By Dana Tucker
The kitchen- the most used room in your home. The room in the house with the most expensive case goods. YOUR CABINETS. The one room that will make or break your investment when you go to sell your home. An update in this room must be done correctly or it will cost you money and days on the market. “Kitchens and baths sell homes.”
Painting your dated kitchen cabinets is an economical and stylish option for a kitchen update. But who should you trust to complete this project? Want to know a secret? Your house painter is not really interested in painting your cabinets. Or, I should say- painting your cabinets correctly.
They are pro’s at walls, trim, and ceilings. They know what it takes to prep, paint, and deliver a beautiful smooth surface in the least amount of time possible. They get in- they get out- and they make a profit. When it comes to painting cabinets, they have that same mind-set. F-A-S-T. A prime example is illustrated in this email below that one of my colleagues received from her potential customer:
“I ended up going with a cheaper cabinet painter who came out for two days, it’s been nearly a week and the cabinets are peeling with the slightest bump / scrape. I am so beyond devastated. I’m so upset and regret not going with you but just felt rushed and the two days of in and out seemed great but obviously was a bad choice in the end. I’m just ready to cry I’m so unhappy with how low grade the cabinets look compared to the rest of the kitchen”.
-Mrs. Potential Customer
regrets her decision to hire low cost painter
Do you want to know why the estimate you get from your wall painter is significantly lower than an estimate you get from a professional? Because they often do not do the prep that is required to get the surface ready for painting. They don’t clean the doors, or remove the doors from the frame, and they don’t use the proper products. All resulting in finished projects that cause their client’s stress and sleepless nights over their decision to hire the lowest bid house painter to paint their cabinets and now must spend more money to fix the problem.
We often get emails from desperate customers looking for repairs or fixes for these botched jobs. In most cases, they have used the wrong paint over a cabinet that has years of cooking grease built up- a recipe for disaster. No paint in the world will stick to a greasy surface. Cabinet prep requires light sanding, degreasing, and thorough cleaning. All before the first coat of product is ever applied.
Speaking of application. There are lots of ways your house painters can get it to go wrong. Drips, orange peel texture, brush strokes in the paint, etc… Proper technique would be to spray the doors and drawers in a controlled environment with proper drying time in between coats.
