Cabinet Painting serving Raynham and Metro West MA.

A kitchen tends to date from when the house was built or last remodeled. In Raynham, Census data shows 1,195 housing units from the 1990s, 968 from the 1970s and 1,587 from 2000 or later. Whatever the era, the door material decides how a painted finish has to be built up.

Painting makes sense when the cabinet boxes are solid, the layout works and the doors are wood or a paintable veneer. It does not fix sagging shelves, swollen particleboard under the sink or a layout you dislike. Our refinish vs. replace guide compares the two paths.

Reading your cabinet material

Oak has open grain that shows through paint as a texture. Some homeowners like that; others want a smooth, furniture-like look, which takes grain filler before priming. Maple and birch have tight grain and paint smoothly. Thermofoil, a vinyl wrap over fiberboard, can peel at the edges with heat and is a poor candidate for paint once it starts lifting. Laminate can be painted with a bonding primer, but chips show more readily.

Doors with factory lacquer or a catalyzed finish need scuff sanding and a primer made to grip hard, slick coatings. Skip that step and paint tends to lift first where hands touch, around pulls and door edges.

Older finishes and lead

In Raynham, 42.3% of housing units were built before 1980. Original cabinets in a house built before 1978 may carry a painted coat that contains lead, especially if they were painted rather than stained when new. Sanding those doors in an occupied kitchen spreads dust onto counters and floors where food is prepared. A test before any sanding settles the question, and if lead is present, the prep follows EPA lead-safe practices. Our lead-safe painting page explains how that works.

Even where the cabinets were stained and varnished rather than painted, decades of cooking grease still have to come off before primer will hold.

How the job runs

Doors and drawer fronts come off, are labeled, and are finished away from the kitchen so they can dry flat. The face frames and cabinet sides stay in place and are masked, degreased, sanded and primed where they sit. Most of the kitchen stays usable, though the cabinets are empty or covered for several days. Our post on the cabinet painting process shows each stage.

• Degrease every surface, including the tops of upper cabinets
• Fill old hardware holes if you are changing pulls
• Use a primer chosen for the existing finish
• Apply a cabinet-grade enamel that cures hard, then allow full cure before heavy use

Units, manufactured homes and bathrooms

One in five Raynham housing units is in a building with five or more units, and 7.2% are mobile homes. Cabinets in manufactured homes and apartments can be laminate or wrapped fiberboard rather than wood, so check the doors before planning paint. In a condo, ask whether your association limits work hours or requires a contractor's insurance certificate.

Bathroom vanities take the same process on a smaller scale, though steam and splashing make a moisture-resistant enamel worth choosing. If the walls around the cabinets need fresh paint too, see interior painting in Raynham.