Should You Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets?

If your kitchen looks a bit dated and drab, or your current dark cabinets are making the space feel small and crowded, you are probably ready for a transformation. However, renovating your kitchen and getting new cabinets is an expensive, exhausting process that creates a ton of mess and hassle. Instead of a full renovation, maybe you’re considering a DIY, starting with if should you paint your kitchen cabinets, or are there other, better solutions you should choose to get the kitchen of your dreams at a price you can afford?

The Pros and Cons of Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets

First, let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of painting your own kitchen cabinets.

Benefits of Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets

• Cost: The biggest benefit to painting your cabinets is that it’s going to be much less expensive for the initial investment than hiring someone or choosing another way to re-do your cabinets. Some decent quality primer, paint, rollers and brushes, sandpaper, and any accessories, and you can probably paint your cabinets for less than $150.

Drawbacks of Painting Your Cabinets

• Time: Painting your cabinets is not like painting drywall. It’s a significant time investment due to the amount of preparation required.
• Multiple steps: Cabinet painting requires multiple steps, including removing all doors, hinges, and hardware, using a degreaser to thoroughly clean the wood, sanding the surface, priming, sanding again, priming again, then filling any dents or flaws, priming, then painting multiple coats.
• Roller stipple and brush strokes: Without proper care and tools, you won’t get the smooth, flawless finish you want, and instead, the result may look…well, like a DIY paint project.
• Paint doesn’t always work: Not all materials are suitable for painting. If you have real wood cabinets and follow all the steps, it should last, but it may not. However, if you attempt to paint melamine, MDF, laminate, or other materials, you’ll soon find the paint chipping and wearing away.

Often, the end result is not what you imagined, and it only looks worse over time. So while you save money originally, fixing the problem often costs much more than you ever intended to spend.

Should You Hire Someone to Paint Your Cabinets?

So, you’ve ruled out painting the cabinets yourself, but should you hire a professional to paint your cabinets? While you will certainly save yourself the time and mess of repainting yourself, there are other factors to consider.

• Fumes and odors: Professional cabinet painting involves using heavy lacquers and paint to ensure durability. However, these oil-based substances have strong odors and fumes that will linger in your home as they dry.
• Longevity: Even with high-quality paint, it may not last on all surfaces and begin chipping and wearing away within months.
• Minimal repair: If your cabinets are damaged or out of style, painting won’t really do much to fix the frames, drawers, or shelving.

Hiring a painter is still cheaper than replacing your cabinets, but you may not get the updated, new look you want from the results and you may not be satisfied with their durability.

The Best Alternative to Painting Your Cabinets

Now that you’ve probably ruled out painting your cabinets, either yourself or hiring a professional, let’s look at the best alternative to painting, which is cabinet refacing. Cabinet refacing involves removing the cabinet doors and drawer fronts and replacing them with newly crafted options to suit your style preferences. Then, thin strips of natural wood are painted and finished in the color of your choosing off-site, then applied over the existing cabinet frames and boxes to completely cover the material.

Once the cabinet frames are completely refaced, the new doors and drawer fronts are installed using soft close hinges and hardware. The end result is a brand new look for your kitchen that can last for years.

Because the painting, priming, and sealing is completed off-site, you are exposed to significantly less odor and fumes. Even better, the process is often completed in just a few days with minimal hassle, mess, and stress. Best of all, cabinet refacing is a fraction of the cost of new cabinet installation!

Schedule a Free Estimate for Cabinet Refacing in Raleigh Today

If you’re ready to transform your kitchen with long-lasting, beautiful cabinet refacing, schedule a free estimate with our experienced, dedicated team today. Call us at  919–809–6161 or fill out the form below to get started.