We get a lot of questions before a cabinet project starts that are some version of: “What’s actually going to happen in my kitchen?” It’s a reasonable thing to want to know before you hand over your kitchen for several days. Here’s the honest, step-by-step answer — what we do, in what order, and why each stage matters.
Before the crew arrives: the estimate and color selection
The process starts with a free written estimate. We come out, look at your cabinets, assess the condition of the existing finish, count the doors and drawers, and talk through what you’re looking for. If you know the color you want, great. If not, we can help — our color consultation brings large draw-down samples to your home so you can see how a color actually reads in your kitchen’s light before we start.
We’ll tell you at this stage if anything gives us concern: water damage, delamination, hollow-core particleboard that won’t take paint well, or a finish that would require more aggressive stripping. No surprises after we start.
Day 1: protection, hardware removal, and degreasing
When the crew arrives, the first hour is spent protecting everything that isn’t getting painted. Countertops, appliances, floors, and open shelving all get covered. This isn’t quick work done carelessly — the masking needs to hold through days of spraying, and we use professional-grade materials.
Hardware comes off — all of it. Hinges, pulls, handles, and anything else on the doors and drawer fronts. Doors and drawer fronts are removed and labeled so they go back in the exact positions they came from.
Then comes degreasing. Kitchen cabinets have an invisible film of cooking grease on them — even freshly cleaned ones. This film is the enemy of adhesion. We use a commercial degreaser designed for this purpose and go over every surface that will receive paint. Skipping or rushing this step is the most common reason refinishing jobs fail prematurely.
Sanding and surface preparation
Once everything is clean and dry, we sand. The goal here isn’t to remove the existing finish entirely — it’s to give the surface “tooth” so the primer has something to bond to, and to knock down any rough texture, drips in the existing finish, or minor surface defects.
Any dents, chips, or dings get filled with a flexible filler and sanded smooth. This is where a refinishing job becomes genuinely hard to distinguish from new cabinets — or doesn’t. If the surface prep is rushed, you’ll see every imperfection through the new finish.
In Florida specifically, we pay close attention to any signs of moisture damage, swelling, or delamination at this stage. High humidity over the years can compromise cabinet boxes in ways that aren’t obvious until you start sanding.
Priming
We apply an adhesion primer formulated for cabinet work — not a general-purpose primer, and not the same product we’d use on walls. The primer is the bridge between the existing surface and the new topcoat, and it needs to do several things well: bond strongly to whatever’s underneath, block any tannins or stains from bleeding through, and create the right surface for the topcoat to adhere to.
In our kitchen and cabinet work, we use Sherwin-Williams products throughout because the primer and topcoat are engineered to work together as a system.
The primer gets a light sanding after it dries to ensure a perfectly smooth base before the color coats go on.
Topcoat application
This is the stage that looks most impressive from the outside, but by this point the outcome is mostly already determined by what happened before it. We spray all cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and face frames using professional spray equipment — HVLP (high-volume, low-pressure) sprayers that lay down a fine, uniform film with no brush marks and consistent thickness across the entire surface.
Why spray matters: a sprayed finish is fundamentally different from a brushed or rolled finish. The film is more uniform, there are no texture variations or brush ridges, and the overall appearance is much closer to a factory finish. On dark colors especially, any variation in film thickness or texture is immediately visible. We explain this in more detail in our post on sprayed vs. brushed cabinet finishes.
Most jobs get two full topcoats with a light scuff-sand between them. The final coat is the one you’ll see every day for the next decade.
Reassembly and walk-through
Doors and drawers go back on, hardware gets reinstalled (or new hardware goes on, if you opted for that), and we do a careful check of every door and drawer front. If anything isn’t right — a drip we missed, a door that needs adjustment, a spot that needs touching up — we address it before we leave.
We then walk through the finished kitchen with you. We want you to see everything while we’re still there. If there’s anything you’re not happy with, that’s the time to say so.
Cure time
The finish needs time to fully harden. For the first week, we ask that you handle the cabinets gently — don’t slam doors, don’t scrub surfaces aggressively, and avoid anything acidic sitting on the surface. By two weeks the finish has reached its full hardness and is ready for normal heavy use.
A note on timeline
Most kitchens take 2 to 4 days from start to finish depending on size, complexity, and drying conditions. Florida’s humidity can affect drying times, which is something we account for in our scheduling.
Interested in what a project like this would cost for your kitchen? Request a free estimate and we’ll come out to take a look.
Also in this series: How long does cabinet refinishing last in Florida’s humidity? and Cabinet refinishing vs. replacement: which is right for your South Florida kitchen?
