Can I paint my own kitchen cabinets or should I hire a professional painter in New Brunswick?

You can paint your own kitchen cabinets, but the honest answer is that most DIY cabinet paint jobs look noticeably different from professional spray-finished work — and since kitchen cabinets are the most scrutinised surface in your home, the difference matters. Whether DIY makes sense depends on your skill level, your tools, and how much you care about a factory-smooth finish.

The core challenge is that brushes and rollers leave texture — brush marks, roller stipple, and lap lines — that is very visible on flat cabinet doors in raking light. Professional painters spray cabinets with an HVLP or airless sprayer in a controlled environment, which produces a glass-smooth finish impossible to replicate with a brush.

If you decide to DIY, here is what produces the best possible result. Remove all cabinet doors, drawers, and hardware — paint every piece flat, never in place. Degrease everything thoroughly with TSP substitute. Sand with 120-grit, then 180-grit. Apply a bonding primer (oil-based or shellac-based products like Zinsser BIN work well). Use a foam roller for the flat panels and a high-quality brush for the edges. For the topcoat, use a cabinet-specific acrylic-alkyd hybrid paint like Benjamin Moore Advance or Sherwin-Williams ProClassic ($60-90/gallon). Apply two thin coats minimum, scuff lightly between coats with 220-grit. Allow full cure time before rehanging (at least 7 days).

The most common DIY cabinet mistakes are skipping the degreasing step, using standard wall paint, applying coats too thick, and rushing the cure time.

The case for hiring a professional is strong for kitchens. Professional cabinet painting in New Brunswick typically costs $2,500-6,000 for an average kitchen with 20-30 doors and frames. That price includes proper prep, spray application, a factory-smooth finish, and reassembly. When you factor in the cost of quality primer and paint, brushes, sandpaper, and 2-3 full weekends of your time — plus the risk of a finish you’re unhappy with — the professional option is often the better value.

For a bathroom vanity with 2-4 doors, DIY is much more reasonable — the smaller scale means the prep is manageable and a good brush finish is achievable.

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Find a Painting Contractor

New Brunswick Painting helps you find local painting contractors through the New Brunswick Construction Network:

• Expressions Painting
• Loves Painting Ltd.
• Worry No More Handyman Services