Cabinet spray painting in Lynn, MA is how Custom Cabinets Lynn finishes the doors and drawer fronts you will look at from four feet away every day. It costs you $40 to $100 a linear foot against $30 to $70 for brush and roll. That gap is 30% to 70%, and what you get for it is a surface with no brush texture and no roller marks in it. Where you want the harder shop finish rather than the site one, a sprayed conversion varnish done off site adds $1,200 to $3,600 to the job. Both routes sit on our cabinet price guide beside what brushing the same kitchen costs.
Two decisions hide inside the word sprayed, and quotes rarely separate them.
The first is where the spraying happens. Doors sprayed flat in a clean space come back level and even. Doors sprayed hanging on their hinges in your kitchen collect dust, overspray and runs along the bottom edge. We take yours out of the house for that reason, which also keeps the paint mist out of your rooms.
The second is what gets sprayed on. A waterborne enamel can be sprayed, and it is still an enamel. A conversion varnish is a different thing: a two-part finish that cures hard and shrugs off the cleaners a kitchen meets. You want the second one on a busy family kitchen, and you can happily skip it on a guest bath vanity.
Which route suits your kitchen
Your doors sprayed off site, your boxes finished in the room
We take your doors and fronts away, spray them flat, and bring them back hard enough to hang, while the boxes and face frames get finished in place. That is the standard shape of the job at $2,000 to $6,500 for a kitchen, and it is why your run of cabinets stays usable for most of the week. The only visible difference between the two halves is that nobody stands at arm's length and studies a face frame.
Conversion varnish, the shop finish
A conversion varnish is a two-part finish that hardens through a chemical reaction rather than by drying, and you cannot brush it. It cures to a film that shrugs off the cleaners and hand oils a kitchen throws at a door, which is the finish factory cabinets arrive with. Adding it costs $1,200 to $3,600 over a sprayed enamel. We would put it on a kitchen with children in it before we put it on a den.
Sprayed waterborne enamel, where the schedule rules
Benjamin Moore ADVANCE and Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel both spray well, and both are enamels rather than varnishes. ADVANCE takes a second coat at 16 hours and Emerald at 4, so the second one is what we reach for when you need your kitchen back before the weekend. Our supplier in North Reading stocks both, which is why a color change rarely adds days to your schedule.
Where spraying is not worth the money
A kitchen you are selling in six months, a laundry run nobody looks at, or a garage wall of cabinets does not need a sprayed finish. Brush and roll at $30 to $70 a foot puts the same color on the same wood and saves you the difference. We would rather point that out than quote you the top line on every room in the house.
How your week runs
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We degrease, then decide what your doors can take
We wash and rinse everything before judging it, because grease looks like a sound finish until it is off. Your doors then get sorted into what can be scuffed and recoated and what has to be stripped, since a brittle old varnish under a new film will show every crack it has.
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We label your doors and take them out of the house
We number each door to its opening and pack the hardware with it, then move the whole set to where the spraying happens. Your kitchen keeps working through this, and no paint mist ends up in your rooms, which is the part people forget when they price a spray job done in place.
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We spray your doors flat, in coats you can count
Your doors lie flat so the finish levels itself, and we spray both faces and all four edges rather than the front and a promise. Where we are making the door, the center panel gets finished on every face before it goes into its frame, because a panel finished only on the front shows a raw line when it shrinks in February.
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We finish your boxes and frames in the room
We mask, seal off and paint the boxes and face frames on site with a fine brush and a foam roller. On a pre-1978 kitchen that sealing is a rule rather than a courtesy. You keep the run in service through most of this, since a box with no door on it still holds what was in it.
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We rehang on the hardening schedule, not the touch-dry one
We bring your doors back when the film is hard enough to hang and adjust without marking, and we tell you the date the finish is fully cured. That is about 30 days on an enamel. You get a written note of when the shelves can carry weight again, usually 3 to 5 days after the last coat.
What a sprayed quote should tell you and usually does not
Sprayed on site and sprayed off site are different products
A door sprayed hanging in a kitchen picks up dust from the room, overspray from the box behind it, and a heavier film along the bottom edge where the wet finish runs. A door sprayed flat off site does none of that. The word sprayed on a quote covers both, so the question worth asking is where your doors will be when the gun is running.
Conversion varnish is not a brand of paint
A conversion varnish hardens through a chemical reaction, which is why it resists cleaners that lift an enamel. Once mixed, it has a working life measured in hours, and it needs fume extraction that a kitchen does not have. Nobody applies it properly on site. A quote offering catalyzed varnish brushed in your house has described something that does not exist.
A pre-1978 kitchen sets the method before the finish does
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. Removing and sanding a run of original painted doors gets there at once. Sealing the room and cleaning down with a HEPA vacuum costs $350 to $1,200, and it shows on your quote as its own line.
Why Lynn homeowners call us to spray
Nobody wants to pay extra for a sprayed finish and get doors with dust in them and a run along the bottom edge. So your doors leave the house. They get sprayed lying flat in a clean space and come back with no brush line anywhere. The boxes get done in your kitchen, sealed off, at $40 to $100 a foot for the whole job. We tell you which finish you need and which one you can skip, because a laundry run does not need what a family kitchen does.
What the finish has to hit
| Sprayed finish priced by the foot | $40 to $100 per linear foot |
|---|---|
| Brush and roll priced by the foot | $30 to $70 per linear foot |
| Catalyzed conversion varnish, sprayed off site | $1,200 to $3,600 added |
| Standard kitchen, doors off and sprayed | $2,000 to $6,500 |
| Per door and drawer front | $100 to $250 |
| Urethane trim enamel recoat window | 4 hours |
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 more does spraying cabinets cost than brushing?
About 30% to 70% more. We charge $40 to $100 per linear foot sprayed against $30 to $70 for brush and roll. Your kitchen lands in the $2,000 to $6,500 band either way, with the spread coming from the finish and the prep.
Should I spray my kitchen cabinets in place?
No. Doors sprayed on the hinges collect dust from the room and run along the bottom edge, and the paint mist travels through the house. We take your doors away, spray them flat, and finish only the boxes and face frames in the room.
What is conversion varnish and do I need it?
It is a two-part finish that cures hard and resists kitchen cleaners, and it adds $1,200 to $3,600 to a job. We would put it on your family kitchen and leave it off a guest bath or a laundry run. We cannot brush it on in your house.
How long before I can use a sprayed kitchen?
Your doors go back on within days, and the finish takes about 30 days to reach full hardness. Put nothing on your painted shelves for 3 to 5 days after the last coat, because paint that is dry to the touch still takes stacking marks.
Can you spray stained cabinets a different color?
Yes, over a bonding primer. Your cost is in the prep rather than the paint, and a brittle or peeling old finish carries a 20% to 45% surcharge. Where your existing varnish is failing, we would strip back to wood at $1,500 to $5,000 instead.
Who sprays kitchen cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn sprays doors and drawer fronts for kitchens across Lynn and the North Shore at $40 to $100 a linear foot. Your doors leave the house, get sprayed flat, and come back hard enough to hang and adjust properly.
Spraying buys you a surface, and a surface is most of what you see in a kitchen. It does not buy you better prep. A sprayed finish over a door nobody degreased fails in exactly the same place a brushed one does.
If you want the whole picture on what a repaint involves, cabinet painting sets out the prep and the schedule. Where the wood under the old finish deserves showing rather than covering, cabinet restaining is the other direction, and everything we handle lists the rest.