Cabinet painting in Lynn, MA is the cheapest way to change a kitchen you otherwise like, and Custom Cabinets Lynn takes your doors off and sprays them rather than brushing them in place. Painting your kitchen runs $2,000 to $6,500 sprayed, or $30 to $70 a linear foot measured along your base and wall runs. A sprayed finish costs 30% to 70% more per foot than brush and roll, at $40 to $100. What you get for that is a surface with no brush marks, and you can tell the difference from across the room. Every figure here sits on our cabinet price guide with its source.
One failure accounts for most unhappy painted kitchens, and it has nothing to do with the paint you chose. Kitchen doors carry a film of cooking grease that sanding does not remove. Paint laid over it sticks to the grease instead of to the wood.
You see the result at the handles and along the top edge of the doors, usually within a season, and it looks exactly like bad paint. It is not. It is a job that skipped fifteen minutes of degreasing per run and a bonding primer.
The second failure is time. Your finish is dry to the touch long before it is hard. A kitchen loaded back up on day two takes fingernail marks and stacking marks that never come out. That is why we keep your doors off the boxes until the paint has hardened, not just until it is dry.
Which route suits your kitchen
Doors off, sprayed, boxes painted in the room
We take your doors and drawer fronts off and spray them flat in a clean space, then prime and paint the boxes and frames in the room. That split is why the job runs $2,000 to $6,500 rather than the price of a brush and a weekend. It is also why your doors come back without a single brush line in them. Your kitchen stays usable for most of it, since the boxes keep working while the doors are away.
One run, an island, or the base cabinets only
We price painting per door and front at $100 to $250, which gives you a way to do half a kitchen well instead of all of it badly. Islands are the common version here, because a painted island under stained wall cabinets reads as a decision rather than a compromise. We would rather price you a partial job than talk you into a whole kitchen you did not come here for.
Painting oak, where the grain is the whole question
Oak has open pores that show straight through paint, so a white oak kitchen ends up with visible grain unless we fill the grain first. Some people want that texture and some are surprised by it. That is why we put a finished sample in front of you before your kitchen is in pieces. Filling adds prep hours and puts your job in the 20% to 45% heavy prep band rather than the base price.
Painting laminate and thermofoil fronts
Laminate and thermofoil take paint, but only over a bonding primer made for a slick surface, and only where the film has not already lifted off its core. A door that has started to peel beside your range or above your dishwasher will keep peeling under a coat of paint. We cover that case at peeling thermofoil and laminate doors, because the fix there is usually a new front rather than paint.
How your week runs
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We degrease before we touch anything else
We wash every door, front, frame and box face with a degreaser, then rinse, because sanding on its own polishes the cooking film rather than removing it. That step is the whole difference between a finish that holds for a decade and one that lets go at the handles by spring.
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We label your doors and take the hardware off
We number each door to its opening and bag the hinges and plates with it, since a run of look-alike doors will not go back the way it came off. Where your hinges are worn or have pulled loose, we swap them at $30 to $80 a door while everything is apart. Blum parts come from our supplier in North Reading in a couple of days.
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We sand, fill and prime with a bonding primer
We scuff sand, fill the dents you have stopped noticing, and prime with a product made to grip, rather than a general wall primer. On a pre-1978 kitchen we sand wet or strip with chemicals instead of dry sanding, because your kitchen falls under the lead-safe rules from the first six square feet.
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We spray your doors flat and cut in your boxes
Your doors get sprayed lying down so the paint levels itself, and the boxes and frames get a fine brush and a foam roller in the room. We use Benjamin Moore ADVANCE where the schedule allows a 16-hour wait between coats. Where you need the kitchen back on Friday, we use Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel, since that one recoats in 4 hours.
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We keep your doors off until the finish is hard
We hold your doors off the boxes for the maker's hardening window, not the touch-dry time, because both of those paints take about 30 days to reach full hardness. You get your kitchen back in stages and a written note of when to load the shelves, which is usually 3 to 5 days after the last coat.
What decides whether a painted kitchen still looks right in year five
A 1946 kitchen is lead-safe work from the first six square feet
Most Lynn kitchens were built around 1946 and painted long before 1978, so the old paint may contain lead. Once more than 6 square feet of it is disturbed, the state lead-safe rules apply, 454 CMR 22.00. Sanding one wall of original cabinets gets there inside ten minutes. So we seal the room, work wet and clean down with a HEPA vacuum, at $350 to $1,200. That belongs on your quote where you can see it.
Recoat time and cure time are different numbers
Benjamin Moore ADVANCE takes a second coat at 16 hours and reaches full hardness at about 30 days. Sherwin-Williams Emerald recoats at 4 hours and hardens over the same 30 days, which is why it wins on a tight schedule and not on toughness. Nothing goes back on a painted shelf for 3 to 5 days either way. A quote that promises a finished kitchen in 48 hours has promised you the touch-dry number.
Some kitchens cost more to prepare than to paint
Peeling finish, water swelling, brittle old varnish and a previous coat that was never degreased all add 20% to 45% to the base price. That is honest arithmetic rather than an upsell, because the hours go into stripping and filling before any color goes on. Where more than about a third of your kitchen looks like that, stripping back to bare wood at $1,500 to $5,000 usually beats painting over it.
Why Lynn homeowners call us to paint
Nobody wants to pay for a painted kitchen and watch it peel at the handles by spring. So we spend the first day washing grease off every door, frame and box before a drop of primer goes on. We spray your doors flat, off site, and we keep them off until the paint is hard, not just dry. The whole kitchen runs $2,000 to $6,500, and you get a written date for when the shelves can carry weight again.
What the finish has to hit
| Painting a standard kitchen, doors off and sprayed | $2,000 to $6,500 |
|---|---|
| Painting priced by the foot | $30 to $70 per linear foot |
| Sprayed finish priced by the foot | $40 to $100 per linear foot |
| Per door and drawer front | $100 to $250 |
| Heavy prep surcharge | 20% to 45% added |
| Waterborne alkyd recoat and full cure | 16 hours and 30 days |
Painting a Lynn kitchen runs $2,000 to $6,500 sprayed, or $30 to $70 per linear foot. Stripping and refinishing back to wood runs $1,500 to $5,000. A competitor publishes $2,800 to $5,800 on its own Lynn page. What moves the number is the prep, not the paint.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Painting a standard kitchen, doors off and sprayedDoors and fronts come off, get degreased, scuffed, primed and sprayed, and go back on adjusted. The boxes are cut in on site. This is the whole job for a kitchen whose boxes and layout are fine. | $2,000 – $6,500 | installed |
| Cabinet painting priced by the footThe comparison number. Measure the run of base and wall cabinets along the wall. Two quotes on the same kitchen are only comparable once they are both expressed this way. | $30 – $70 | per linear foot |
| Sprayed finish, priced by the footSpraying costs 30% to 70% more per foot than brush and roll, and it is the difference between a finish with no brush marks and one with them. On a door you touch six times a day, that gap shows. | $40 – $100 | per linear foot |
| Painting priced per door and drawer frontUseful on a partial job, an island only, or a kitchen where half the doors were already replaced. Counts fronts the same as doors because the prep is the same. | $100 – $250 | per door or front |
| Stripping and refinishing back to wood, standard kitchenWhere the wood is worth keeping and the finish is not. Strip, sand, stain if the color is changing, then a new topcoat. Different job from painting and a different result. | $1,500 – $5,000 | installed |
| Restaining, priced by areaMeasured across the visible door and front surface rather than the run. The spread is wide because oak takes a color change badly and maple takes it evenly, and one of those needs a toner coat. | $4 – $15 | per square foot |
| Published Lynn comparable, cabinet refinishingA live price published by a contractor on its own Lynn page. Carried here because it is the only local figure in this whole table, and it sits above the national range at both ends. | $2,800 – $5,800 | installed |
| Heavy prep surcharge, cabinets in poor conditionPeeling finish, water swelling, old varnish that has gone brittle, or a previous paint job that was never degreased. All of that is stripping time, and it is added rather than absorbed. | $20 – $45 | percent added |
| Catalysed conversion varnish or pigmented lacquer, sprayed off siteThe shop finish rather than the brushable one. Doors go out, get sprayed in a booth and come back, which is why it costs more and why it holds up under a coffee pot. | $1,200 – $3,600 | added to the job |
| Lead-safe containment and cleanup on a pre-1978 kitchenSealing the room, no dry sanding, HEPA vacuum and a wet cleanup. On a kitchen built before 1978 this governs the method, so it is either on the quote or it is being skipped. | $350 – $1,200 | per job |
Want yours measured properly?
We come out, measure the opening at three heights and check how far off square your walls sit, then put a written number on it before anything is ordered.
Questions we get asked
How much does it cost to paint kitchen cabinets in Lynn?
$2,000 to $6,500 for a standard kitchen with the doors off and sprayed, or $30 to $70 per linear foot. Per door and drawer front we charge $100 to $250. Your kitchen carries a 20% to 45% prep surcharge on top if it is in poor shape.
How long does painting a kitchen take?
Four to seven working days on site, and about 30 days to full hardness. Your doors stay off between coats, which is 16 hours on Benjamin Moore ADVANCE and 4 hours on Sherwin-Williams Emerald. Nothing goes back on a shelf for 3 to 5 days.
Why do painted cabinets peel at the handles?
Because the doors were not degreased. Cooking film sits on your doors, sanding polishes it rather than removing it, and the paint sticks to the film. You see it first at the handles and the top edge, usually inside a season, and no paint brand prevents it.
Do I have to sand my cabinets before painting?
Something has to rough up the surface, but on a pre-1978 kitchen dry sanding is out. Past 6 square feet of disturbed paint the work falls under the lead-safe rules, so we wet-sand or strip with chemicals and clean down with a HEPA vacuum, at $350 to $1,200.
Is painting cheaper than refacing my cabinets?
By a lot. Painting runs $2,000 to $6,500 against $5,000 to $13,000 to reface and $10,000 to $26,500 for new custom boxes. Painting keeps your existing doors, so it is the right answer when the door style still suits you and the color does not.
Who paints kitchen cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn paints kitchens across Lynn and the North Shore for $2,000 to $6,500. We take the doors off and spray them rather than brushing them on the hinges, and we degrease the whole kitchen before a bonding primer goes anywhere near it.
Painting is the best-value job in this trade when your boxes and doors are sound and it is the color that has dated. At $2,000 to $6,500 it costs a fifth of what a fully custom kitchen does. Even a budget line such as Fabuwood lands at $3,000 to $11,000 for a 10x10 before anyone touches your walls.
If you want a shop finish rather than a site one, cabinet spray finishing puts your doors through a booth. Where the wood underneath is worth showing, cabinet refinishing strips instead of covers, and everything we handle lists the rest.