Cabinet painting in Houston, without the cost of new cabinets.
Kitchen cabinets sprayed on site from $3,000, with the area contained. Doors and drawer fronts come off to be prepped and finished flat, and the hardware goes back on at the end.
How much does cabinet painting cost in Houston?
$3,000 to $5,000 and up. That's Ray Gomez's own figure for his own work, published so you can plan a kitchen before anyone comes out.
What moves a kitchen from one end of that range to the other is countable.
- How many doors and drawer fronts there are.
- How many cabinet boxes.
- Whether the existing finish is stained wood going to painted, which is the biggest single jump, or already-painted cabinets getting a new color.
- How much profile is in the door, because a heavily detailed raised panel is hand work before the spray gun comes out.
- Whether anything needs repairing first.
A bathroom vanity on its own sits near the bottom. A large kitchen with an island, a walk-in pantry and forty-plus fronts sits above the top. Our $1,000 residential minimum is well below either, and cabinets clear it comfortably.
Not sure which end you're at? Count the doors and drawer fronts, move the answers, and the range moves with them.
The full painting cost calculator asks more questions and covers interiors, exteriors and epoxy floors too.
Seven steps, and five happen before any color.
This is the sequence on a cabinet project. Cleaning, deglossing and priming are the steps that decide how long the finish holds up.
Ray counts it with you
On Houston jobs Ray does the walkthrough himself. He counts doors, drawer fronts and boxes, checks what finish is on them now, looks for damage and asks how you use the kitchen. The scope and the price get written down.
Clean and degrease
Cabinets carry cooking grease whether or not you can see it, and nothing sticks to grease. Every surface gets cleaned and degreased before a single abrasive touches it.
Degloss and sand
A factory cabinet finish is deliberately slick, so it gets deglossed and sanded to give the primer something to key into. Skipping it is what makes a cabinet finish chip at the handles.
Repairs
Loose doors, worn hinges, damaged edges, soft shelving and any drywall around the cabinets get made good. Repairs are cheaper while the room is already masked and contained.
Prime for the material
Solid wood, MDF, laminate, melamine and thermofoil each want a different primer. Getting this wrong is what makes a finish lift at the edges months later, and it is the least visible decision on the whole job.
Spray, on site and contained
Doors and drawer fronts come off and get finished flat. Boxes and face frames are sprayed in place inside a contained work area. The Sherwin-Williams product is named on your quote.
Reassemble and walk it
Doors go back on, hardware goes back on, soft-close hinges go on where the cabinets take them, and we walk the kitchen with you before the project closes out, punch list included. The work carries the 3-Year Workmanship Warranty.
Take it from the people who've hired us.
Is painting your kitchen cabinets worth it?
Painting is worth it when the boxes are structurally sound. A sound cabinet box outlasts the finish on it. What dates a kitchen is the color and the sheen on the doors, and that is the part a refinish replaces at a fraction of what new cabinetry costs.
Replacement wins in three situations, and we will say so. When the boxes are water damaged past repair. When the layout is wrong for how you use the kitchen, because paint does not move a cabinet. And when the doors are a material or a condition that will not hold a finish, like a thermofoil skin that has started to lift, one of the causes of peeling kitchen cabinets.
The honest downside of painting is that it is a finish and not a rebuild: the doors you have are the doors you keep. If you love the layout and hate the color, refinishing cabinets is the best money in the kitchen. If you want a different kitchen, paint is not it. Cost, timing and refacing are compared side by side in painting cabinets vs replacing.
Drag it across and decide for yourself.
Same granite, same tile, same arch over the cooktop. What changed is the finish on the cabinets, and that is the argument for painting them instead of tearing them out.
…they were able to install great quality soft close hinges/stoppers and handles on all drawers/cabinet doors!
Noor Chohan, Google review
Get your cabinets counted.
Send Ray a rough door count and a photo if you have one. He walks it, counts it properly, names the product and writes the price down before anything is signed.
- 122 Google reviews, 5.0 average
- EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm
- Fully insured
- 3-Year Workmanship Warranty
What EPA Lead-Safe certification means for your kitchen.
An EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm is a company certified in lead-safe work practices under the federal Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, which governs anyone paid to disturb paint in housing built before 1978.
Cabinet work is squarely inside that rule, and people miss it because they think of lead as an exterior or a wall problem. Sanding an old painted cabinet finish is one of the highest-dust activities in a repaint, and it happens in the room where food gets prepared.
We hold the firm certification. When you compare quotes for an older kitchen, ask each contractor for their EPA firm certification number.
Every material, and the walls around them.
Cabinet refinishing is a different job on every substrate, and the primer's where that difference lives. Open any of these for what changes.
Solid wood
The easiest thing to refinish well.
Wood takes a finish beautifully once the old coating's off and the grain is sealed. Going from stained to painted is the single biggest visual change you can make in a kitchen for the money.
MDF and laminate
They paint, with the right primer.
MDF, laminate, melamine and thermofoil are all paintable, and each one wants a different primer to key into. Get the primer wrong and the finish lifts at the edges within months. Matching the primer to the material is the part of the job that takes real product knowledge.
Doors, fronts and boxes
Priced by what gets sprayed.
Doors and drawer fronts come off, so they can be finished flat and cure that way. The boxes and face frames are done in place with the area contained. Counting fronts and boxes is how the quote gets built, which is why the estimator asks for both and never for your kitchen square footage.
Hardware and soft-close
An upgrade where the hinges allow it.
Soft-close hinges and stoppers go on where the cabinets take them, and new handles go on at the same time. Doing it mid-project costs a fraction of a separate visit.
Vanities and built-ins
The same job, in a smaller room.
Bathroom vanities, built-in shelving, window seats, pantries and laundry cabinetry all get the same preparation and the same finish. A vanity on its own sits near the bottom of the cabinet range, since there's less to spray than a full kitchen.
The walls around them
Repaired while the room is masked.
Damaged drywall beside the cabinets, a soffit that has been cut into, or the wall behind a removed upper all get made good while the room is already contained. Doing it later means masking the kitchen a second time, which is the expensive way round.
The finish is the whole product.
Cut lines, corners and the join where two colors meet. On cabinets it's the door edges and the inside of the frame, which is exactly where a brushed job gives itself away.
Ray Gomez paints Houston kitchens, and he prices them himself.
Rise and Prime Painting is owner-operated, and on Houston jobs the person who walks your kitchen and prices it is the owner.
Over 20 years on the brush
Ray personally, in the trade, since long before the company had a name.
He does the Houston walkthrough
The person pricing your kitchen is the one who has to stand behind it.
EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm
The federal certification pre-1978 cabinet sanding requires.
Hablamos español
Ray speaks it and so does the crew, so mid-job questions get asked and answered in your kitchen.
122 Google reviews at 5.0
Real reviews on real jobs, in Houston and in Baltimore.
3-Year Workmanship Warranty
In writing, on the surfaces we prepared and painted.
Where we work in Houston.
Greater North Houston. The painting services are identical in every one of those towns.
- Call or text Ray(443) 743-8052 or text the same number
- We come to youNo showroom and no storefront. The walkthrough happens at your house.
- Same standards everywhere3-Year Workmanship Warranty on every job, in every town on this map.
Town by town: painters in Tomball, painters in Spring, painters in The Woodlands, painters in Conroe, painters in Humble.
Cabinet painting questions.
How much does cabinet painting cost in Houston?
Cabinet painting costs $3,000 to $5,000 and up, and that figure is Ray Gomez's own, not a market average. What moves it is the count of doors and drawer fronts, how many cabinet boxes there are, whether the existing finish is stained wood or already painted, and how much detail is in the door profile. A small bathroom vanity sits near the bottom. A large kitchen with an island and a walk-in pantry sits above the top.
Is painting kitchen cabinets worth it, or should you replace them?
Painting is worth it when the boxes are structurally sound, and it'll cost a fraction of what new cabinets do. Replacement wins when the boxes are water damaged, the layout is wrong for how you use the kitchen, or the doors are a material that won't hold a finish. We'll tell you which one you've got at the walkthrough, including when the honest answer is that painting them isn't the right call.
Do you spray cabinets or brush them?
Cabinets get sprayed, not brushed. A brushed cabinet door will show its brush marks under a kitchen light forever, and the whole point of refinishing cabinets is a finish that reads as factory. We spray on site with the working area contained, and our standard process is to take the doors and drawer fronts off so they can be prepped and finished flat, away from the boxes.
What paint do you use on cabinets?
Sherwin-Williams, and specifically the Emerald line at the premium end. Cabinets want an enamel, because a kitchen cabinet gets touched, cleaned and knocked in a way a wall never does. Wall paint burnishes and marks where an enamel holds. The exact product for your cabinets is named on the quote before you sign it.
Do you sand and degloss before painting?
Yes, and it's the step that decides everything after it. Cabinets carry cooking grease whether or not you can see it, and a factory finish is deliberately slick. So the doors get cleaned and degreased, then deglossed and sanded so the primer has something to key into. Skipping either step is what makes a cabinet finish chip at the handles.
How long does cabinet painting take, and can I use my kitchen?
Most cabinet projects take three to five days. Access to the kitchen is limited in periods and it isn't gone for the whole job. Which ones depend on your layout and how the doors are handled. We'll give you the actual sequence at the walkthrough, on your kitchen, so you can plan around the days that matter.
Does an older kitchen change anything?
A kitchen in a home built before 1978 changes the job, because sanding an old painted cabinet finish is exactly the activity the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule governs. That rule requires a certified firm, containment and specific work practices. Rise and Prime Painting is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm.
What kinds of cabinets can you paint?
Solid wood, MDF, laminate, melamine and thermofoil all take a finish, and each one wants a different primer to get there. Shaker, raised panel and slab doors all spray well; a heavily detailed profile takes longer because every bead and every corner is hand work before the spray gun comes out. Vanities, built-ins, islands and pantry shelving get the same treatment as kitchen cabinets.
Can you fit soft-close hinges?
Yes, where the cabinets are compatible with them. Soft-close hinges and stoppers are the upgrade you feel every day in a kitchen: the doors ease shut instead of slamming. Ask about it at the walkthrough so it goes on the quote from the start.
Is there a minimum project size?
Any residential painting project with us starts at $1,000, and cabinets sit comfortably above that line. The minimum exists so we can quote honestly on small jobs: below it, the setup, the masking and the containment cost more than the materials do. It's applied as a floor and never quoted as a price.
Do you repair the cabinets and the walls around them first?
Yes. Loose doors, worn hinges, damaged edges and soft shelving get made good before any finish goes on, and drywall repair around the cabinets can be added to the scope when it's needed. Painting over damage only hides it for a while, and it comes back.
Who does the walkthrough?
On Houston jobs Ray Gomez does it himself. He counts the doors and drawer fronts, looks at what finish is on them now, checks the boxes for damage and asks how you use the kitchen. Then he writes the scope, the Sherwin-Williams product and the price down before anything's signed.
What does the warranty cover?
The 3-Year Workmanship Warranty comes in writing and covers failures caused by our workmanship on the surfaces we prepared and painted: premature peeling, blistering or flaking from improper application. The clock starts the day the kitchen is finished. It doesn't cover water damage, substrate failure, wear and tear, impact, third-party repairs or a manufacturer's product defect.
Do you paint cabinets outside Houston?
We work Greater North Houston: Tomball, Spring, The Woodlands, Conroe, Humble and the neighborhoods around them. The company also works Baltimore, Maryland, where Ray started it in 2016. Cabinet painting's the same job in both markets, and the pricing adjusts to the local market behind the scenes.
A new kitchen, without a new kitchen.
Cabinet painting from $3,000, sprayed on site, with soft-close hardware fitted where the cabinets take it. Ray counts it, writes it down, and the work carries the 3-Year Workmanship Warranty.
Painting the rest of the room too? A cabinet project can go in alongside interior house painting in Houston, and quoting them together means the kitchen only gets masked once. Older house going all the way round? That's exterior house painting in Houston.
Get my cabinets countedor call Ray on (443) 743-8052