Start with the boxes, not the color
Refinishing works when the cabinet boxes are sound. Open a door and look at the box itself: if the joints are tight, the shelves are not sagging, and the material has not swelled anywhere water has sat, you have something worth finishing. If the boxes are particle board that has gone soft under the sink, paint is not the answer and no finish will hide it.
What a sprayed finish actually gets you
A properly sprayed cabinet finish has no brush texture in it and cures hard enough to take daily use. That is the real difference between refinishing and a weekend paint job: not the color, the surface. Getting there means doors and hardware off and labeled, everything degreased, sanded, bonding primer, then sprayed in thin coats with cure time between them.
The degreasing step is the one people skip and the one that decides whether it lasts. Kitchen cabinets carry years of cooking film, and no primer bonds through that.
What it will not fix
Refinishing changes color and surface. It does not change layout, it does not add storage, and it does not fix a door that was never square. If what actually bothers you about the kitchen is that the cabinet over the fridge is unreachable and there is nowhere to put a mixer, paint will not solve it and you will still be annoyed in a nicer color.
Timeline and living with it
Cabinet work runs on its own schedule because each coat has to cure. Plan on the kitchen being partly out of use, doors being off for several days, and a masked-off work area. It is disruptive in a way a wall repaint is not, and compressing it is how finishes end up tacky.
The honest comparison
Refinishing sound boxes costs a fraction of replacement and takes a fraction of the time. Replacing is the right call when the boxes are failing or the layout is the problem. We will tell you which one you have at the estimate, including when the answer is that you do not need us.
