Cabinet Painting & Refinishing – San Bruno, CA

We work on kitchen uppers and lowers, bath vanities, and utility or laundry room cabinets. San Bruno's mid-century tract homes generally have standard upper-lower bank kitchens without islands — the kind of straightforward scope that refinishing handles efficiently. The older Tank Hill bungalow kitchens tend to be smaller still, sometimes galley configurations with basic wood cabinets. Bath vanities in both eras are usually single-sink units in need of a fresh finish. We handle all of it in one project visit.

Every door and drawer comes off, gets labeled, and goes to a spray booth — either off-site or a mobile setup on-site — for a flat, even finish without brush marks. Box frames are sanded and deglossed in place with dust containment. We use SW Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel or BM Advance as the finish system, with INSL-X Cabinet Coat or SW Extreme Bond as bonding primer on previously coated or slick surfaces. San Bruno sits between the coast and the bay, close enough to the marine layer that we extend dry time between coats — rushing cure in humid air leads to soft or peeling finish later. Pre-1978 homes follow EPA RRP lead-paint protocol before any sanding.

Satin is the standard for kitchen work — durable, cleanable, and low enough sheen to hide minor surface texture variation in older cabinets. Semi-gloss for bathrooms. San Bruno's overcast, marine-influenced light doesn't flatter harsh bright whites the way inland sun does — warm whites, soft greiges, and light grays tend to work better in these compact kitchens. We'll review color direction with you at the estimate.

Door and drawer count is the main variable. A compact galley in a Tank Hill bungalow may run 10–12 doors and 4–6 drawers — a tighter scope than a larger mid-century tract home. The existing finish condition matters: old factory paint in decent shape preps faster than a surface that's been repainted multiple times at home. A color change versus same-color refresh adds a primer coat. Pre-1978 lead-paint scope adds time to the prep phase.

We've refinished original 1950s tract kitchen cabinets in San Bruno where the factory white had yellowed and chipped at the edges — full degloss, bonding primer, two sprayed finish coats, and the cabinets looked factory-clean again. We've also done Tank Hill bungalow kitchens where the smaller galley scope made for a tight two-day project: removal and prep day one, spray and reinstall days two and three.