What Is the Cost to Paint Cabinets Yourself?

We do not sell every job

I recently gave a customer an estimate to paint their kitchen cabinets. They decided professional cabinet painting cost too much and that they would do it themselves.

It happens. When you do it yourself, we want you to be able to watch our videos on YouTube or read our cabinet posts, so your process is similar to ours and your results are good. Here is that customer's feedback on doing it themselves, and how long it took.

How long it takes us to paint kitchen cabinets

When we are bidding, we start at 90 minutes per door, on the low end, to clean, sand, prime and paint a cabinet door. We also have a spray booth, sprayers and power sanders with dustless attachments, which help us move a bit faster.

For this kitchen, we estimated 4 days to remove the doors and drawers, clean the cabinets, mask the kitchen, sand, spray every piece and reinstall it all. There were about 33 pieces of different sizes.

How much does it cost to paint kitchen cabinets?

Staying with this one estimate, so you have a consistent reference: we estimated this kitchen at $5,324 for all labor and materials, for about 33 pieces.

How much are the materials to paint cabinets?

Here is our material list for this kitchen of about 33 pieces.

Some items we buy in bulk, which saves money. Some are averaged into the cost over the life of a tool. Some, like primer and paint, are bought for each job. For this kitchen, materials came to about $610.

For the cabinet paint on this kitchen, we used Chem-Aqua, a cabinet grade paint. Yes, there is a difference.

• Cleaner
• Rags
• Drop cloths
• Sprayer with a 5 and 3 needle set
• Strainer
• Masks
• Masking tape
• Marker to label each piece
• Exhaust fan
• Air cleaner and filter
• Razors and scrapers to remove old bumpers
• Wood filler for old handle holes and dowel rods
• Sandpaper, 320 and 220 grit
• Sanding blocks for hand sanded areas
• Power sander and vacuum
• 12 ft painter's plastic
• 6 extension poles to build a temporary wall
• Rosin paper to cover the floors
• Bonding paper
• Cabinet paint

How long it took the homeowner

Here is the time the customer logged doing it themselves.

What the homeowner said

They are happy with the results. In their words, about the time: "I stopped keeping track. Started Sept 6th, finished Oct 12th. Took a lot longer to get technique and flow going, issues with daycare and when I could or could not do it due to family issues. Messed up a few pieces to redo."

So what is the cost difference?

I do not have hard numbers for you. I have the cost we quoted and the time it takes us, above, and the time it took this homeowner.

For me, I am not having a kitchen torn up for over 5 weeks while it is painted. My wife would not be a fan. This is feedback from one person, and it does not mean you will have the same issues or take as long. But from where I sit, $5,000 and 4 days is kind of nice.

If you have questions about cabinet painting, ask us. Even if you decide to paint your cabinets yourself, we want to help you love the space you are in.