Cabinet Painting Origins
A little over a year ago, I had a crazy thought. What if people wanted to paint their kitchen cabinets? Up to that point, we would only paint a set of cabinets or two a year…and boy was it a pain. We would paint them how most painting contractors in Denver would do them. We would take over the homeowner’s garage for about 2 weeks, we would lay out all the doors and drawers on the floor. We would paint a side, let them dry, flip them over, paint the other side, flip them over paint the other side, etc., etc. It was a tedious process, and it was very hard to get a really good finish on the cabinets; as the cabinets would be drying, dust and particles would land on the cabinets, so we would constantly be fixing and cleaning them off. On top of that, when we would turn over the cabinet, even though it would be dry to the touch, the paint would be fairly soft, and would mark easily when it was turned over, and put back on itself. There had to be a better way!
Around that time, I was helping a friend move. As we emptied the truck, I stood in it and thought, this would be a perfect place to paint cabinets. Instead of buying a truck, I bought a 20 ft. trailer. We installed a wall and created the perfect place to spray the doors. We turned the back of the trailer into a big closet for hanging the cabinets. This process sped up the time it took to paint each coat because we could now paint all six sides of the doors and drawers, and control the environment of dust and debris. My problems were solved!
We bought that first trailer in December of 2014, and now we have four mobile spray booths for spraying cabinets. I believe we paint more cabinets than any painting contractor in Denver.
Why is painting cabinets so popular? I believe it is because of a few factors. First, there are so many home that were built with oak and maple cabinets. These cabinets have yellowed over time and have started to look very outdated. Second, it is very costly to replace or reface cabinets. I tell people that the cost to reface cabinets is roughly 3 to 4 times the cost of painting. To replace your cabinets, you would need to spend 5 to 10 times the amount. Because our average cost to repaint a kitchen is around $3000, it is the perfect solution for updating a kitchen. On top of that, the turnaround time for painting a kitchen is roughly one week. Not bad when you consider the average kitchen remodel is about three months. There is literally nothing you can do to update a kitchen that is more affordable or as quick as painting your cabinets.
Many painting companies can give you an estimate for painting their cabinets, but few will go through the process that we have created. We use two different types of primes based on what type of wood you have. We know how to reduce the grainy-ness of oak cabinets (a common request by our customers), most companies use the wrong primer (if you see a can of Kilz, you need to start asking questions), many will take your cabinet doors off-site, and you will not see them for 6 to 8 weeks, and if Milk Paint is discussed…you better think twice. Painting cabinets is not a DIY project as it is as technical as it gets. If you don’t spray the doors, you will have lots of brush marks, which will create a non-professional look.
So if you are considering a kitchen cabinet update, painting cabinets is a good way to go, but you need to make sure the painting contractor has done their homework. We give a lifetime warranty and we can only offer that because we have done the right research, and have created the right process. If you are interested in talking to us about painting your cabinets, please contact us here.
