Kitchen and bath
Kitchen cabinet painting cost
Cabinet painting is priced per door, because every door is handled eight times. A kitchen of 24 doors and 10 drawer fronts is about $2,746 with the doors sprayed off-site — the finish that looks bought — $2,472 sprayed in place, $2,060 brushed. Yourself it is $717 of enamel and a sprayer, and 46 hours. This counts the doors, checks whether they can take paint at all, and prices the same kitchen against refacing.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-23 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Kitchen cabinet painting cost calculator
Count the doors
Cabinet painting is priced per door and per drawer front, because each one is handled eight times. Count them, or start from a kitchen size.
Every hinged door, including tall units and corners.
Each front, including false ones at the sink.
Boxes whose face frames and sides get painted in place.
Takes paint perfectly after a degrease, a scuff sand and a bonding primer. Open-grain woods like oak show their grain through paint — some people want that and some are horrified by it, so look at a sample before committing the kitchen.
Factory-smooth. 7 days without doors.
Light over dark: an extra coat everywhere.
Clean and sound: a degrease and a scuff.
Same positions, or no change.
A cabinet painter, per piece.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
34 doors and fronts, 20 frames
$2,746
$81 a piece · doors sprayed off-site · 7 days
Why per door
Off, degreased, sanded, primed, sanded, coated, coated, hung — eight handlings of each of 34 pieces. The paint on a door is a dollar; the hours on it are the price. Two kitchens of the same length can have twenty doors or forty, which is why a per-kitchen or per-foot quote is a guess.
The week without doors
The doors leave. That is the finish.
Doors and fronts go to a booth; the frames are sprayed in place under plastic. It is what makes a painted kitchen look bought rather than painted, and it means a week of open cabinets.
One kitchen, four finishes
The same doors, sprayed off-site, sprayed in place, brushed, or done yourself.
What the quote is made of
- 24 doors
Doors and fronts go to a booth; the frames are sprayed in place under plastic. It is what makes a painted kitchen look bought rather than painted, and it means a week of open cabinets.$1,632 - 10 drawer fronts
Smaller than a door and the same eight steps.$440 - Frames, 20 cabinets
Sprayed or brushed in place, with the room masked to the ceiling.$380 - Big colour change
An extra coat on every piece, under a tinted primer.$294
What it costs
National average. 24 doors, 10 drawer fronts and 20 frames in solid wood, doors sprayed off-site, big colour change. Not included: new doors for any that are damaged beyond filling, new hinges or handles themselves, or the inside of the boxes.
The same kitchen with new doors on the old boxes, or new cabinets, is on the refacing page — with this painting price alongside, so the three can be compared on one kitchen. The walls around them are on the paint calculator.
Worth knowing
- 24 doors and 10 drawer fronts is 34 pieces, and each is handled eight times — off, degreased, sanded, primed, sanded, coated, coated, hung. That is why cabinet painting is priced per door and why $81 a piece is a fair number: it is a day's careful work on every ten of them, not a coat of paint.
- The doors leave for about 7 days. It is what makes the finish look like a factory's, and it means a week of open cabinets and a roll of masking tape — plan the kitchen around it. Sprayed in place is $2,472 and keeps the doors home under a tent of plastic; brushed is $2,060 and shows the roller in raking light for ever.
- Open-grain wood — oak especially — shows its grain through paint. Some people want that; some are horrified by it after the deposit is paid. A grain filler adds a step and a cost; a painted sample door decides it before the kitchen is committed.
- A light colour over dark doors is an extra coat on every piece — the 12 per cent in the total — and a tinted primer under it. Skipping the coat is how a white kitchen goes cream in the corners where the old stain shows through.
- Doing it yourself is about $717 of enamel, primer and a sprayer — and about 46 hours. The paint is cheap. The hours are why the professional price is what it is.
On this page — 4 sections
Priced per door, because the doors are the work
The short version
- $81 a piece, sprayed off-site. 34 doors and fronts is $2,746.
- Thermofoil and laminate cannot be painted. Those kitchens are refaced.
- The doors leave for a week. That is where the factory finish comes from.
- Yourself: $717 and 46 hours. The paint is cheap; the hours are the price.
A cabinet painter does not price a kitchen; they count the doors. Each door comes off, is degreased, scuff-sanded, primed, sanded again, sprayed, sprayed again, and rehung — eight handlings — and a drawer front is the same eight on a smaller piece. Two kitchens with the same length of counter can have twenty of those or forty, which is why every per-kitchen or per-linear-foot number is a guess at the count.
On a kitchen of 24 doors and 10 drawer fronts, sprayed off-site with a light colour over dark stain, that comes to about $2,746. The paint in that figure is a few hundred dollars. The rest is hours.
| Sprayed off-site | Brushed and rolled | |
|---|---|---|
| Small — galley, 14 doors | $1,617 | $1,213 |
| Medium — L-shape, 24 doors | $2,746 | $2,060 |
| Large — with island, 38 doors | $4,364 | $3,273 |
| The finish | Factory-smooth | Brush marks, always |
| Days without doors | 7 | 2 |
MaterialsEstimator, Kitchen cabinet painting price survey · checked 2026-09-23
Which doors can be painted
Solid wood, MDF and intact veneer take paint and hold it for a decade. Thermofoil and laminate do not, and this is the first thing to establish because it removes the cheapest option before anything else is discussed. Thermofoil is a vinyl skin heat-wrapped onto MDF; enamel does not bond to vinyl, a bonding primer makes the first year look fine and the third look like peeling, and once the foil has lifted at a corner — usually beside the oven — nothing puts it back.
Oak is the other conversation. It takes paint perfectly and its grain shows through two coats of anything, which some people want and some discover they hate after the deposit is paid. A grain filler levels it, at the cost of a step; a painted sample door settles it before the kitchen is committed.
$81
Per piece, off-site
$68 a door before surcharges
$294
Light over dark
An extra coat everywhere
$368
Years of grease
Hours of degreasing
$238
New handle holes
34 sets to fill
Benjamin Moore / Sherwin-Williams / PPG, Cabinet and trim enamel technical data sheets — waterborne alkyd and urethane enamels · checked 2026-09-23
Off-site, in place, or brushed
The finish is decided by where the paint goes on. In a booth, flat, with the doors laid out, an enamel levels to something indistinguishable from a factory door — and the doors are gone for about a week, which is a week of open cabinets and a roll of masking tape. Sprayed in place, the kitchen is tented in plastic, the doors are sprayed on racks in the next room, and the overspray dust finds its way to rooms it should not. Brushed and rolled, nothing leaves and nothing is tented, and in raking light on a door front the roller stipple shows for the life of the paint.
On this kitchen the three are $2,746, $2,472 and $2,060. The gap is real and so is the difference, and the honest rule is that brushed is for a rental and off-site is for a kitchen you will look at every morning for ten years.
Reading a cabinet painting quote
- Is it per door and per drawer front? A per-kitchen or per-foot price has not counted them.
- Where are the doors sprayed? Off-site is a booth; in place is a tent. Brushed should say so.
- Which primer and which enamel, by name? A bonding primer and a waterborne alkyd or urethane enamel. Latex wall paint on a door chips in a year.
- Is degreasing a step, or a wipe? Grease under primer is the failure everybody sees in year one.
- Light over dark: is the extra coat in? If not, the corners go cream.
- New handles: are the old holes filled and primed, or drilled through?
- How many days without doors, and when does the enamel reach full cure?
What goes wrong
01Painting thermofoil
Enamel does not bond to vinyl. It looks fine for a year and peels in sheets by the third.
Instead — Reface: new doors on the old boxes. Priced on the refacing page for the same kitchen.
02Pricing by the linear foot
Two kitchens of the same length can have twenty doors or forty, and the doors are the work.
Instead — Count the doors and fronts. That number is the price.
03Skipping the degrease
Years of cooking leave a film that primer sits on rather than in. It is the failure everybody sees: chips at the edges by the hob in the first year.
Instead — A proper degreaser, twice by the cooker, before the first sanding.
04Latex wall paint on the doors
It never cures hard, it blocks — doors stick to frames — and it chips at every edge that gets touched.
Instead — A bonding primer and a waterborne alkyd or urethane enamel, the coatings made for this.
05Two coats of white over dark oak
The old colour shows through in the corners and the grain, and the kitchen is cream where it was meant to be white.
Instead — A tinted primer and a third coat — the $294 in the total.
06Drilling new handle holes through the old ones
Filled badly, or not at all, they read as four dimples on every door for ever.
Instead — Fill, sand and prime the old holes first — or choose handles that use them.
07Rehanging the doors the day they dry
Dry to touch is not cured. Doors that close against a frame in the first week stick, and the enamel prints where they touch.
Instead — Bumpers on every door, and a month of gentle use.
08Painting oak without looking at a sample
The grain shows through, and half of the people who see it wish it did not.
Instead — One door painted first, or a grain filler as a priced step.
- 01Count the doors and drawer frontsEvery hinged door, every front, including the false ones at the sink. That number is the price.
- 02Find out what they are made ofWood, MDF and intact veneer can be painted. Thermofoil and laminate cannot — check a corner near the oven, where thermofoil lifts first.
- 03Choose the finishOff-site spraying looks bought and takes the doors for a week. In place keeps them and tents the kitchen. Brushed is cheapest and shows for ever.
- 04Count the surchargesLight over dark is an extra coat. Grease by the hob is hours of degreasing. New handles in new positions are old holes to fill.
- 05Compare with refacing on the same kitchenIf the doors are damaged, or thermofoil, or the style is the problem rather than the colour, new doors on the old boxes may be the better buy.
New doors on the old boxes, or new cabinets, priced on the same door count — with this painting figure beside them so the three can be compared on one kitchen.
The same kitchen, refaced or replaced- Per door
- How cabinet painting is priced: each door and drawer front is a separate piece that is removed, prepared, coated and rehung. Two kitchens of the same length can have twenty doors or forty.
- Bonding primer
- A primer formulated to grip surfaces ordinary primer slides off — old varnish, factory lacquer. Under every cabinet paint job; it does not make thermofoil paintable.
- Waterborne alkyd
- The enamel a painted kitchen is made of now: cleans up with water, cures as hard as the old oil paints, and levels out the brush marks a latex would leave.
- Cure
- The weeks after the paint is dry in which it hardens fully. Doors come back hung after days and are handled gently for a month.
- Sprayed off-site
- Doors and fronts taken to a booth, sprayed flat, and returned. The factory-smooth finish, and a week of open cabinets.
- Sprayed in place
- The kitchen tented in plastic and everything sprayed where it hangs or on racks nearby. Faster; the doors stay; the dust travels.
- Stipple
- The fine texture a roller leaves. A foam roller and a levelling enamel reduce it; raking light on a door front finds what is left.
- Thermofoil
- A vinyl skin heat-wrapped onto MDF. Paint does not bond to it and nothing reliably fixes that. These doors are refaced or replaced.
- Grain fill
- A paste that levels open-grain wood — oak — so the grain does not show through paint. An extra step, and the only way to a smooth painted oak door.
- Face frame
- The front edge of the cabinet box that the doors close against, painted in place with the room masked.
- Scuff sand
- A light sanding that dulls the old finish so primer grips, without removing it. What preparation means on a sound door.
- Refacing
- New doors and fronts on the old boxes, with the frames veneered to match. The answer for doors that will not take paint, priced on its own page against this one.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to paint kitchen cabinets?
- About $2,746 for a 24-door, 10-drawer kitchen with the doors sprayed off-site — $81 a piece. Sprayed in place it is about $2,472, brushed and rolled $2,060. A small galley of 14 doors is around $1,617; a large kitchen with an island and 38 doors around $4,364. The doors are the price, not the length of the counter.
- Why is cabinet painting priced per door?
- Because every door is handled eight times: off, degreased, scuff-sanded, primed, sanded again, coated, coated, rehung — and a drawer front is the same steps on a smaller piece. Two kitchens of the same length can have twenty doors or forty, so a price per linear foot or per kitchen is a guess at the door count. $68 a door sprayed off-site is what that day's work on ten of them comes to.
- Is it cheaper to paint or reface cabinets?
- Painting, by a wide margin, when the doors can take paint: on this kitchen about $2,746 against new doors on the old boxes at roughly two to three times that. Refacing wins when the doors are thermofoil or laminate, when they are damaged past filling, or when the problem is the style of the door and not its colour. The refacing page prices both on the same kitchen, with this painting figure alongside.
- Can thermofoil cabinets be painted?
- Not reliably. Thermofoil is a vinyl skin heat-wrapped onto MDF, and enamel does not bond to vinyl; a bonding primer makes the first year look fine and the third look like peeling. The tell is a corner near the oven where the foil has lifted, and nothing puts that back. These kitchens are refaced or replaced.
- Can oak cabinets be painted?
- Yes, and the grain shows through. Oak is open-grained, and two coats of enamel follow it; some people like the texture and some are horrified after the deposit is paid. A grain filler levels it at the cost of an extra step, and a painted sample door settles the question before the kitchen is committed.
- Is spraying cabinets better than brushing?
- Sprayed off-site is the finish that looks bought: no brush marks, no roller stipple, a hard level coat. It costs $686 more than brushing on this kitchen and takes the doors away for a week. Brushed with a good enamel and a foam roller gets close, and in raking light on a door front the stipple shows for the life of the paint. It is the right answer for a rental and the wrong one for a kitchen you will look at every morning.
- How long does painting cabinets take?
- About 7 days with the doors off-site — a day of removal and masking, the doors in a booth for the week, a day to rehang — and the frames done in place meanwhile. Sprayed in place is 3 days under plastic. Then a month of the enamel curing hard, during which the doors are treated like eggs.
- Does a colour change cost more?
- A light colour over dark stain is an extra coat on every piece under a tinted primer — about 12 per cent, $294 on this kitchen. Skipping it is how a white kitchen turns cream in the corners where the old colour shows through the two coats that were supposed to hide it.
- What about new handles?
- If the new handles use the old holes, nothing. If they do not, every old hole is filled, sanded and primed before anything else — about $238 on this kitchen — and filled badly they read as four little dimples on every door. Matching the old spacing avoids the whole line.
- Can I paint my kitchen cabinets myself?
- Yes, and the paint is the cheap part: about $717 of enamel, bonding primer, a sprayer and sundries for this kitchen. The expensive part is 46 hours, not counting drying between coats — a month of evenings with a kitchen in pieces. Sprayed in a garage with a cheap HVLP and a levelling enamel, a careful amateur gets a finish a brush never gives; the result depends entirely on the degreasing and the sanding, which is where the hours go.
- How long does painted cabinet finish last?
- Ten years or more with a bonding primer and a proper enamel, sprayed; less by the hob and around the handles, which is where the wear is. The failures are almost all preparation — grease under the primer, a scuff sand that was skipped — and they show as chipping at the edges in the first year.
- Should I paint the inside of the cabinets?
- Usually not: it doubles the frame work for something nobody sees with the doors closed, and the insides are often melamine that will not hold paint anyway. Painters paint the face frames, the exposed ends and the doors. Glass-front cabinets are the exception.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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