How to Prepare Your Kitchen for Cabinet Refinishing: A Homeowner’s Checklist
The homeowner’s guide / Cabinet refinishing
Make room for your kitchen refresh.
Your cabinet refinishing preparation checklist.
Tell us your colour, plan around our on-site visits and leave the cabinet work to our team.
You choose the colour. We handle the cabinet work.
There is no need to pack up regular cabinets or drawers, or clean their interiors. We refinish the exterior surfaces in your estimate. Cabinet interiors are not included in the painting scope.
01 / Our part
We take care of the details.
Our team removes and labels the cabinet doors and drawer fronts (panels), takes them back to our shop for refinishing, and returns to reinstall them. The drawer boxes stay in your home with their contents. We handle the cabinet work in your agreed scope.
02 / Before the crew arrives
Your short homeowner checklist.
Leave regular cabinets and drawers filled. Just make these few arrangements, and leave the cabinet work to us.
We will confirm your on-site dates. Leave the doors, drawer fronts and hardware in place. Our team handles removal, labelling and the cabinet work.
At our shop / In your home
Your kitchen, during the project.
Available between our visits
Your kitchen remains available for most of the project, between our on-site visits while the doors and drawer fronts are being refinished at our shop.
Closed on our on-site workdays
The kitchen is closed on our on-site workdays—normally the first two days and the final day for installation. Please arrange food for those days. The team will confirm your schedule.
Empty-home projects: Whole-kitchen spraying is only carried out when the house is empty; the kitchen is not available during that work.
03 / After refinishing
We will guide you through aftercare.
A coating can feel dry before it has fully cured. Our team will explain how to use and care for your finished cabinets. Follow the care instructions for your project rather than a generic online timeline.
Further reading: understanding dry time and cure time. Always follow the instructions for the coating actually used on your project.
The finishing details
A final look, together.
After reinstallation, review the finished cabinets with our team. We will go over door and drawer operation, agreed hardware changes, care instructions and any final questions.
A few common questions
Before the crew arrives.
Do I need to empty or clean inside my cabinets and drawers?
No. Leave regular cabinets and drawers filled; their interiors do not need cleaning. We remove only the drawer fronts, not the drawer boxes. Empty and clean inside glass-front cabinets only. Cabinet interiors are not part of the painting scope.
Can I keep using my kitchen?
Yes, between our on-site visits. The kitchen is closed on our on-site workdays—normally the first two days and the final day for installation—so please plan meals for those days. Whole-kitchen spraying is only carried out when the house is empty.
Do I need to remove or label anything?
No. Our team removes and labels the cabinet doors and drawer fronts and handles refinishing and reinstallation. The drawer boxes stay in your home, and you do not need to empty them.
Can I change handles, knobs or soft-close hardware?
Yes—tell us which hardware changes you would like when you share your colour choice. Changes to handles, knobs or soft-close hardware are an additional charge.
Let’s talk about your kitchen
A fresh look for
the heart of your home.
Considering cabinet refinishing in Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge or the surrounding area? Tell us about your cabinets and the look you have in mind.
