Project Story
Kitchen Cabinet Painting in Hull, MA: From Orange Oak to White & Deep Teal
· 4 min read
Hull homes often have kitchens that were built well and finished decades ago. That was the case here: sturdy wood cabinets buried under an orange stain, dark counters and purple walls that made the whole room feel smaller than it is.
Replacing the cabinets was never necessary. The doors, drawer fronts and boxes were in good shape, so the job was a refinishing job — and refinishing lives or dies on preparation.
Why refinishing made sense here
Cabinet painting is worth it when the boxes are square, the doors close properly and the layout still works for the household. In that situation you are paying for a new finish, not new carpentry.
- Solid wood doors and frames with no water damage
- A layout the homeowner wanted to keep
- A color change big enough to reset the whole room
The prep behind the finish
Everything that makes a sprayed cabinet finish last happens before any color goes on. Cabinet grease is the number one reason paint peels off doors near a stove, so degreasing is not optional.
- Label and remove every door, drawer front and hinge
- Degrease all surfaces, then rinse and dry
- Sand to break the old sheen and level any rough grain
- Fill dings, caulk gaps, then dust and tack off
- Mask the kitchen, counters and floors completely
- Bonding primer, then sprayed coats of catalyzed enamel
The two-tone choice
White uppers lift the ceiling line and bounce the light coming through the big window. Deep teal on the base cabinets and the peninsula grounds the room and hides day-to-day scuffs far better than a light base would.
Two-tone kitchens also let you keep the counters you already have. Here the lighter counters and new blinds tie the two cabinet colors together without a full remodel.
What to expect on your own kitchen
Cabinet work is a multi-day process because coatings need real cure time between coats. We stage it so you keep use of the kitchen for as much of the week as possible, and the last step is always a walkthrough with you, door by door.
