refinishing Process

1. Disassembly & Labeling: Day one involves removing all drawers and doors for finishing at our shop. It’s critical to label doors, drawers, and adjustable hinges to make sure everything goes back together exactly as it came apart.
2. Cleaning: Cabinets are often subject to food staining, soap residue, and other household contaminants, so it is imperative to make sure they are clean prior to any further work. Sanding before cleaning can actually imbed these substances into the surface of the cabinet rather than remove them. There is no substitute for thorough  cleaning.
3. Filling: Dings and dents are inevitable with the amount of traffic in a kitchen or bathroom, so the next step is to fill these imperfections. Grain filling is also an option to provide a superior smooth finish to porous grain woods such as oak.
4. Sanding: After filling, all fillers are sanded smooth. At the same time, all surfaces are scuff sanded to dull the finish and allow the primer to stick properly.
5. Priming: Depending on the original condition of your cabinets a high adhesion primer or an oil-based primer is selected to serve as the base-coat.
6. Caulking: Small seams and joints are not always visible with dark colors, but become apparent when changing from a dark color or stained wood to a light, solid color. Caulking these lines not only improves the finished appearance, but also improves the durability. Delamitation of the finish due to moisture intrusion is common when these seams are not sealed properly. Caulking is always wiped clean for the best result.
7. Finishing: All surfaces are given 2-3 coats of finish. It’s important to apply the correct film thickness. Too thin or too thick can cause issues. All doors and drawers are finished by spray at our shop, while the cabinet boxes can be done by spray or by brush/roller. Spraying does provide the smoothest possible finish, but involves extensive masking and restricts access to the kitchen during finishing. Painting the boxes by Brush & Roller is far less intrusive and does not compromise the quality of the finish. You may also be surprised at how smooth a finish we can accomplish by hand. In the case of course grain oak cabinets, painting them by hand actually fills the wood pores better than spraying them, eliminating pinholing and  resulting in a better overall finish.
8. Reassembly & Clean-up: The final step is putting everything back together and cleaning up. We want your newly finished cabinets to be the only thing on your mind when we’re finished, so we do all we can to leave everything as clean as possible.

*Most kitchens can be finished in one work week (5 days). Our goal is to start on a Monday and have your kitchen ready for use by the weekend. This can vary with the size and complexity of the job.