Old painted kitchens in brick houses need lead testing, careful sanding and hinge work before any colour goes on. Site-built cabinets with out-of-square doors and heavy paint build-up can be brought back without stripping the character out of the room.
The lower city, the North End, Crown Point, Gibson, Stipley and Westdale are largely brick houses built between the 1890s and 1950, and their kitchens have been painted, replaced and painted again. Durand, Kirkendall, Corktown and the old cores of Dundas and Ancaster Village hold the same stock. Cabinet painting in these houses is closer to restoration than to a colour change.
Cabinet Painting In A Pre-1980 Kitchen Starts With A Lead Test
Nothing gets sanded in a pre-1980 kitchen until the existing paint has been tested. Canada cut lead in interior paint in 1976 and tightened the limit again in 2005, so anything site-painted before that date is a question mark rather than a known quantity.
Testing is cheap and fast, either with a kit on site or through a lab where the result matters. We will never tell you a kitchen is safe because it looks new, and we will never describe old cabinets as free of lead without a test behind the statement. If the result comes back positive, the prep changes to wet methods and containment, and the cabinet painting quote changes with it.
Doors Out Of Square Will Not Close Evenly After Cabinet Painting Without Hinge Work
A century kitchen almost always has doors that hang crooked, and cabinet painting does nothing for that on its own. Butt hinges from the 1930s wear at the pin, screw holes wallow out in soft old wood, and door edges have been planed by somebody along the way.
Screw holes get plugged and re-drilled so the fasteners bite fresh wood. Where the door itself has twisted, the stop or the hinge leaf gets adjusted rather than forcing the door straight. Swapping to concealed soft-close hinges is possible on some of these cabinets and impossible on others, which is set out on the cabinet hardware and soft-close hinges page.
Decades Of Paint Build-Up Hide The Shape Of The Cabinet Painting
Rails, stiles and bead details lose their edges under six or eight coats of old cabinet painting, and the fix is selective, not total. Stripping an entire kitchen back to bare wood is rarely worth the cost, so we take the build-up down where it matters and feather the rest.
Bead, cove and any moulded edge gets worked back until the profile reads again. Drips and sags from earlier work get sanded flat. Where the old film is chalky or lifting, it comes off entirely in that spot and the bare patch is spot-primed before the whole door is coated.
Plaster dust is the other constant. Lath and plaster ceilings shed grit all through the house, so cabinet painting in these rooms means far more masking and far more tack-clothing between coats than a newer house needs.
Narrow Galley Kitchens Need The Cabinet Painting Staged Differently
A galley three feet wide cannot hold a cabinet painting crew, a ladder and a family at the same time, so the sequence changes. Doors and fronts leave for the shop on the first day, which frees the floor and lets the boxes be sprayed in one continuous pass.
High ceilings in these houses often mean a run of upper cabinets that stops well short of the crown, or a soffit that was built later. Both get masked and coated so the finish reads as one piece. When a kitchen also has a built-in hutch or a pantry cupboard in the back hall, it is worth doing at the same time, as covered under pantry, laundry and built-in cabinet painting.
Book A Cabinet Painting Visit For A Century Home Kitchen
Older kitchens are quoted after somebody has actually looked at them, never over the phone. We check the paint, the hinges, the door fit and the substrate, then put the cabinet painting scope and price in writing. Call +1 (289) 201-5389, ask for the visit here or look through the rest of the services first.
Century Brick Home Cabinet Painting Questions
Does my old kitchen need a lead test?
Paint applied before 1980 may contain lead, so site-built cabinets in an older house are tested before a sander is switched on. The result is not assumed in advance. If lead is found, the quote explains how the prep changes.
Can doors that are out of square be fixed?
Often yes. Worn hinges are replaced or adjusted, and the doors are rehung so the gaps line up. Doors that have warped badly may need a different answer, and that is stated in the written quote.
Will the painted kitchen still look like part of the house?
Yes. The shape of the rails, stiles and panels is kept, and decades of paint build-up on the edges are sanded back first. The goal is a clean, level finish that suits the room, not a stripped-down look.