Cabinet Painting serving Braintree and Metro West MA.

Braintree's median house dates to 1957, and nearly 18% of local units were built in the 1950s alone. A kitchen in one of those houses could hold its original cabinets, oak doors from a later remodel, maple from another update, or painted MDF installed last year. The age of the house says little about the age of the cabinets, so the starting point is what the doors are made of and what finish is on them now.

If the boxes are solid, square and laid out the way you like, paint can change the look of the room without the cost and weeks of a tear-out. If doors are delaminating, drawers are falling apart or the layout does not work, new cabinets may be the better money. Our refinish vs. replace comparison lays out the trade-offs.

Wood species and what shows through

Oak has open grain, and paint settles into those pores rather than hiding them. Some owners like the texture; others want a smooth, furniture-like face, which takes a grain filler before primer. Maple and birch are tighter-grained and paint smoothly. MDF doors take paint well on the flat panels but can swell at edges that have absorbed water near the sink or dishwasher.

Thermofoil and laminate doors are a different case. The plastic skin can peel from heat or age, and paint will not hold it down. Those doors are usually better replaced than painted.

Prep is most of the job

Kitchen cabinets collect cooking grease, hand oils and cleaning-product residue, and paint will not bond to any of it. Every surface needs degreasing, rinsing and sanding, then a bonding primer before the topcoat. Taking doors and drawer fronts off, labeling them and finishing them lying flat lets the coating level without runs; face frames are painted in place.

The topcoat matters as much as the prep. Cabinet-grade enamels cure harder than wall paint and resist the scuffs and wiping a kitchen takes. They also need time: a coat may feel dry in hours but take weeks to reach full hardness, so the first stretch after reinstalling calls for gentle use.

• Remove, label and bag doors, drawers and hardware
• Degrease, sand and prime every surface
• Grain filler on oak when a smooth face is wanted
• Hard-curing enamel topcoat, with cure time respected

Older kitchens and lead

Nearly three-quarters of Braintree housing, 74.7%, was built before 1980. If your cabinets are original to a pre-1978 house, or built-ins in a pantry or dining room have old paint on them, sanding that finish is work the EPA's lead-safe rule covers when a contractor does it. The fix is containment, dust control and cleanup, explained on our lead-safe painting page. Cabinets put in after 1978 are far less likely to carry lead paint, though in an older house the rule still expects a test or lead-safe handling before sanding, which is one more reason to know their age.

Beyond the kitchen

Bathroom vanities, laundry cabinets and built-in bookcases follow the same process. If you are painting the kitchen walls too, painting the walls after the cabinets means any slips land on surfaces still due for paint; our Braintree interior painting page covers wall work. Condo owners should look at our Braintree condo painting page for association rules that can affect scheduling.