Our full process
Step-by-step: how we protect your home, finish in our shop, and deliver the reveal.
See our full cabinet painting process →Cabinet Painting in Chicagoland
Premium, shop-finished cabinet work for Chicago homes, designed around the look you want.
Get Your Estimateor call (630) 615-1283
EPA Lead-SafeCertified Firm
Licensed & InsuredYour home protected
5.0 on Google125+ reviews
250+ Five-Staracross all platforms
Est. 2012Founder-led
The technical difference
A finish you feel before you understand
Walk into a kitchen we have painted and the first thing you notice is not the color. It's the calm. No brush lines. No roller stipple. No tacky sheen catching the light the wrong way. Just a smooth, even surface that looks like it came that way from the factory. People used to call that a factory finish, and that is exactly what it is, so we are bringing the phrase back. It is the right one.
That look is the whole point. The color you picked, sitting on your cabinets exactly the way you imagined it, so the room finally feels like the one you have been seeing in your head.
Underneath that calm is a system we have refined for more than a decade. Our finish is built from Italian 2K pigmented polyurethane, a two component coating measured in a true gloss percentage, which is the honest way to talk about sheen. We run a 30 gloss on every cabinet we finish, which reads a lot like a satin, and for the right project we reach for ILVA 2K Polyurethane. What we never do is rush it into one or two heavy coats, because thick coats are how a finish fails. We build ours the opposite way, several coats laid on thin, layer over layer, and that is what makes it lie down flat and hold up for years.
The work happens in two places. The boxes stay in your home, where we encapsulate the kitchen in a sealed plastic bubble and spray them right there, clean and closed off from the rest of the house. The doors and drawer fronts come off and travel to our shop, a 2,000 square foot workspace built for exactly one thing, a flawless finish. Then they come home. We reinstall every door and drawer, adjust each one until it sits just right, set fresh bumpers, and walk the whole kitchen through a final inspection before we sign off. Every door, every drawer, every time. That is how you get brand new looking cabinets that actually stay that way.
ILVA 2k PolyurethaneEnviorlak T9000
In their own words
What homeowners say after the reveal
★★★★★
Joe the owner is a pleasure to work with. The quoting process is meticulous and he helped me devise solutions and help me update the condo's look while keeping costs reasonable. Any issues from walkthrough is quickly addressed and Brayan from Joe's crew did a good job painting the various parts of the apartment. Will definitely work with them again and recommend Fulton Revival to anyone looking at painting jobs. Give them a call!
Jenny T.
Interior Painting · Evanston
★★★★★
Joe and his team at Fulton Revivals were excellent and we are extremely pleased with the interior paint work done throughout our condo. They were professional and timely - communicating to us throughout the project. Joe had the team out quickly after project completion to address minor touch-ups post walk-through. Highly recommend and will utilize Fulton Revivals services for future work.
Carol H.
Interior Painting · Brookfield
★★★★★
We recently had our kitchen cabinets refinished by Fulton Revivals. Working with Joe and Krystal was amazing and we couldn’t be happier with the results! They were professional, reliable, and went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect. Our cabinets look absolutely beautiful — it’s like we have a brand new kitchen! Their attention to detail and pride in their work truly show. We highly recommend them to anyone looking for quality craftsmanship and outstanding service.
Margaret P.
Cabinet Refinishing · Deerfield
1,500+
Kitchens Revived
250+
reviews across all platforms
5.0
Rating on google
2012
serving chicago since
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Common questions
Questions we hear most
- How much does cabinet painting cost in Chicago?
- Most cabinet painting runs $150 to $250 per door and drawer front, so the size of your kitchen is the biggest driver of the total. Where you land in that range depends on the condition of your cabinets, the hinge style and overlay, and any repairs like water or impact damage. We price every job down to the penny off our production rates instead of guessing, so the number reflects your actual kitchen. For a full breakdown, see our cost guide.
- How long does cabinet painting take?
- About 5 to 10 working days start to finish. We finish the boxes in your home (usually 2 to 4 days for a typical kitchen), spray the doors and drawer fronts at our shop (3 to 5 days), then come back for a final reinstall day.
- Do you spray or brush the cabinets?
- We spray, always. Every door and drawer front is sprayed in our shop, not brushed or rolled, so the finish lays down dead smooth with no brushstrokes or stipple. That is what makes a sprayed cabinet read like a factory finish instead of a repaint.
- Will painted cabinets chip or peel?
- Not when the prep is done right, which is where most cabinet paint jobs fail. We clean every surface with ammonia and TSP, sand the entire set, lay down a primer made specifically for wood coatings, sand again, then build the finish in multiple, multiple thin coats. The chipping people have seen usually comes from cheap latex enamels brushed over a dirty, unsanded cabinet. We use 2K polys, so we don't have that problem.
- Do you paint the cabinet boxes too, or just the doors?
- Both, so your whole kitchen matches. We finish the boxes and face frames in your home and spray the doors and drawer fronts at our shop, then bring everything back together on reinstall day.
- Where do you paint the doors?
- At our shop, not in your kitchen. A controlled shop environment is how you get a clean, even, factory-quality finish, and it keeps the spraying, dust, and dry time out of your home. The boxes are done on-site, the doors and fronts come to us.
- What kind of paint and finish do you use on cabinets?
- We finish cabinets with an Italian two-component (2K) polyurethane built specifically for cabinetry, laid down in multiple thin coats over a primer made for wood coatings. It cures far harder than the latex enamels most painters use, which is why it holds up to daily kitchen wear. We can match every color.
- Can you paint over stained or wood cabinets?
- Yes. Oak, cherry, maple, birch, alder, laminate, and veneer all take paint well once they're properly cleaned, sanded, and primed, and open-grain woods like oak get extra prep so the grain doesn't show through the final finish. The few things we won't paint are thermofoil and certain vinyls, because nothing holds to them long-term and we won't set you up for a finish that fails.
- What colors work best for kitchen cabinets?
- Crisp whites and warm off-whites stay timeless, while greens, deep navies, and two-tone kitchens with a contrasting island are where a lot of our design-minded clients are going right now. The right answer depends on your counters, backsplash, floors, and light, which is why we pair sizable projects with a designer in The Curated Design Session so you commit with confidence, not on a hunch.
- Is cabinet painting worth it vs. replacing?
- For most kitchens, yes. If your cabinet boxes are solid, painting gives you a brand-new look for a fraction of the cost of new cabinets, with far less demolition and disruption. Replacement only makes sense when the boxes themselves are failing. If you want a new door style but solid boxes, refacing is the middle path worth comparing.
- Is cabinet painting the same as "cupboard painting"?
- Same service, different word. "Cupboard painting" is just the more British or informal name for what we do, refinishing your kitchen cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and boxes with a sprayed, durable finish. If you searched "cupboard painters," you're in the right place.
- Can you repaint cabinets that were already painted?
- Yes. We run the same process no matter what's on the cabinets now: we clean the full set, sand it down, prime, and paint. That way the new finish bonds to a stable, properly prepped surface instead of just layering over an old finish that may already be failing.
- How long do professionally painted cabinets last?
- Done right, a professionally painted cabinet finish lasts many years of daily kitchen use. The key is the system underneath: thorough prep, the right primer, and multiple thin coats of a hard two-component coating that cures far tougher than ordinary wall paint. That's what separates a finish that holds for years from a repaint that chips in months.
- Will the finish show brushstrokes, or is it smooth like a factory cabinet?
- Smooth, like a factory cabinet. Because we spray every door and drawer front in our shop rather than brush or roll them, the finish lays down dead even with no brushstrokes, ridges, or stipple. That sprayed, factory-grade smoothness is one of the biggest tells between professional cabinet work and a DIY or general-painter repaint.
- How do I clean and care for my painted cabinets?
- Easy. Wipe them with a soft, damp cloth and a mild dish soap when needed, and skip abrasive pads and harsh or ammonia-based cleaners that dull any finish over time. We hand you touch-up paint when we're done for the occasional nick, and the cured finish is built to take normal daily kitchen life.
- Do white painted cabinets turn yellow over time?
- Not with the right products. Yellowing is a known problem with cheaper oil-based finishes, which is exactly why we don't use them on white cabinets. The two-component coatings we spray are formulated to stay color-stable, so your whites hold true instead of ambering. It's another reason the product underneath matters as much as the color on top.
- Can you touch up a chip or scratch later, or does the whole door need repainting?
- Most small chips and scratches touch up cleanly, which is why we leave you matching touch-up paint when we finish. For everyday nicks you won't need to redo a whole door. If a door ever takes major damage, we can refinish that single door rather than the whole kitchen.
- Can you paint the cabinets around my sink and dishwasher where it gets wet?
- Yes, and those high-moisture zones are exactly where proper prep and the right coating earn their keep. We make sure those areas are cleaned, sealed, and finished to stand up to water and steam. If there's existing water damage to the cabinet itself, like swollen MDF under the sink, we repair that first, then finish, so it looks and holds up like the rest.
Ready when you are