TLDR: What should I expect to pay to have my kitchen cabinets painted?
Cabinet painting is priced by door and drawer count, current finish, and prep, not by the size of your kitchen. Published ranges for Macomb County are so wide they are useless for planning, so the only number that means anything is a written proposal after someone counts your doors. This guide explains every line item that moves the price, so you can read a quote and know whether it is complete. If you want a real figure for your kitchen, here is our cabinet painting service in Shelby Township.
Why you cannot get a real price online
Search cabinet painting costs for Macomb County and you will find numbers that contradict each other badly. We have seen local sources put a full kitchen at $425 to $1,466, and others put it at $2,000 to $6,500.
Both are describing something real. They are just not describing the same job. One is a small kitchen getting doors sprayed and nothing else. The other is a large kitchen with grain filling, interiors, and an island.
The phrase “full kitchen” carries no information. Until someone counts your doors and looks at your existing finish, any number is a guess.
The thing that actually drives the price: door and drawer count
Cabinet painting is labor, and the labor is per piece. Every door comes off, gets cleaned, sanded, primed, and sprayed on both sides, then goes back. Drawer fronts are the same process.
That is why two kitchens with identical square footage can price very differently. A galley kitchen with 18 doors and six drawers is genuinely less work than an L-shaped kitchen with an island, 34 doors, and a pantry cabinet.
When you get a quote, ask what door and drawer count it is based on. A contractor who has not counted has not estimated.
What your current finish does to the price
Previously painted cabinets are usually the most straightforward. Clean, scuff sand, prime where needed, spray.
Honey oak with heavy polyurethane is the most common thing we see in Shelby Township, and it needs more aggressive prep. That old finish is hard and slick, and paint will not bond to it without proper sanding and the right primer.
Laminate and thermofoil need a bonding primer specifically rated for slick surfaces. Skip that and the finish peels, sometimes in sheets. If a quote for thermofoil cabinets does not name a bonding primer, that is a real gap.
Previously painted by someone else, badly can be the most expensive starting point. If the last finish is peeling or was applied over grease, it has to come off before anything new goes on.
The oak grain question, because this is Shelby Township
Most of this township was built out between the 1980s and the 2000s. Walk the subdivisions off 23 Mile or Ryan Road and you find the same era of kitchen over and over, which means a lot of open-grain oak.
Oak grain is deep. Paint does not fill it. If you want the smooth, furniture-like painted finish people picture when they say “painted cabinets,” the grain has to be filled and sanded first, and that is a separate labor step with real hours in it.
You can skip it. Some homeowners like seeing a little grain texture through a painted finish, and it costs less. But you should be choosing that, not discovering it after the fact. If a quote promises glass-smooth painted oak and says nothing about grain filling, ask how they intend to get there.
Line items that should appear in a complete quote
Door and drawer count the quote is based on
Whether cabinet interiors are included or only exterior faces and frames
Whether grain filling is included if you have oak
Primer type and why it suits your existing surface
Number of finish coats
Hardware removal and reinstallation, and whether new hardware is being installed
Cure time before hardware goes back on
Protection for floors, counters, and appliances
Final walkthrough and touch-up
If two quotes are far apart, the difference is almost always in interiors, grain filling, or number of coats. Put them side by side on these line items before you decide anyone is expensive.
Where homeowners get surprised
Interiors. Many quotes cover only what shows. If you open a cabinet after the job and see the old finish, that was probably the scope you agreed to. Decide on purpose.
Hardware. New pulls with different hole spacing means filling and drilling. That is extra work, and it belongs in the quote.
Color changes. Dark cabinets going white take more coats than the reverse. More coats is more labor and more cure time.
Timeline. Cabinet coatings need real dry time between coats and before reinstallation. A quote that promises a large kitchen finished overnight is describing a job that will chip at the handles.
Is painting cheaper than replacing? Usually, yes, and by a lot
New cabinets mean demolition, new boxes, new counters in most cases, and often plumbing and electrical work. It is a renovation with a renovation timeline.
Painting keeps your boxes, your layout, and your counters. For a kitchen where the carpentry is sound and only the finish is dated, which describes a great many kitchens in this township, painting delivers most of the visual change for a fraction of the cost.
Replacing makes sense when the boxes have failed or the layout genuinely does not work. Painting a layout you dislike leaves you with a layout you dislike in a nicer color.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you give me a ballpark over the phone?
We would rather not, and you should be skeptical of anyone who will. Without a door count and a look at your existing finish, a phone number is a guess that will change. We come out, count, and put it in writing.
Does a bigger kitchen always cost more?
Not necessarily. A large kitchen with few, large doors can cost less than a smaller kitchen packed with many small doors and drawers. Piece count matters more than floor area.
Why is one quote half the price of another?
Look at interiors, grain filling, and coat count first. Those three explain most large gaps. After that, ask about primer and cure time. The cheapest quote often has the shortest prep, and prep is what makes cabinet paint last.
Is it worth painting builder-grade cabinets from the 2000s?
Often yes. Builder-grade maple and thermofoil boxes are frequently structurally fine and just look flat. A sprayed finish in a current color changes the room without touching the footprint. Thermofoil specifically needs the right bonding primer.
How long does painted cabinetry last?
Properly prepped and cured, years of normal kitchen use. Failures we get called to fix almost always trace back to grease that was never cleaned off or hardware reinstalled before the finish cured.
Cabinet painting in Shelby Township, MI
If you want a real number instead of a range from the internet, we will come count your doors, check the finish you have, and hand you a written proposal.
Get your free written proposal. Call 586-991-6555.
