Kitchen cabinet painting in Encinitas

Most Encinitas kitchens come in between $3,000 and $9,000, which works out at $75 to $150 for each door and drawer front. A bathroom vanity is typically $600 to $1,500. The door count drives most of the price, and an island or a wall of tall pantry units adds more than people expect. Prep is never the line we cut, so when two quotes differ by thousands, compare the sanding and priming. Our San Diego cabinet painting page uses the same ranges, and this breakdown of cabinet painting fees covers the extras.

• Per door or drawer front: $75 to $150
• Whole kitchen: $3,000 to $9,000 typical
• Bathroom vanity: $600 to $1,500 each
• Islands and tall pantry units: counted door by door

We refinish; we do not reface. Refinishing is a painting job: your doors, drawer fronts and boxes stay where they are, and we strip the grease, prime and spray them a new colour. Refacing is a cabinetmaker's job that fits brand-new doors and laminates veneer over the boxes. Plenty of Encinitas owners search for refacing when what they actually want is a new colour on solid cabinets, and in that case refinishing costs less and makes far less mess. If your doors are damaged or simply the wrong style, refacing is the honest route, and we will say so at the estimate.

A door-and-drawer count, the prep steps in writing, and a licence you can check. A sound quote names the degreasing, sanding and bonding primer, says whether doors are sprayed or brushed, shows a lead-safe line if the house predates 1978, and states the warranty, which for our cabinet work is 2 years. Any California painter's licence can be looked up on the CSLB's Check A License page; ours is C-33 #1002304. With the median home here valued at about $1.65 million, that paperwork protects a kitchen worth getting right.

Not a different product, but more care with timing and hardware. Coastal air holds moisture, and WeatherSpark's climate record puts Encinitas's muggier stretch between late June and early October. Cabinet enamel dries more slowly in that air, so doors stay in the spray area longer before they are stacked or rehung. August is the muggiest month, and a kitchen booked then simply gets a slightly longer schedule rather than a different product.

Any kitchen in a home built before 1978, and in Encinitas that covers a large share of houses: about half of the city's homes were built before 1980. Original cabinets and the trim around them can carry older paint under later coats, and sanding them is regulated by the EPA's Lead-Safe rules. In those kitchens our EPA Lead-Safe Certified crews seal off the work area, keep sanding dust contained, and clean up to the rule's standard. A kitchen built after 1978 skips that step, and the quote shows which applies.

Yes, and it is usually the cheaper way to do it. Islands are sprayed with the kitchen, either matching or in a contrasting colour, and vanities get the same degrease, sand, prime and spray process at $600 to $1,500 each. Plan on three to five working days for a kitchen on its own, longer with vanities added, and you keep use of the kitchen most evenings. One set-up and one schedule beats two. For walls, ceilings or the exterior, see everything we paint in Encinitas.