Refinishing is not a colour change. The old coating comes off, the bare wood is sanded, stained and sealed, and the grain that was buried under twenty years of yellowed lacquer becomes the point of the kitchen again.
Painting covers. Refinishing removes. The whole existing coating has to come off before anything else happens, and stripping a five-piece door with a moulded profile is slow, careful work that no shortcut improves. That labour is most of the price difference, not the materials.
What you get for it is depth. Stain soaks into the timber rather than sitting on it, so the figure in the wood reads through the finish instead of disappearing under a film. It also lasts longer: ten to fifteen years against eight to ten for painted cabinets.
Painting typically runs a third to a half of refinishing on the same kitchen. Where you want a flat colour, painting is simply the better spend. Where the wood is worth showing, it is not. Hardwood refacing and the refinishing hub cover the alternatives.
Recent work
How it works
How the Old Finish Comes Off
Test a hidden door
One door from the least visible run is stripped first. It tells us what coating is on there, how the wood looks underneath, and whether the whole kitchen is worth doing before you commit any money.
Strip, do not sand through
The coating is removed chemically and scraped, then sanded only enough to level. On a veneered door this matters: sand too hard and you go through the veneer into the substrate.
Condition, stain, sample
Blotch-prone species get a conditioner first. Then the stain goes on a sample from your own doors and stays with you for a few days, because kitchen light changes wood tone.
Seal in thin coats
Several light clear coats rather than one heavy one, sanded lightly between. Flooding a veneer face is how you raise grain and lift edges, so the build is slow on purpose.
Species matters
How the Wood Decides Your Colour
Stain is not paint and does not behave like it. The species underneath changes the result more than the tin does. Oak has open grain that drinks colour and reads strongly. Maple is tight and can blotch without a conditioner first. Cherry starts light and keeps darkening for years after the job is finished.
This is why we stain a sample from your own doors rather than showing a printed chart. The same stain on your oak and on a showroom maple are two different colours, and only one of them is going in your kitchen.
There is a hard limit worth knowing early. Refinishing needs real wood. A thin veneer can be refinished with care, but thermofoil and MDF cannot be, because there is no wood to expose. Those doors go to redooring or refacing instead.
Stain samples
Other finishes
Other Ways to Change the Finish
Refinishing keeps the wood. These are the routes that cover or replace it.
What refinishing is, which doors take it, and how the colour is chosen.
Removing the existing coating down to bare wood, then sanding, staining and sealing. The grain ends up visible rather than covered. It renews the wood you have; it does not change the door style or the layout.
No. Painting puts an opaque film over the doors and hides the grain. Refinishing takes the old finish off and shows the wood. They cost differently, last differently and look nothing alike when done.
More than painting, usually by a factor of two to three on the same kitchen, because stripping the old coating is slow work. We quote by the linear foot after seeing the doors. Example ranges, not quotes.
Real wood doors, and wood veneer with care. Thermofoil, laminate and painted MDF cannot be, because there is no wood underneath to expose. We check a cut edge on the first visit.
On a sample cut from your own doors, not a printed chart. Species changes the result more than the stain does, so the same colour on your oak and on showroom maple are two different finishes.
Not on its own. Lifting veneer, chipped edges and water marks are repaired first, which is a separate step covered on the restoration page. Finishing over damage just seals the damage in.
Ten to fifteen years with normal kitchen use and a properly built film. That is longer than painted cabinetry, which is part of why it costs more up front.
Homeowner reviews
What Edmonton Homeowners Say About Refinished Wood
We take a door, strip a section and stain it in the colour you are considering, then leave it with you. Kitchen lighting changes wood tone more than people expect.
