Kitchen cabinet refinishing in St. Louis.
Your original cabinets are almost certainly worth saving. We'll strip them back to bare wood, repair what needs repairing, and finish them to last another 30 years — for a fraction of the cost of replacement.
Painted cabinet refinishing
Proper prep, priming, and hand-applied finish — not a spray-and-pray job.
Learn moreStained cabinet refinishing
Hand-strip method preserves wood grain and allows precise stain matching.
Learn moreCabinet color change
New color. Same cabinets. A fraction of the cost of replacement.
Learn morePainted. Stained. Color-changed. We do all three.
Wood Refinishing by Sue Wheeler refinishes kitchen cabinets of every finish type — painted cabinets being refreshed or color-changed, natural wood cabinets being stripped and re-stained, and everything in between. The method is the same regardless: hand-strip to bare wood, prepare the surface properly, apply the right finish for how the cabinets will be used.
What we don't do: spray a new coat over an old one and call it done. That's not refinishing. It's painting over a problem. Within a few years the old finish telegraphs through the new, the adhesion fails, and you're back where you started — or worse.
Every cabinet project starts at bare wood. That's what "refinishing" means.
The case for keeping your original cabinets.
New kitchen cabinetry runs $15,000–$50,000 or more installed, depending on material and scope. Refinishing the existing cabinet boxes and doors is typically a fraction of that cost — and the result is cabinets that look new because the wood underneath them is solid, original, and correctly prepared.
Most kitchen cabinets in pre-1978 St. Louis homes were built from old-growth lumber — wood cut from slower-growing, tighter-grained trees that no longer exist commercially. That wood is denser, harder, and holds finish better than the plantation-grown wood used in today's new cabinetry. When you replace original cabinets, you lose material quality that money cannot buy back.
Original cabinets were built to fit the specific dimensions of the kitchen. Replacements rarely match precisely. There's always a gap somewhere, a trim piece that doesn't quite align, a proportion that's slightly off. Original cabinets, properly restored, simply fit better.
Pre-1978 kitchen? Lead paint is almost certainly present.
In St. Louis City, 89.8% of homes were built before 1978. The cabinets in those kitchens were painted or stained with products that contain lead. Stripping those cabinets without EPA-certified lead-safe protocols creates lead dust in a room where your family prepares food.
Sue Wheeler is an EPA Certified Lead Removal. Every cabinet project in a pre-1978 home is handled with full containment, HEPA filtration, wet-sanding methods, and documented cleanup. You get a completion record. You don't have to wonder.
More about lead paint and refinishing →What cabinet refinishing actually involves.
Assessment and estimate
We look at the cabinets — finish type, wood species, condition of the existing finish, any damage or repairs needed. We give you a written estimate with a real scope.
Removal (board-up method)
For most projects, we remove the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, transport them to our shop, and work in a controlled environment. Cabinet boxes typically stay in place. This keeps dust and fumes out of your kitchen and allows us to control humidity and temperature for a better cure.
Stripping
Hand-strip to bare wood. No dip tank. Every piece, by hand. This preserves the grain, the profiles, and the integrity of the wood.
Repair
Any damage — dings, gouges, cracks, loose joints — is addressed before finishing. We use appropriate fillers and repairs for each material and situation.
Stain (if applicable)
For stained cabinets, we match your existing stain or help you choose something new. Stain is applied and wiped to the correct tone before finishing.
Finish
Oil-based or water-based polyurethane, selected for the application. Multiple coats, sanded between coats. A kitchen cabinet finish needs to handle heat, humidity, cleaning products, and daily use — we finish accordingly.
Reinstallation
Doors and drawer fronts are returned and rehung. Hardware is reinstalled. We leave your kitchen the way we found it — except the cabinets look 30 years newer.
Strip & Refinish or Perk Up & Protect?
Strip & Refinish (S&R)
Full restoration. Existing finish stripped to bare wood, repairs made, new stain and finish applied. For cabinets with failing finish, significant wear, or a major color change.
Perk Up & Protect (PUP)
Maintenance coat. Light sanding to prepare the surface, fresh finish applied over the existing. For cabinets in good structural condition with a solid existing finish that just needs refreshing. Faster and less expensive. Not right for every situation — we'll tell you honestly which option your cabinets need.
"We had a contractor tell us our 1940s oak cabinets were beyond saving. Sue came out, looked at them for five minutes, and told us they were some of the best original cabinets she'd seen. We refinished them. They look incredible."
— Homeowner, Maplewood
Common questions
Ready to talk about your kitchen?
Free estimates. No obligation. Sue answers every call personally.