A kitchen respray is the single best-value job in decorating: you keep the carcasses, the worktops and the layout, and you change the thing everybody actually looks at. Done properly it is indistinguishable from a factory finish.
The problem is that quotes vary enormously — and not because one decorator is greedy. They vary because different people are quoting for genuinely different amounts of work. Here is what moves the number.
1. How many doors, drawers and panels there really are
Kitchens are priced per item, not per metre. A galley kitchen with 14 doors is a very different job from an island kitchen with 32 doors, six drawer fronts, two end panels, a pantry and a plinth run.
Count yours before you ring anyone. It is the fastest way to get quotes that can actually be compared.
2. What the doors are made of
Sprayed MDF and wood doors behave predictably. Vinyl-wrapped, melamine and high-gloss thermofoil doors need extra work: the wrap has to be dealt with, the surface keyed and a specialist adhesion primer applied, or the paint will peel at the edges within a year.
- Solid wood and painted MDF — straightforward, best results
- Vinyl-wrapped — needs extra prep and a bonding primer
- High-gloss and laminate — needs de-glossing and a specialist system
- Previously badly painted doors — may need stripping back first
3. Prep and where the spraying happens
Proper prep is removal, labelling, degreasing (kitchens are full of cooking grease), filling, sanding, keying and priming. Spraying off-site or in a sealed, extracted booth area gives a cleaner finish than spraying in a lived-in kitchen behind plastic sheeting.
A cheap quote is almost always cheap because it skips one of those steps. Degreasing is the one most often skipped — and it is the one that causes fisheye and peeling.
4. Colour and finish
Deep, saturated colours and pure whites both need more coats. Matt hides more; satin and gloss show every imperfection underneath, so they demand more filling and sanding time. Two-pack lacquer costs more than water-based systems but is far tougher around handles and the bin cupboard.
5. What a fair quote should tell you
Ask for it in writing, and ask it to state:
- Number of doors, drawers and panels included
- The paint system by name, and how many coats
- Whether doors are sprayed on-site or off-site
- How long the kitchen will be unusable
- Whether handles, hinges and soft-close are refitted and adjusted
- What happens if there is a chip or a run after completion
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Common questions
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