A Dover estate kitchen — 22 main-kitchen doors plus an 18-door butler's pantry, all 2008-era cherry. Owners wanted full refinishing to a factory-smooth Cloud White (zero grain showing through).
The challenge
Cherry has prominent open grain. Paint over cherry without grain-filling shows the grain pattern through the finish — looks like "painted cherry," not factory cabinets. Achieving the smooth factory look adds 2 days for grain-filling + extra sanding.
What we did
- Removed all 40 doors + 28 drawers to our shop
- Labeled every piece by location for reinstall
- Aggressive 220-grit sand to break the factory urethane finish
- Water-based grain-filler — 2 applications, sand between
- Two coats STIX bonding primer
- Three HVLP-sprayed coats of BM Advance Cloud White
- Boxes hand-painted in-kitchen under plastic containment
- New polished-nickel hardware on every piece
The result
Factory-smooth finish on cherry cabinets — the kind where you can't tell they were originally wood. Saved ~78% vs full cabinet replacement and finished in 8 days vs 6-8 week replacement timeline.