Bad Cabinet Paint Job? Here's What You Can Do

Unless you’re a professional painter yourself, you might not realize that painting different types of surfaces often requires different sets of skills, knowledge, and experience. Painting walls, ceilings, and cabinets may all fall under the umbrella of home interior painting, but they’re not identical processes. Indeed, someone adept at painting walls might end up botching a cabinet paint job.

This doesn’t mean that painting contractors can’t offer a range of services, of course. It simply means that, if you wish to renovate multiple parts of your home, the service you hire needs to have well-trained and experienced professionals on hand.

So, what if you hired local painters that claimed expertise in painting cabinets but fell short of their promise? Maybe they left the doors attached while painting; maybe the finish is riddled with drips, strokes, and spots; and maybe, even after applying primer and multiple coats of paint the coverage still isn’t enough. Whatever the case may be, if you’re unhappy with the results, you might wonder how to remedy the situation.

The bad news is that once the damage is done, you might not be able to get all (if any) of your money back. The good news, though, is that even the worst cabinet paint jobs can be salvaged, generally speaking. Let’s discuss how to prevent a bad cabinet paint job and how to fix one if it happens to you.

How to Avoid Bad Cabinet Paint Jobs in the First Place

Amending a poor paint job can be costly and time-consuming, so it’s best to make sure the job gets done right the first time. This means you need to hire reputable interior painting contractors with a proven track record of painting cabinets well. Keep in mind that the best results come with a matching price tag. Simply looking for the cheapest option can spell disaster for your cabinets, costing you more in the long run. So, favor quality over frugality. Most quality cabinet painting jobs will cost you between 4 and 7 thousand dollars, depending on where you live, the size of your kitchen, number of cabinets, etc.

After finding a few good candidates, weigh your options further by reading online reviews, focusing specifically on cabinet painting. Prioritize companies that have websites with portfolios of their work so you can see their results firsthand. Lastly, make sure your contract guarantees that the job isn’t complete until you’re satisfied.

Fixing Your Paint Job After the Fact

When a paint job is bad enough, even the least discerning among us can tell pretty easily. But what if you’re not sure whether or not your cabinets have received the proper treatment? Knowing what a good cabinet paint job entails can help you better spot a bad one.

For cabinets to be properly coated, the doors must be detached for easier access and minimal mess. The best contractors take the doors to their own facility for extra room. Once relocated, the doors should be sanded to remove any previous paint or stain and provide an ideal surface for adhesion. Any damages should be repaired as well. Then, your painters will completely and evenly coat the cabinet doors with primer by either spraying or brushing it on. After the primer has set in and dried, painting can commence, much in the same way. Meanwhile, the same is done for the fixed components like the facing, backing, and sides. Though for these parts, a roller or brush is used for greater precision. When all is said and done, the doors are then reinstalled.

Keeping all of the above in mind, fixing a bad cabinet paint job is essentially a matter of undoing what’s been done and then starting from scratch. If this sounds like a major hassle and twice the work, well, often is. Your new painters (assuming you won’t be re-hiring the ones that messed up) will need to remove the doors and strip away the various coats of paint and primer that were poorly applied. This may require the use of chemicals and coarse sanding tools. After all of that is done, they can follow the steps outlined above.

Lesson Learned?

In the end, saving money in the short term by hiring inexperienced cabinet painters will likely cost you in the long run. If you wind up with a poor paint job for your cabinets, you may need to cut your losses and deem the ordeal a learning experience. And should you decide to have your cabinets redone, hire a Nashville painting company that knows more than a thing or two about cabinets and what it takes to make them look better than new.

Cabinet painting is just one of many specialties on offer at Nash Painting, and we ask all prospective clients to browse our portfolio of past work. Let us rectify your cabinet painting woes. To learn more about us, our services, and our values, call us at (615) 829-6858 today!