Kitchen Refinishing with your kitchen remodeling project

What is kitchen refinishing?

Kitchen refinishing means restoring or changing the finish on existing cabinetry - typically spray or brush paint, or a re-stain - without replacing the boxes. It is the lowest-disruption visual change available when carcasses are sound. Grease, cooking residue and high-touch doors make kitchen prep stricter than painting a bedroom. Process detail lives on the Cabinets refinishing page; this page covers the kitchen-project decisions around it.

How kitchen refinishing actually works

1. 1

   Confirm the boxes are worth finishing

   Sound frames, solid doors and dry substrate under wet zones. Soft or delaminating carcasses waste a high-quality coating.

   Watch forPainting over peeling laminate or water-swollen MDF. The finish fails with the substrate underneath.

2. 2

   Kitchen-grade prep: degrease, then abrade

   Cooking film defeats adhesion. Professional kitchen refinishing spends most of its time on cleaning and sanding, not colour.

   Watch forA one-day "paint your cabinets" package that skips degreasing. It looks fine for a month.

3. 3

   Isolate the room and plan temporary cooking

   Doors and drawers often leave the house for spray finishing; boxes stay and get coated on site. Either way the kitchen is compromised during cure.

   Watch forUsing freshly coated doors before full cure. Early loading marks and soft spots are permanent.

4. 4

   Coordinate adjacent surfaces you are not refinishing

   New paint makes tired tops, splashbacks and hardware look worse by contrast. Decide hardware, lights and worktop in the same plan even if they are later phases.

   Watch forFinishing cabinets in a colour chosen against an old top you already intend to replace. You will repaint or regret the match.

What does kitchen refinishing cost?

Refinishing is priced by door and drawer count, finish system and how much repair the boxes need first. It sits well below refacing or replacement when carcasses are good. Kitchen grease and high sheen systems cost more prep time than a simple colour change implies - budget for prep, not just paint.

See the full kitchen refinishing cost guide - by material, size and region →

If the number is the problem, here are the ways people pay for it →