CABINET PAINTING COST CALCULATOR
Price a kitchen the way refinishers do: by the door, the drawer front, and the linear foot. Get a total range, per-door pricing, gallons of primer and enamel, and how it stacks up against refacing or replacing.
CABINET PAINTING COST CALCULATOR
Pre-filled with a 24-door kitchen going from stained oak to white. Change any input and the price updates instantly.
COUNT YOUR CABINETRY
Priced for: a hired professional refinisher.
Don't have a count yet? Load a typical kitchen:
Scope add-ons: Cabinet interiors & shelves: not included. Heavy grease around the range & hood: no.
SURFACE & FINISH
Priced as — Cabinet material: Solid wood / wood veneer. Current finish: Stained + satin sealer. Application method: Sprayed on-site (doors + boxes). Paint tier: Pro cabinet enamel (~$80/gal). Color change: Dark to light (espresso to white). Regional price index: National average (1.00).
SURFACE & FINISH
Standard prep — degrease, scuff-sand, bond primer
Factory-smooth, heavy masking and containment
The default for paid cabinet work
ESTIMATED PROJECT RANGE
$3,897 – $5,166
Midpoint $4,532 · 32 doors & drawer fronts
YOUR PER-PIECE PRICING
$135
Per door
$59
Per drawer
$27
Per linear ft
LABOR VS MATERIALS
3 gal
3 finish coats
2 gal
Bond coat before color
252 sq ft
Both faces + edges
5 days
~76 crew hrs
PER-DOOR PRICE VS THE MARKET
Right at market
This lands in the $100-$250 per-door band most cabinet refinishers quote in 2026. A fair number for sprayed, properly primed work.
Your per-door
$135
National midpoint
$165
PAINT VS REFACE VS REPLACE
Priced against your 25 linear feet of cabinetry, using the same regional index.
Same boxes, same layout, new color
New doors + veneer over existing boxes
New boxes, new layout, new countertop risk
At this scope, painting and refacing land close together. When paint costs more than half of a reface quote, compare the finish warranty before you choose — see cabinet refinishing vs painting.
WHAT A CABINET PAINTING COST CALCULATOR PRICES
Cabinet work is priced by the piece, not by the square foot. A refinisher counts doors, drawer fronts, and the linear feet of boxes that stay in the room, then applies multipliers for the substrate, the old finish, and the spray method. This calculator runs that same arithmetic and shows the per-door number your quote is built from.
That is why cabinets feel expensive next to walls. A whole living room might price at $2.75 per square foot in our interior painting cost calculator, while a kitchen with 250 square feet of cabinet surface can run $4,000 — because the labor is in the removal, the degreasing, the sanding, the racking, and the reinstall, not in the rolling.
HOW TO USE THIS CALCULATOR
Count doors and drawer fronts, not cabinets
Every door and drawer front comes off, gets labeled, and gets coated on both faces. A 10x10 kitchen usually hides 20-26 doors and 8-10 drawer fronts. Count the pantry and the toe-kick panels too.
Measure the cabinetry in linear feet
Run a tape along the face of the boxes at counter height, including the uppers. That linear footage prices the face frames, end panels, and any exposed sides that stay in the room while the doors are off.
Pick the application method honestly
Brush and roll is the cheapest bid and always shows some stipple. Spraying is what makes cabinets look factory-finished, and off-site spraying adds haul time but gives the best cure and the least dust.
Match the paint tier to the traffic
A waterborne alkyd enamel blocks tannin bleed and hardens far better than a wall paint. Our guide to the best paint for cabinets covers which lines pros actually spray. best paint for cabinets
Set your regional index
The same 24-door kitchen is quoted around $3,400 in a rural market and past $6,000 in a coastal metro. The index scales labor, not gallons.
THE PER-DOOR PRICING MODEL PROS USE
These are the national-average base rates behind the calculator as of 2026, before any multiplier. Contractors building their own numbers should cross-check them against their own production data in how to price painting jobs.
| LINE ITEM | BASE RATE | WHAT IT COVERS |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet door (both faces, edges, rehang) | $118 | Includes degrease, sand, prime, 2 coats |
| Drawer front | $52 | Front and edges; box interiors not coated |
| Face frames + exposed ends, per linear ft | $24 | Coated in place, in the room |
| Cabinet interiors & shelves, per linear ft | +$13 | Add-on; slows every coat |
| Mobilization, masking, containment | $145 | One-time setup on any kitchen |
The multipliers that move the number
| CONDITION | FACTOR | WHY |
|---|---|---|
| Laminate or thermofoil | x1.26 | Shellac or bonding primer plus a longer flash-off |
| Glossy varnish or conversion coat | x1.12 | Full degloss pass before primer touches it |
| Previously painted, sound film | x0.94 | Scuff-sand only, no tannin blocking |
| Brush + roll instead of spray | x0.86 | No booth, no masking bill, visible texture |
| Doors sprayed off-site | x1.16 | Haul, rack, cure, and return two trips |
| Dark stain to white | x1.14 | Extra finish coat and a second primer pass |
| Heavy grease at the range | x1.07 | Degreaser and rinse before any abrasive |
| Region | x0.82 - x1.40 | Labor market, not material cost |
Gallons are calculated separately from price: doors and drawer fronts get coated on both faces, sprayed coverage runs near 300 sq ft per gallon after transfer loss, and brushed coverage runs closer to 350. Check the numbers against our paint calculator if you are buying material yourself.
CABINET PAINTING COST BY KITCHEN SIZE
$100 - $250
Per door, professionally sprayed
$30 - $70
Per linear foot of cabinetry
3 - 7 days
Kitchen out of service
Typical 2026 ranges for solid-wood cabinets in average condition, national pricing, two finish coats of a pro cabinet enamel. DIY figures are materials only — primer, enamel, abrasives, and masking — and assume you already own or rent the spray gear covered in our paint sprayer guide.
| KITCHEN | DIY MATERIALS | PRO, BRUSHED | PRO, SPRAYED |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small kitchen / galley12-16 doors, 4-6 drawers, ~16 lf3-4 days on site | $250 - $450 | $1,900 - $2,500 | $2,200 - $2,900 |
| Medium kitchen (10x10)22-26 doors, 8-10 drawers, ~25 lf5 days on site | $375 - $525 | $3,100 - $4,100 | $3,600 - $4,800 |
| Large kitchen + island32-38 doors, 12-14 drawers, ~35 lf6-7 days on site | $550 - $725 | $4,400 - $5,800 | $5,100 - $6,700 |
Contractors quoting this work should build the number line by line rather than from a size bracket — drop your figures into the painting estimate template so the door count, the primer spec, and the reinstall day are all on paper before the deposit.
WHAT MAKES A CABINET JOB COST MORE
Two kitchens with identical door counts can be quoted $2,000 apart. Almost all of the difference is prep — what has to happen before the first coat of primer. The walkthrough in how to paint kitchen cabinets shows the sequence these prep items sit inside.
Laminate and thermofoil adhesion
Slick thermofoil sheds ordinary latex primer within a year. It needs a shellac or bonding primer, a light scuff that does not cut through the film, and any lifting edges re-glued or the door replaced. Budget roughly a quarter more than the same kitchen in wood.
Grease at the range and hood
Cooking oil migrates into the finish around the cooktop. Sanding greasy doors drives the contamination deeper and guarantees fisheyes. Pros wash with a degreaser, rinse with clean water, and only then sand, which adds a few hours to every kitchen that has been cooked in hard.
Glaze, distressing, and open grain
Glazed and distressed cabinets carry a heavy topcoat that has to be deglossed completely. Open-grain red oak telegraphs its grain through paint unless it is grain-filled or given an extra high-build primer coat and sanded flat between passes.
Dark to light color changes
Espresso to white means a stain-blocking primer and a third finish coat. Tannin bleed from cherry, mahogany, and knotty pine shows as pink or amber ghosting through white enamel if the primer is not a blocker.
Hardware, hinges, and door repairs
Swapping knobs for pulls means filling and re-drilling every door. Concealed-hinge conversions, cracked panels, and sagging drawer boxes are carpentry, billed separately from the finish work.
Living in the kitchen while it happens
On-site spraying means plastic containment, filtered exhaust, and a kitchen you cannot cook in for several days. Off-site spraying keeps the mess out of the house but leaves the boxes doorless for the better part of a week.
PAINT VS REFACE VS REPLACE
Painting is the cheapest of the three by a wide margin and the only one that keeps your existing doors. Typical 2026 ranges for a standard 25-linear-foot kitchen:
| OPTION | COST | FINISH LIFE | DOWNTIME |
|---|---|---|---|
| PaintBoxes are solid, layout works, you want a color change | $2,000 - $6,500 | 8-12 years | 3-7 days |
| RefaceBoxes are solid but doors are damaged, warped, or dated in style | $4,000 - $12,000 | 15-20 years | 3-5 days |
| ReplaceLayout is changing, boxes are particleboard mush, or there is water damage | $8,000 - $30,000+ | 20-30 years | 3-6 weeks |
Rule of thumb: if a reface quote lands above half the cost of full replacement, price the replacement seriously. And if the boxes are swollen particleboard under the sink, no finish will save them. The full head-to-head is in cabinet refinishing vs painting.
CABINET PAINTING COST FAQ
RELATED TOOLS & GUIDES
How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets
The full prep-to-reinstall sequence pros follow, step by step.
Best Paint for Cabinets
Which enamels actually hold up on doors and drawer fronts.
Cabinet Refinishing vs Painting
Head-to-head on cost, durability, and when each one wins.
Interior Painting Cost Calculator
Price the rest of the house by room, coats, and prep level.
Painting Estimate Template
Turn these numbers into a quote a client can sign.