Once the bases of your cabinets are cleaned, masked, and coated our team moves off site to work on the most visible portion of your cabinets: the doors and drawer faces.
Typically, we have cabinets refinished within a week, and your space can go back to normal right away. See our post on aftercare and cabinet maintenance if you’re looking for how to clean your cabinets once they’re refinished.
Shop Steps:
Cleaning
We use a 3 step cleaning process to remove all oils and grease, along with any other contaminants from cleaning supplies, beauty products, and everyday life.
Prep Sanding
Sanding creates peaks and valleys in the original finish, which allows our primer to adhere correctly for a long-lasting finish
Primer
A properly chosen and tinted primer increases coating adhesion, and ensures proper color coverage for the final coats. We spray primer onto doors to ensure a smooth finish
Note: If you have a darker color going on your island or cabinets, we’ll use a dark primer, usually dark gray or blue, which allows us to reach the saturated color you’re looking for. It can be jarring to see a different color than your agreed upon shade be applied, but trust the process!
Darker colors, like SW Iron Ore above, often require a tinted primer
Finish Sanding
We strive for excellence in final coatings, and sanding down any roughness that accumulates between coats is essential.
Topcoats
Depending on product and color choice, your door and drawer fronts will get 1-3 coats of tinted topcoat. What determines how many coats we’ll use? The manufacturer’s instructions! We read and memorize the technical recommendations of each product we use, which is why cabinets we’ve finished have a durable and beautiful finish.
Stack Time
We follow the coating manufacturer’s guidance in regards to drying time and stack time- the initial curing time when the cabinets can be stacked without resulting in damage to the finish. Once door and drawer fronts are installed, we’ll email you aftercare instructions that include full coating cure time.
Door and drawer fronts are dried horizontally on painters’ racks until manufacture-suggested stack time, when we package them in foam sleeves for transport and installation in your home.
