How much does it cost to paint kitchen cabinets professionally in New Brunswick in 2026?

Professional kitchen cabinet painting in New Brunswick costs $2,500–$6,000 for an average kitchen with 20–30 doors and frames, making it one of the highest-return renovations available to NB homeowners — a fraction of the cost of new cabinets with a dramatically fresh result.

The range is wide because kitchens vary significantly. A small kitchen with 15 doors and a simple layout with no upper glass-front doors will come in at the lower end, while a large kitchen with 35+ doors, multiple drawer fronts, intricate moulding profiles, and specialty finishes can exceed $5,000. Most Moncton, Fredericton, and Saint John homes fall somewhere in the middle — 20–25 cabinet doors — and a professional job in that range typically runs $3,000–$4,500.

What separates professional cabinet painting from a DIY effort is the process and equipment. Professional painters who specialise in cabinets will remove all doors and drawer fronts, transport them to a shop or set up a spray area, and apply a dedicated cabinet-grade finish — typically Benjamin Moore Advance, Sherwin-Williams ProClassic, or a similar acrylic-alkyd hybrid product. These paints are formulated to cure to a hard, washable film, not the soft finish that regular wall paint produces. The spray application eliminates brush marks entirely, producing the smooth, factory-looking surface that makes painted cabinets look high-end.

The prep process is what makes cabinet painting expensive — and worth it. Cabinets accumulate years of cooking grease, soap residue, and handling oils that must be completely removed before any paint will adhere properly. Professionals clean with a degreaser, lightly sand all surfaces to break the gloss, apply a bonding primer, sand again between primer and paint, apply two or more topcoats with sanding between, and then reinstall with new hardware. Skipping or rushing any of those steps — which is easy to do as a DIY project — is the reason painted cabinets sometimes chip, peel, or show brush marks within a year.

For NB homeowners on a tighter budget, consider painting just the upper cabinets or just the cabinet boxes (leaving doors unpainted and simply swapping the hardware). Some painters also offer a refresh service — touch-up and one additional topcoat on existing painted cabinets that are in decent shape but looking worn — which runs $800–$1,500 for a typical kitchen.

The colour you choose matters practically, not just aesthetically. Darker paint colours on cabinets require more coats to achieve full coverage and show fingerprints more readily in NB's typically bright kitchen environments. White and off-white remain the most popular choices in the NB market because they photograph well for resale, pair with almost any countertop and hardware, and require fewer coats to achieve opacity over existing wood grain.

Cabinet painting is one job where hiring a professional over DIY is an easy call. The tools, technique, and specialty products required to achieve a smooth, durable, factory-like finish are genuinely difficult to replicate at home. For a surface you look at and touch every single day, the professional result is worth the investment.

New Brunswick Painting can connect you with painters who specialise in cabinet refinishing through the New Brunswick Construction Network directory — it's a free matching service.

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