Answer

How Much Does It Cost to Paint Kitchen Cabinets?

Priced by door and drawer count, not by the size of the kitchen.

Cabinet refinishing is priced per piece, so a small kitchen with a lot of doors can cost more than a large kitchen with few.

Item	Typical Houston range
Per door or drawer front, sprayed both sides	$75 – $150
Typical 30-door kitchen, doors and boxes	$3,000 – $6,500
Oak grain filling	adds roughly 20–30%
Hardware change, fill and re-drill	$150 – $400

These are typical Houston ranges, not a quote. Surface condition and preparation move them more than size does, so treat them as a planning guide and let the written estimate be the real number.

The short answer

Cost comes down to how many doors and drawer fronts there are, whether the boxes and frames are included, and how much work the existing finish and wood species demand. Oak, with its open grain, needs filling and sanding before it will take paint smoothly, and that is the single most common reason two cabinet quotes differ.

The thing to check in any quote

Whether the boxes are included. A doors-only quote looks cheaper and leaves you with painted doors on unpainted frames, which reads as unfinished. Get both priced so you are comparing the same job.

Refinishing keeps your boxes and layout. That is why it costs a fraction of replacement, which means demolition, new units and usually countertop disturbance.

What affects it

Door and drawer count, and whether boxes and frames are painted too
Wood species and grain, and whether grain filling is needed
The existing finish, including thermofoil and heavy kitchen grease
Sprayed versus brushed, and where the spraying happens
New hardware, which may mean filling and re-drilling

See the full cabinet painting cost guide, or how it compares with refacing and replacing.

Common questions

Is painting cabinets cheaper than replacing them?

Substantially, in almost every case, because the boxes stay and there is no demolition or countertop work.

Can oak cabinets be painted smooth?

Yes, but the open grain has to be filled and sanded first or it shows through the finish. It is extra work and should be priced up front.

Keep reading

Thinking about your kitchen?

We will count the doors, check the grain and the existing finish, and give you a written number.

Get Your Free Estimate Call (832) 956-1329