A small room with a lot of surfaces
Painting kitchen cabinets looks like a small job because the room is small. The price says otherwise, and the reason is the count of surfaces and steps. A kitchen has many doors and drawer fronts, each with two faces and four edges, plus face frames, end panels, toe kicks and sometimes the shelves inside. Every one of those is cleaned, sanded, primed and coated, usually more than once. If you ask a painter to show you where the hours go, most of them land before any colour goes on.
This guide quotes no prices. It explains what makes one cabinet proposal cost more than another, so you can compare them fairly.
Doors off, or painted in place
Taking doors and drawer fronts off lets the painter spray them flat in a shop or a set-up room, which gives the smoothest finish. It also means labelling every piece, bagging hinges and screws, masking the boxes and living with an open-fronted kitchen for several days. Brushing and rolling in place saves handling but adds hand work, and the finish shows more texture. Proposals that look far apart often differ on exactly this point.
Grease, gloss and old finishes
Cabinets beside the stove carry a film of cooking grease, and paint will not stick to it. Degreasing comes first, then a scuff-sand to dull the old surface. A factory lacquer, a slick laminate or an old varnish may need an adhesion primer made for hard, glossy surfaces. Dark wood with knots or tannin can bleed through light paint unless it gets a stain-blocking primer. Each of those adds a product and a drying period.
Repairs before paint
Chipped edges, swollen bottoms near the sink, dents and old hardware holes are filled and sanded before priming. Loose hinges and stripped screw holes are best fixed while the doors are off. If you're changing to new pulls with a different spacing, the old holes get filled and new ones drilled. None of that is painting as such, and all of it is time.
Enamel and drying space
Cabinet enamels that level smoothly and cure hard cost more than wall paint and need longer between coats. Waterborne alkyd and urethane-modified acrylic are common choices; a solvent-based product brings stronger fumes indoors and longer waits. Our sheens guide explains why satin and semi-gloss are popular on doors.
NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for Savannah (KSAV) put normal annual relative humidity at 72 percent. Damp air slows a waterborne coat, so a painter may allow more time between coats, run a dehumidifier or fans in the drying area, or finish fewer pieces a day. A schedule that respects the label's recoat and cure times takes more days than a rushed one, and that is what keeps doors from sticking or printing when they close.
Older kitchens and lead dust
EPA says lead-based paint was banned for use in homes in 1978 and about three-quarters of U.S. homes built before 1978 still contain some; any renovation, repair or painting project in a pre-1978 home with lead-based paint can create dangerous lead dust. Sanding old cabinet paint is exactly that kind of work.
Under EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, anyone paid to do work that disturbs paint in homes, childcare facilities and preschools built before 1978 must hold RRP certification, firms included, even sole proprietorships, and their workers must be trained in lead-safe work practices. EPA lists Georgia among the states that run their own EPA-authorized programs. If your home was built before 1978, you can ask the painter whether the firm holds RRP certification. Lead-safe set-up, containment sheeting, careful sanding methods and a thorough cleanup all show up in the price.
Extras that move the total
- painting the cabinet interiors as well as the outside;
- an island, open shelving or a pantry in a second colour;
- going from a dark stain to a light colour, which can take another coat;
- masking countertops, backsplash, appliances and floors;
- removing and refitting crown moulding or light rails.
Getting proposals you can compare
Ask each painter to write down whether doors will be sprayed elsewhere or brushed in place, which primer and enamel they'll use, how many coats, how long the kitchen will be out of use, and what lead-safe steps they'll take in a home built before 1978. Our cabinet painting page explains the process, and the pricing guide shows how cabinet work fits beside the rest of the house.