Interior Painting
Walls, ceilings, trim, and doors, painted by the same crew that showed up to measure.
See detailsMadison & Dane County
Cabinet Refinishing
A factory finish on the cabinets you already own, for a fraction of replacing them.
Cabinet refinishing is priced by the count of doors and drawer fronts rather than by the size of the kitchen, and it costs a fraction of replacing boxes that are structurally fine. It also takes five to eight working days instead of six weeks, and your kitchen stays usable for most of that. We quote it after opening a few doors and looking at what the boxes are actually made of.
- Timeline
- Five to eight working days for a full kitchen. Your sink and appliances stay usable throughout; the doors are simply off for most of it.
The finish is the whole product here. Brushed cabinet doors look like brushed cabinet doors forever, so we do not brush them. Doors and drawer fronts come off, get labeled, and go to our spray setup where they are sanded, bonded, and sprayed flat on both sides with a cabinet-grade coating that cures hard. Boxes and face frames are sprayed in place behind proper containment.
Most Madison kitchens we refinish are oak from the 1980s and 90s, and oak has an open grain that will telegraph straight through paint. If you want the smooth modern look, that grain has to be filled and sanded first, which is real labor and it is the honest difference between the low end of a cabinet quote and the high end of one. We will show you both on a sample door before you decide, because plenty of people love the grain showing through and would rather keep the money.
The other thing nobody tells you: the coating needs time to cure, not just dry. It is handleable in a day and fully hard in about two weeks. We reinstall on a cured-enough schedule and tell you plainly to be gentle with the doors for the first fortnight. A cabinet finish that gets slammed on day three is the one that chips at the latch in year one.
Scope
Every kind of cabinets work we take on.
Full Kitchen Refinishing
Uppers, lowers, island, and pantry in one coordinated project, typically five to eight working days start to finish.
Two-Tone Kitchens
White uppers with a deep base or island. The most requested look in Dane County right now, and it costs the same as a single color.
Bathroom Vanities
A single vanity is a two-day project and the highest-return small job in a house.
Built-Ins and Bookcases
Fireplace surrounds, window seats, mudroom lockers, and library walls, sprayed to match the kitchen.
Grain Filling on Oak
The step that turns 1990s oak into a smooth contemporary finish. Priced as an option so you can see exactly what it costs.
Cabinet Repair Before Finish
Loose joints re-glued, sagging shelves reinforced, doors re-aligned. There is no point spraying a door that does not close.
How we work
Step by step, no surprises.
You will know what is happening in your house on every one of these days before the first one starts.
- 01
Count and estimate
We count doors and drawer fronts, not kitchen square footage, because that is what actually drives the labor. You get a per-door number and a total.
- 02
Sample door
We finish one of your actual doors in your actual color, with and without grain fill if it is oak. You decide holding the real thing, not a chip.
- 03
Remove, label, and map
Every door and drawer front comes off with a numbered tag and goes on a map of your kitchen. Hardware is bagged by opening.
- 04
Degrease and sand
A dedicated degreasing wash first. Kitchen grease is invisible and it is the single most common reason a cabinet finish peels at the latch.
- 05
Bond primer and spray
An adhesion primer built for slick factory finishes, then two sprayed finish coats, sanded between. Boxes sprayed on-site behind containment.
- 06
Reinstall and adjust
Doors go back to their mapped openings, hinges adjusted so the reveals are even. Then we tell you honestly to be gentle for two weeks while it cures hard.
Our work
More cabinets photosCabinets projects.
How much does it cost to paint kitchen cabinets in Madison?
It is priced by the count of doors and drawer fronts, not by the square footage of the kitchen, so the first thing we do is count them. After that the number moves on two things: whether the boxes get sprayed on site or the whole job goes out to the shop, and whether open-grain oak has to be grain-filled to get a smooth modern finish.
Is refinishing cabinets worth it versus replacing them?
If the boxes are solid and the layout works, yes, decisively — refinishing costs a fraction of new stock cabinets installed and takes days instead of weeks. If the boxes are particleboard that has swollen at the sink, or you want to change the layout, replacement is the honest answer and we will tell you so rather than sell you a finish on a failing box.
Can you paint oak cabinets so the grain does not show?
Yes, with grain filling: a filler is squeegeed into the open pores, sanded flush, and then primed. It is real added labor and it is the main reason two cabinet quotes can differ by thousands. We finish a sample door both ways so you can decide with the real thing in your hands.
How long is my kitchen out of service?
It is not, really. Your sink, stove, and refrigerator work the entire time. The doors are off for roughly a week, and the boxes are sprayed in a day or two behind containment. Most families cook through the whole project.
Will painted cabinets chip?
Not if the prep was right and the coating was allowed to cure. The failures we get called to fix are almost always adhesion failures from skipped degreasing, or damage from heavy use in the first two weeks before the finish reached full hardness. We use a cabinet-grade coating and we tell you the cure window plainly.
Can you spray my cabinets on-site instead of taking the doors?
We spray boxes and face frames on-site behind containment, but doors go off-site. Doors sprayed hanging or standing get a different result than doors sprayed flat, and after this many years we are not willing to hand back the lesser one.