When painting cabinets, it seems we have two choices, factory painting, or painting in place. Both have their pros and cons.

With factory painting, the painting is done in a painting booth under controller conditions, and the results are consistently good.  But, cabinets almost always get damaged on installation, especially with a big complicated install such as ours.

With painting in place, it is much harder to control the quality of the finish, as the environment is dusty, there are lots of other trades that are in and out and all about, and the nasty smell of lacquer paint makes it impossible for others to work when painting is occurring.  But the finish goes on at a time when it is much less likely to get damaged.  They do typically take off the doors and drawer fronts and take them back to the shop for painting, so at least those get done in a much better environment.

In our case, we are painting in place.  Here are some results from the dining room, pantry and kitchen, which are almost done.

The cabinet painters have been on the job for just over two weeks.  They probably have at least another three weeks to go as there are additional cabinets in the basement, the master bath, closet and bedroom built-ins, the two upstairs offices, and two bathrooms yet to be done.