Why sprayed cabinets outlast brushed ones
The failure point on a brushed kitchen is almost never the colour. It is the film. A brush or roller lays paint down in uneven thicknesses, and thick edges cure slower, stay softer, and chip first at the exact places a kitchen gets handled — the top corner of a lower door, the edge beside the dishwasher, the drawer front under the sink.
Spraying solves that mechanically. An HVLP gun atomises the coating into a fine, consistent film that flows out flat before it sets. You get an even build across the whole door, including the profile edges where a brush loads up. That is the same principle behind factory cabinetry, and it is why a properly sprayed Ontario kitchen still looks tight after five winters of dry indoor heat.
What preparation actually involves
Preparation is where a cabinet job is won or lost, and it is the stage most quotes quietly skip. Kitchen cabinets carry a decade of cooking film — a thin, invisible layer of aerosolised grease that no primer will bond through. Every door and frame is degreased first, then scuff-sanded to give the primer a mechanical key, then dusted down. Dents and chipped veneer edges are filled and re-sanded before anything is sprayed.
The primer is chosen for what your cabinets are actually made of. Solid oak and maple need a stain-blocking primer or tannin bleeds through a light topcoat within weeks. Melamine and thermofoil, common in Ontario homes built after about 1990, need a dedicated bonding primer because there is no porous surface for a standard primer to grip.
Living in the house while it happens
You do not need to move out. Doors and drawer fronts come off on day one, get labelled, and are sprayed in a controlled booth away from your home. The frames stay in place and are sprayed on site behind containment sheeting with negative-air extraction running, which pulls overspray and solvent vapour out rather than letting it settle through the house. Coatings are low-VOC. Most households cook at home every night of the project.
