Cabinet Painting & Refinishing – San Mateo, CA

We work on kitchen uppers, lowers, islands, and pantry cabinets, plus bath vanities and built-in shelving. The bungalow and older craftsman homes near downtown and North B Street have smaller kitchens with original wood cabinets — often with accumulated paint layers. Hayward Park and Aragon tract homes from the 1950s typically have standard upper-lower banks in moderate-size kitchens. Newer bayfront homes trend toward open layouts with larger cabinet counts and islands. Bath vanities are a common bundle item — older San Mateo homes often have dated single-sink vanities that benefit from the same treatment as the kitchen.

All doors and drawers come off, get labeled for exact reinstall, and go to a spray booth — off-site or a mobile setup on-site — for a consistent, brush-mark-free finish. 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. Bayfront homes on the eastern San Mateo edge deal with salt-air exposure — we inspect hardware at teardown, treat sealed metal pieces before reinstall, and flag anything corroded. Pre-1978 homes follow EPA RRP lead-paint protocol.

Satin is the go-to for kitchens — durable, easy to clean, and forgiving on older surfaces that aren't perfectly flat. Semi-gloss for bathrooms. The older bungalow and craftsman neighborhoods near North B Street suit warm whites and classic creamy tones that work with existing wood trim. Hayward Park and Aragon tract kitchens being refreshed often go with cleaner whites or warm greiges. Bayfront newer construction tends toward cooler, brighter whites. We work from whatever direction you've landed on.

Door and drawer count is the primary variable — a small bungalow kitchen near North B Street differs significantly from a larger bayfront home. The existing finish condition matters: multiple paint layers on original bungalow cabinets add prep steps. Color change adds a primer coat. Salt-air hardware inspection adds time at teardown and reinstall for bayfront-adjacent homes. Pre-1978 lead-paint scope adds to the prep phase for the older downtown-area stock.

We've refinished original bungalow kitchen cabinets near North B Street where the existing finish had multiple paint layers going back decades — stripped to bare, primed with INSL-X Cabinet Coat, and finished in a warm white satin. We've also worked in Aragon tract homes where the 1950s factory-painted cabinets just needed a proper degloss, prime, and two-coat finish to look clean without box replacement.