Good cabinets don't always need replacing.
Solid-wood doors and square boxes can take another finish. Mike strips them back, repairs what's worn, moves the color, and sprays them again in the Crownsville shop — then hangs them back on your kitchen. Cabinet refinishing, restoration, and repair for kitchens across Anne Arundel County — Annapolis, Severna Park, Arnold, and the surrounding towns.
Priced from
- · The number of doors and drawer fronts
- · What's on them now, and what's underneath
- · How far the color has to move
- · What has to be repaired before spraying
Photos and a walk-through come before any number.
What cabinet refinishing and restoration covers.
Strip and re-spray
The old finish is taken back to bare wood, the surface is repaired and smoothed, and a new sprayed finish is built up in thin coats until it has depth and an even sheen.
Dye or stain color change
Keep the grain and move the color. Dye goes into the wood rather than sitting on top of it, so a tired honey oak or a dated orange cherry can be brought to a warmer, quieter tone.
Painted finish
Doors, drawer fronts, and frames prepped, primed, and sprayed in a solid color — the kind of smooth paint finish a brush alone doesn't produce.
Door and drawer repair
Loose rails, split stiles, warped fronts, tired joints, and worn hardware holes are fixed or rebuilt before anything is finished, so the repair doesn't telegraph through the new coat.
Off the wall, into the shop, back on the wall.
- 1
Mike walks the kitchen
He looks at what's on the cabinets now, tests a small area, and tells you straight out what will and won't take before you're quoted anything.
- 2
Doors and drawers come to the shop
Every door and drawer front is labeled and numbered, then loaded and driven to Crownsville, so everything goes back on the same box it came off.
- 3
Prep and repair
Hardware comes off, the old finish is stripped, dings and damage are repaired, and the grain is raised and smoothed between coats.
- 4
Color and finish
Dye or stain goes on by hand, then the clear finish is sprayed and allowed to cure in the shop, where dust and humidity are under some control.
- 5
Rehang and tune
Doors go back on, are aligned and adjusted, and the boxes and fixed panels are finished on site — the same person who stripped them hangs them.
When refinishing is the right call.
The boxes are solid and still square, the layout works, and the doors are sound — it's the finish that's gone. Yellowed varnish, sun-faded color, water rings, chips at the rails, or a stain you've looked at for twenty years. Refinish and the kitchen reads like new without a dumpster in the driveway.
It also keeps a good cabinet out of the landfill and the cabinetmaker's time on the parts that actually need building.
When a new kitchen is the better answer.
If the layout is changing, the boxes are particleboard and swollen, or you need different depths and heights, a finish won't fix it — that's a build. Mike will tell you which one he's looking at when he walks the space, even when the honest answer isn't the job he's quoting.
Read about custom kitchensCommon questions.
Can you make dark cabinets lighter?
Sometimes. Going lighter means stripping back to bare wood and often bleaching or dyeing, and how far a board will move depends on the species and what's been built into it over the years. Mike tests a hidden area or a spare door before promising a color.
Do the cabinets come to your shop, or do you work in my kitchen?
Doors, drawer fronts, and drawer boxes come to the shop where the finish can be sprayed and left to cure. The boxes, end panels, and anything fixed in place are prepped and finished in your kitchen.
Can you paint over the existing finish?
Paint needs a surface it can bond to. Depending on what's on there now — old lacquer, varnish, or a factory laminate — the doors are scuffed, stripped, or primed as needed so the paint doesn't peel at the edges a year later.
What kind of finish will my cabinets have?
A sprayed, shop-applied finish rather than a wipe-on. Sheen and durability get discussed up front: a kitchen that gets cooked in every day wants something tougher than a formal powder room.
Do you refinish vanities, built-ins, and furniture too?
Yes. Bathroom vanities, bookcases, entertainment centers, dressers, and tables run through the same process — repair first, then color, then a sprayed finish.
Do you do cabinet refacing?
No — refacing means covering your existing boxes with new veneer and hanging new doors. Mike refinishes and restores what you already have: same doors, same boxes, a new finish. If the boxes are sound, that keeps the kitchen you like the shape of; if they aren't, he'll say so and talk you through a rebuild instead.
How do I get a price?
Send photos of the kitchen, the number of doors and drawer fronts, and what color you're after. Refinishing is priced by door count, the condition of what's there, and how much color has to move — not by a per-foot rate.
Where we work
The shop is in Crownsville, in Anne Arundel County. If you're searching for kitchen cabinet refinishing near you in the Annapolis area, most jobs happen within about an hour's drive.
- · Annapolis
- · Severna Park
- · Crownsville
- · Arnold
- · Davidsonville
- · Edgewater
- · Millersville
- · Bowie
Longer drives — the Eastern Shore, Baltimore City, the DC suburbs — are worked in around larger commissions.
Wondering if your cabinets can be saved?
Send a few photos of the kitchen — straight on, and one close up on a door — and Mike will tell you what he thinks the finish can take.