Cabinets are everywhere in the home.
They’re in the kitchen, of course, but also in bathrooms, family rooms, offices, laundry rooms, rec rooms, even closets.
Because they are prevalent, they can be overlooked, even ignored. But that would be a mistake. Freshly painted cabinets brighten any living space.
“A fresh coat of paint can offer a fresh perspective,” notes Kelly Kutchey, H.J. Holtz production manager.
Kutchey says the biggest cabinet painting trend Holtz & Son customers are seeing is a two-tone approach, where the upper and lower cabinets are given different colors. Typically, the upper cabinets are light – white or gray – and the lower cabinets are dark. This draws the viewer’s eye upward and lets natural light reflect from the upper cabinet fronts.
Another popular style is to transform the kitchen island with a bright high-gloss paint: royal blue, bright green, red or yellow. “The island is like a piece of furniture in the middle of a room,” Kutchey says. “It doesn’t have to match anything else.”
Bright colors can make a small room look larger, but it’s also possible to visually enlarge a room by keeping a monochromatic color scheme. “We’ve done some [projects] where the wall color is the same color as the cabinet; that really makes the room look big,” he says.
Homeowners are also turning to black paint for impact. While Kutchey says the Holtz & Son team hasn’t had many homeowners choose this approach, black, high-gloss cabinets, “look really good.”
The Holtz & Son method of painting cabinets generally includes five days of in-home painting, starting with the tagging of every cabinet door, drawer front, knob, and hinge, to ensure correct replacement. The doors are removed and the team cleans, brushes and rolls the cabinet boxes. The cabinet and drawer fronts go to the Holtz shop, where they are sanded and prepped. Coatings are applied in the spray room, a controlled environment designed to minimize dust and other air particles. “This gives a nice, even finish,” Kutchey says, noting that roughly 90% of what people see of a cabinet is the door or drawer front.
If the homeowner is changing knobs and pulls, Holtz & Son can fill the original holes and drill new ones, prior to painting. From start to finish, the whole process typically takes two to three weeks, to allow for drying time between stages.
Another way to dress up cabinets is to add molding or trim, which the Holtz & Son carpentry division can build in-house. The trim adds visual interest and can elevate standard cabinets to something special.
“People want their spaces to stand out,” Kutchey says. “Freshly painted cabinets can help with that.”