Cabinet Painting across Reading, Massachusetts.

A town's housing ages tell you something about the cabinets inside it, though not everything, since kitchens get remodeled on their own schedule. The census counts 2,788 local housing units from the 1950s and 1960s and 1,483 from 2000 or later, 962 of those built in the 2010s. Boxes from those eras range from site-built or early factory wood to modern MDF and plywood with a sprayed factory coating, and each takes primer differently.

Paint changes color and surface. It does not fix sagging shelves, swollen particleboard under the sink, or a layout that leaves no room for a dishwasher. When the boxes are solid and the doors sit flat and square, though, painting deals with the part that has actually worn out: the finish.

Reading the cabinet material

Oak from the 1980s and 1990s has an open grain that shows through paint as texture. A smooth result needs grain filler or a high-build primer, which adds a step. Maple, cherry and birch are closed-grain and take paint evenly once the clear finish is dulled and a bonding primer goes on.

Factory-painted MDF on newer kitchens is often a shaker door with a baked or catalyzed coating. It can be repainted, but the coating is slick and hard, so cleaning and scuff-sanding matter more than usual. Thermofoil, a vinyl skin over MDF, is the exception: paint does not hold well on it, and a door that is already peeling is a candidate for replacement rather than coating.

Built-ins in older houses

More than a quarter of the town's homes (26.9%) were built before 1940, and houses from the Colonial Revival and Craftsman years can still have original pantry cupboards, china cabinets or bathroom linen closets. Those pieces are often already painted, sometimes many times, and in a pre-1978 house the bottom layers may contain lead.

Refinishing them means sanding old paint, which brings in the EPA's lead-safe rules for paid work. Plastic sheeting, HEPA vacuuming and no dry power sanding without dust collection are part of the job; our lead-safe page has the detail. Drawers that stick and doors painted shut can be freed and eased during the same prep.

The process, step by step

The kitchen cabinet painting process post covers each step with more explanation.

• Doors, drawer fronts and hinges come off and are numbered for their location
• Every surface is degreased, since paint laid over cooking residue will not bond
• Scuff-sanding and a bonding or shellac primer, matched to the existing finish
• Doors and fronts are sprayed flat; face frames and end panels are coated in place
• Enamel is left to cure before doors are rehung and the kitchen goes back to full use

Paint, reface or replace

The census puts the median owner-occupied value at $809,000, yet home value alone does not settle this choice; the deciding factors are physical. Painting keeps the counters, sink and backsplash in place; new cabinets usually mean new counters too. Our refinish vs. replace guide and the cabinet painting vs. replacement article lay out where each choice fits.

If walls and trim are due as well, see interior painting in Reading. Condo owners can find unit-specific notes on the condo painting page.