Cabinet refinishing in Lynn, MA strips the failed finish off your doors and boxes and puts a new one on the bare wood, and Custom Cabinets Lynn prices it at $1,500 to $5,000 for a standard kitchen. One local contractor publishes $2,800 to $5,800 for the same job on its own Lynn page, and that is the only local figure in this trade we can point you at. Where your wood is not worth showing, painting the same kitchen runs $2,000 to $6,500 and hides a lot. Our cabinet price guide puts all three of those side by side with their sources.
Refinishing and painting solve two different problems, and people ask for the wrong one about half the time.
Paint covers. It hides grain, filler, patches and a mismatched replacement door, and it is the right answer when your cabinets are sound but tired. Refinishing does the opposite. It takes everything off and puts the wood on display, so every repair, every water ring and every sun-faded door beside a window becomes the thing you look at.
We open a door and take a small patch back to bare wood before quoting you either one. That costs you nothing. It settles whether you have solid maple worth uncovering or a thin veneer face that will not survive a hard strip.
Which route suits your kitchen
Solid wood doors and frames, stripped and refinished
We strip your doors with chemicals rather than by sanding wherever the kitchen predates 1978, then sand back to a clean surface and build the finish up from bare wood. Solid maple, oak and cherry all take that well. The $1,500 to $5,000 range is mostly about how many doors there are and how brittle the old coating has gone. This is the version that leaves you with a kitchen nobody would guess had been refinished.
Veneered boxes and end panels, which need a lighter touch
The wood face on hardwood plywood is thinner than a sheet of card, so a hard strip and sand goes straight through it into the core. We work those surfaces by hand with a chemical stripper and stop early rather than chasing the last trace of old finish. Where somebody has already sanded through a veneer face, we skin or replace that panel instead of refinishing it.
Refinishing some of your kitchen and replacing the rest
You almost never have twenty doors in the same condition, because the two beside your range and the one under your sink have had a harder life than the rest. We refinish what is sound and get matching replacements cut for the rest, from a shop in Lawrence that turns them in 1 to 2 weeks in maple, white oak or walnut. Mixing new and refinished doors works because the finish goes on after they are all together.
A color change on top of a strip
Once your kitchen is back to bare wood, restaining is priced by area at $4 to $15 per square foot on top of the strip. Oak fights a color change because its open grain holds the old tone. Maple takes one evenly but goes blotchy unless we treat it first. We put a sample door in your kitchen light before we commit your whole run to a color.
How your week runs
-
We take a test patch back to bare wood
We pick one door, usually a lower one nobody sees, and strip a hand-sized patch of it before we quote. You find out from that whether you own solid wood worth showing or a thin veneer. We find out how many rounds of stripper your finish is going to need.
-
We seal the room before any stripper comes out
We seal the doorways and lay plastic, because a 1946 kitchen falls under the lead-safe rules the moment more than 6 square feet of old paint is disturbed. Your house is not a work site to us. The plastic goes up on day one, and the HEPA vacuum comes out before it comes down.
-
We strip with chemicals and wet-sand rather than dry-sand
We use a stripper and a hand scraper on your doors and frames instead of a power sander, which is both the lead-safe method and the one that keeps a crisp edge on an older door. Dry sanding rounds every detail off and there is no putting that back. Our strippers and finishes come from a supplier in North Reading, about twelve miles from your kitchen, so a second round never costs you a week.
-
We even out the color before any finish goes on
Your doors will have faded at different rates depending on which ones face a window. So we tone the pale ones up rather than staining everything dark to hide the difference. That is the step separating a refinished kitchen from a stripped one, and it is why we ask which side of your kitchen gets the afternoon sun.
-
We build the finish in coats and let it cure
We put your topcoat on in thin passes with a light sand between them, since one heavy coat stays soft in the middle and marks under a plate for months. Where you want the harder shop finish, we spray a conversion varnish off site rather than brushing a varnish never meant for a brush. You get the same 30-day cure note a painted kitchen gets, and 3 to 5 days before anything goes back on a shelf.
What decides whether refinishing beats painting on your kitchen
Stripping paint in a pre-1978 kitchen is the regulated case, not the exception
Most Lynn kitchens were 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, and stripping a whole kitchen is the biggest disturbance in this trade. No heat guns, no open flame, no dry sanding. We seal the room and clean it down wet, at $350 to $1,200, which is why a strip quote and a paint quote should not carry the same cleanup line.
A veneer face has a fixed number of strips in it
The wood face on hardwood plywood is thinner than a sheet of card, and it does not grow back. A cabinet end panel that has been sanded through shows a dark line where the glue layer surfaces, and no stain covers it. That is why our test patch comes before the quote rather than after it.
Refinishing does not fix a box, and it does not need a permit
Finish work leaves your plumbing, gas, wiring and walls alone, so the state treats it as an ordinary repair and nothing gets filed. What refinishing also does not do is fix a box. A sink base that has swollen under a slow leak needs replacing at $400 to $1,400 whichever finish route you take. A beautiful finish on a failed box is the most expensive way to be disappointed.
Why Lynn homeowners call us to refinish
Nobody wants to pay to strip a kitchen and find out halfway through that the doors are veneer with three patches in them. So we strip a test patch on one of your doors first, for free, and show you what is under there. If it is solid maple or oak, we take the whole kitchen back to bare wood by hand at $1,500 to $5,000. If the old coating has gone brittle, we tell you about the 20% to 45% extra before we start, not after.
What the finish has to hit
| Stripping and refinishing a standard kitchen | $1,500 to $5,000 |
|---|---|
| Published Lynn comparable, refinishing | $2,800 to $5,800 |
| Restaining, priced by area | $4 to $15 per square foot |
| Heavy prep surcharge | 20% to 45% added |
| Lead-safe containment and cleanup | $350 to $1,200 |
| Lead-safe threshold, painted surface disturbed | 6 square feet |
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 cabinet refinishing cost in Lynn?
$1,500 to $5,000 to strip and refinish a standard kitchen. You will also see $2,800 to $5,800 published locally for the same job. Your cabinets carry a 20% to 45% surcharge if they are in poor shape, because the extra hours go into stripping rather than finishing.
Is refinishing better than painting cabinets?
Only when the wood is worth showing. Refinishing puts your grain, your repairs and your sun fading on display, while painting at $2,000 to $6,500 covers all three. We would refinish solid maple, oak or cherry. We would not do it to a veneered kitchen with patched doors.
Can veneer cabinets be refinished?
Carefully, and not more than once. The wood face on hardwood plywood is thinner than a sheet of card, so we strip those panels by hand with chemicals and stop early. A panel already sanded through shows a dark glue line that no stain will cover, and we skin or replace that one.
How long does refinishing a kitchen take?
Five to eight working days on site, plus about 30 days to full hardness. Stripping takes us longer than painting because the old finish comes off in rounds. A brittle coating can need three passes before your wood is clean.
Do you have to sand cabinets to refinish them?
Not with a machine, and not dry. In a pre-1978 kitchen the work falls under the lead-safe rules past 6 square feet of disturbed paint, so we strip with chemicals and wet-sand. That also keeps the crisp edges on your older doors, which a power sander rounds off for good.
Who refinishes kitchen cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn refinishes kitchens across Lynn and the North Shore at $1,500 to $5,000. We strip a test patch on one of your doors before quoting, because that is the only honest way to tell solid wood from a veneer face.
Refinishing is the right call on solid wood you would be sorry to cover, and the wrong call on a kitchen of veneered doors with three repairs in them. We settle that with a test patch rather than with an opinion, and it takes about twenty minutes.
If the answer turns out to be color rather than wood, cabinet painting is $2,000 to $6,500 and hides everything refinishing would reveal. Where the doors themselves are past saving, door and drawer front replacement is $180 to $330 a door, and everything we handle lists the rest.