There is a lot of time that goes into painting cabinets. Unless you are painting them yourself it will not safe much money. And the factory finish is usually more durable then you can get from site finished.

factory finish is better. are they spraying it w/a conversion lacquer or what kind of paint will be used?

you don't say how large the kitchen is, but 6K would be a good estimate for on site painting. There is a ton of work that goes into it. the good thing is that yours would be raw wood, so that saves a lot of time. if done correctly by a cab painter, the finish will be pretty close to factory. again, find out what the painter does. what are his steps. what paint / primer does he use.

if you think you're going to get joe blow house painter to come in and do them for 2K, and have them look good or even last a year, you're nuts. 5K is the average cost for a medium sized kitchen.

I'd have them do it at the factory before they come to you. also make sure you get a written guarantee on wear and tear and touch ups.

Unless you have a good place to do the work and lots of painting experience, I would definitely go with the factory painting. If you are going to pay someone, I agree with the above posts that the factory painting will be better quality than an onsite. If I wanted painted cabinets, would pay the $6k for their painting.....and I am really cheap LOL!!!

I would do the proper finish at the cabinet maker for sure.

Factory finish is always the best!

Factory. That's pretty inexpensive for painting all those cabinets (which are starting at a much lower price because they are unfinished).

A good finish done with a spray room and expensive equipment lasts a lot better than a paint job. I think you need to find out how your cabinet supplier finishes cabinets.

You’ll regret not getting them painted at the factory.

Factory finish. You can't just hire a house painter and tell him to paint the cabinets. It's a specialized skill that requires experience to get the job done well.

Typically it costs as much to finish the cabinets properly as it does to make them. I’d have to ask what they are finishing with that was so cheap. If it’s housepaint, you have a fake custom cabinet maker. And you shouldn’t use them at all.

"paint" should generally be done as a conversion varnish, not actual paint. It's often still called paint, because that's what it looks like but holds up much better. You probably want to ask the cabinet people what paint actually means.

"The total for the 3 rooms with full overlays and a couple of carefully chosen bells & whistles (knife drawer, trash roll-out, etc) is ~ $18k. The cost for 'Chandler Color' is $6,600. Proportionately, that sounded crazy to us," -

The proportion does seem a bit off at first until you understand what goes into the process. With the original estimate you are paying for the "bells & whistles" in addition to the cost of the cabinets themselves. The cost of the "paint" is most likely because the 'Chandler Color' is a custom color/finish, in where the manufacturer may have to run the cabinets through multiple processes in order to achieve the desired look and therefore resulting in more time and labor costs. You can ask your manufacturer for a break down or an explanation as to what exactly goes into this secondary process which may make you feel better about spending the extra money.

"the cabinet maker is far superior to that of hiring a painter to paint them." -

If your manufacturer is doing these processes correctly in a clean and controlled environment your result will be well worth the extra expense, especially if it is the color you really want.

Hope this helped put you mind at ease.

Best of luck!

In a word, yes.

Wrong cabinets maker do cabinets what you need it’s a finisher a professional cabinets painter a finisher not a painter that paint walls but a wood finisher