Cabinet Painting serving North Attleborough and Metro West MA.

Cabinet doors are opened and closed every day, wiped with damp cloths and splashed with cooking grease. A wall paint would wear through on them in months. Cabinet work uses a degreaser, a scuff sand, a primer that bonds to slick factory finishes, and an enamel that cures hard.

Whether that approach makes sense depends on what the boxes are made of and how sound they still are, which ties back to when the kitchen was built.

Kitchens by decade

Census estimates count 1,586 housing units from the 1950s, 1,098 from the 1960s and 1,733 from the 1970s. Where an original kitchen from those years survives, its cabinets may be site-built or early factory boxes of solid wood or plywood, sometimes already painted. A solid box like that is a strong candidate for repainting.

The 1980s added 2,382 units, more than any other single decade. If a kitchen from any era has oak doors, the open grain shows through paint unless it is filled. A grain filler or a few coats of high-build primer, sanded between coats, gives a smooth painted door; skipping it leaves a visible texture.

Units from 2000 or later make up 16.3% of the stock. Newer cabinets may be maple, MDF or thermofoil. Maple and MDF paint well. Thermofoil, a vinyl skin over MDF, is a poor candidate because heat and moisture can make the skin peel, taking the paint with it.

Old painted built-ins and lead

Pantry cupboards, china cabinets and kitchen built-ins in houses from 1939 or earlier, which are 20.6% of the town's units, may carry many layers of paint. Since lead paint was banned for homes only in 1978, per the EPA, those layers should be tested before sanding. If lead is present, the work follows the containment and cleanup steps on our lead-safe painting page.

Refinish or replace?

Our comparison of refinishing versus replacing kitchen cabinets goes through the trade-offs in more detail.

• Repaint when the boxes are solid, the doors are flat and square, and you like the layout
• Consider new doors on good boxes when the door style is the main complaint
• Replace when boxes are water-damaged, the doors are thermofoil, or the layout itself has to change

What the process looks like

Doors and drawer fronts come off, get labeled and are finished separately, which gives an even coat on every edge. The boxes are masked and painted in place. Hinges go back on only after the enamel has cured enough to resist marks. The full sequence, including cure times, is in our post on the kitchen cabinet painting process.

Townhouse-style homes make up 8.6% of the town's units. Whatever the size of the kitchen, fewer doors shorten the prep but not the cure time. Plan on using the kitchen lightly for several days after the last coat.