High-End Kitchen Cabinet Respray — 42 Doors in Railings

The Challenge

Achieving a factory-quality spray finish in a residential kitchen in situ requires the same level of preparation discipline as an off-site spray facility. The Chelsea apartment had an open-plan kitchen-living arrangement, with the kitchen occupying one end of a large reception room: the entire living area needed to be sealed from overspray while the kitchen was treated. The 42 shaker-profile doors and drawer fronts were in varying condition — the most frequently used lower doors showed micro-chipping at the leading edges from daily contact, and several drawer fronts had hairline cracks at the panel joints that required filling before spraying to prevent them telegraphing through the new finish. The client also wanted the recessed LED strip lights within the upper cabinets removed, cleaned of grease deposits, and reinstated without repainting — a precision masking task that added time to the preparation phase.

Our Approach

The kitchen was isolated from the living area using floor-to-ceiling dust barriers sealed with masking tape at every junction. All doors and drawer fronts were removed, labelled numerically, and transported to a temporary preparation area in the apartment's entrance hall. Each piece was degreased with a dedicated panel wipe solution, sanded with 240-grit Mirka Abranet to create a consistent key, and all edge chipping and panel cracks filled using a two-part flexible filler, sanded to a perfect flush finish. All pieces were then primed with Zinsser BIN shellac-based primer to provide optimum adhesion and stain-blocking on the existing painted MDF surface. Cabinet frames, carcasses, and internal surfaces visible with the doors open were carefully masked and the in-situ frames sprayed using an HVLP fine-finish gun. All 42 doors and drawer fronts were sprayed flat in two full coats of Farrow & Ball Railings equivalent in a hard-wearing satin formulation — Mylands Wood and Metal Eggshell — with light denibbing between coats. The handles were individually sprayed in Mylands Marble Arch through two coats of primer and two topcoats, providing a finish of considerably higher quality than off-the-shelf replacement handles. LED strips were re-masked individually during spraying and reinstated on completion.

The Result

The completed kitchen is unrecognisable from its previous cream incarnation, presenting a sophisticated, deep-toned scheme in Railings that suits the apartment's riverside views and high-specification stone worktops. The spray finish quality on both doors and handles is indistinguishable from a factory-applied lacquer, with no brush marks, lap lines, or texture variation visible under even the directional under-cabinet lighting. The client confirmed that her interior designer, who had been sceptical about an in-situ respray, described the result as the best cabinet respray she had encountered in ten years of specifying them for clients.