Cabinet Painting in Nepean
Solid oak and maple kitchens from the 70s, 80s and 90s — the best cabinetry in the city to paint, and the one that needs grain filling to do it properly.
Paint Experts provides professional cabinet painting throughout Nepean, Ottawa. Nepean has an enormous stock of solid oak and maple kitchens from an era when cabinet boxes were built to outlive the house, and that is genuinely good news: the joinery here is almost always worth keeping and almost never worth replacing.
Why an old Nepean kitchen is worth painting
Cabinetry from this era is typically solid wood face frames with solid wood doors on plywood boxes, assembled with joinery rather than fasteners. Structurally it is better than most of what is sold today. What has dated is the colour, the finish sheen and the hardware, and all three of those are surface decisions. Replacing a sound kitchen because the tone is wrong is an expensive way to solve a paint problem.
Grain filling on red oak, and the choice it presents
Red oak has an open pore structure, and a painted oak door without grain filling reads as painted oak — fine grooves running through the colour. Some people want that. Most do not, and expect the smooth painted door they saw in a photograph. Getting there means filling the grain and blocking back with a high-build primer before topcoating, which adds real labour. We show you both options on a sample door so the decision is made with your own kitchen in front of you.
Questions about your project? Talk to us directly.
(613) 801-7316Cathedral arches, applied moulding and profiled doors
Kitchens of this era frequently have arched top rails, applied mouldings and routed profiles that hold sanding dust and hold paint at the inside corner. Those are sprayed rather than brushed for exactly that reason: a brush loads material into the corner of a profile and it sags, while a properly atomized spray coat sits evenly across the whole shape.
Hardware, hinges and what to change while doors are off
With every door off the frame, this is the moment to change hinges and pulls if you want to. Older kitchens often have surface-mount or semi-concealed hinges and a knob pattern that dates the room as much as the colour. Swapping to concealed soft-close hinges is straightforward while the doors are already out, and considerably more work later.
Common questions
How much does cabinet painting cost in Nepean?
$3,500 to $6,500 for a typical kitchen. Grain filling on oak adds labour and sits at the upper end of that range.
Will the oak grain show through the paint?
Only if it is not filled. Filling the grain and blocking back with a high-build primer produces a smooth painted door; skipping it produces a painted-oak look. We show you both on a sample.
Should I paint or replace a 1980s Nepean kitchen?
If the boxes are sound and the layout works, paint it. Cabinetry from that era is usually better built than current mid-range replacements, and new cabinets start around $12,000.
Quote my Nepean kitchen
Tell us the wood and roughly how many doors. We will make a sample before you commit to anything.