Charcoal painted bar millwork in Kitchener restaurant

Retail, hospitality and rentals

Commercial Cabinet Painting in Kitchener for Retail, Restaurants and Rentals

Kitchener Elite Cabinet Painting & Refinishing paints commercial cabinetry and millwork for shops, restaurants, cafés, bars and rental properties across Kitchener-Waterloo: cash wraps, display cabinets, bar fronts, servery cabinets, host stands and the kitchens and vanities in rental units. Commercial cabinets take far more abuse than a home kitchen, from shopping baskets and boot heels to spilled drinks and sanitizer sprayed every hour.

Schedules are tighter too. A store cannot close for a week, a restaurant loses money every night its bar is under plastic, and a vacant rental unit costs rent every day, so we plan around that with evening and Sunday work and doors sprayed off site in our Kitchener booth, the same way we have run more than 1,700 cabinet jobs since 2010.

Owners and property managers get a certificate of insurance and a WSIB clearance certificate before we start, and every job carries our 1-year labour warranty.

Get a free quoteCall 519-555-0123
  • Written fixed quote
  • WSIB covered crew
  • 1-year labour warranty

What we paint

Commercial Millwork and Cabinet Painting Services

Commercial cabinet painting refinishes the built-in millwork a business already owns: we clean, prime and spray the fixtures so they look new and stand up to public use. It costs a fraction of new millwork and usually lets the business stay open while the work happens.

Our commercial work falls into three groups, retail fixtures, hospitality millwork and rental unit cabinets, and the list inside each is long.

  • Cash wraps, checkout counters and display cabinets
  • Perimeter wall cabinets, fitting room doors and stockroom storage
  • Bar fronts, back-bar cabinets and wine storage
  • Café counters, servery cabinets and host stands
  • Rental unit kitchens and bathroom vanities between tenants
  • Short-term rental and furnished suite cabinetry
  • Reception millwork in shared lobbies and amenity rooms

We paint wood, veneer, MDF, melamine and laminate millwork. Metal fixtures, slatwall and countertops are outside what we do.

Painted office kitchenette cabinets in Waterloo

Who we work for

Commercial Spaces We Work In

A boutique, a busy bar and a student apartment wear out their cabinets in completely different ways, and the prep, sheen and schedule follow from that.

Retail Fixtures and Display Cabinets

Store fixtures carry your brand, so colour accuracy matters more here than anywhere. We match your brand colour to the closest Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams shade and spray a sample board for sign-off before any fixture is touched.

Cash wraps and low display cabinets take scuffs from baskets, strollers and shoes, so they get a tougher sheen and often a darker toe kick.

  • Checkout counters and cash wraps
  • Glass-front display and perimeter cabinets
  • Fitting room doors and stockroom cabinets

Restaurant, Café and Bar Millwork

Bar and café millwork lives with grease, spilled drinks, ice, citrus and food-service sanitizer. We degrease twice with Krud Kutter, and doors and removable panels get Renner 2K, which handles constant sanitizer wiping far better than 1K paint.

We paint the cabinetry around the bar, not food-contact surfaces, bar tops or anything on the cooking line. Many restaurants book us for their closed day plus the evening before.

  • Bar die walls and back-bar cabinets
  • Servery, coffee station and host stand millwork
  • Washroom vanities in dining rooms

Rental Units and Property Turnovers

A rental kitchen has to be finished before the next tenant gets the keys. A typical kitchen takes 5 to 7 working days, which fits a one-week vacancy if it is booked 2 to 3 weeks ahead.

Tenant damage gets fixed first: ripped-out hinges, swollen edges and gouged doors go through our cabinet repair service before any primer goes on.

Coating system

Coatings for Commercial Wear

Commercial millwork gets our hardest finish: Renner 2K waterborne polyurethane, a two-component Italian coating that crosslinks into a harder, more chemical-resistant film than any 1K paint. Doors, drawer fronts and every panel we can remove are sprayed with it in our booth on Gage Ave in Kitchener.

Fixed counters and boxes are sprayed in place with Benjamin Moore ADVANCE or Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel, matched to the 2K in colour and sheen.

  • Semi-gloss, about 50% gloss, for bar fronts and cash wraps that are wiped constantly
  • Satin, about 25 to 35% gloss, for display cabinets and rental kitchens
  • INSL-X STIX bonding primer on melamine and laminate fixtures, after an adhesion test patch
  • Zinsser B-I-N on oak and cherry to stop tannin bleed through light colours
  • A third topcoat, included, when a light colour goes over dark stained wood

Our cabinet spraying service explains the booth and on-site HVLP equipment in more detail.

White painted boutique display cabinets with brass

Evenings and Sundays

Scheduling Around Business Hours

We schedule commercial work for evenings until 9:30 pm, Saturdays, and Sundays from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, so most businesses stay open through the whole job. The plan depends on how your business runs.

Retail Stores

Fixtures are emptied and doors removed after closing, the doors go to our shop, and fixed counters are sprayed on a Sunday or a quiet evening. A small boutique can usually trade every day of the job.

Restaurants, Cafés and Bars

We work your closed day and the evening before it, finishing the bar front or servery in one block. Doors spend at least 24 to 48 hours in the booth and are rehung before service.

Rental Units and Turnovers

Vacant units are painted during the day so they are ready for move-in. Occupied units follow the tenant's notice period and the building's contractor hours, usually 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on weekdays.

Plazas and Shared Buildings

Malls, plazas and mixed-use buildings set contractor hours, loading dock times and elevator bookings. We arrange those with your property manager and send our paperwork in advance.

Paperwork

Documentation for Commercial Clients

Yes, we provide everything a commercial landlord or property manager usually asks for: a certificate of insurance, a WSIB clearance certificate, safety data sheets and an itemized fixed quote. Most of it goes out the same day you ask.

Painted dental clinic reception millwork
DocumentWhat it showsWho usually asks for it
Certificate of insuranceOur commercial general liability coverage, naming your landlord or property managerMall and plaza management, condo corporations, commercial landlords
WSIB clearance certificateOur WSIB account is active and our workers are covered, as explained in the WSIB clearance FAQProperty managers and general contractors
Safety data sheetsHazards, handling and VOC content of each degreaser, primer and topcoatRestaurant owners and health and safety committees
Itemized fixed quoteEvery door, drawer front and panel, priced per piece, before HSTOwners, franchise head offices and accounts payable
Care sheet and warrantyColour, sheen, product and the 1-year labour warranty termsWhoever maintains the fixtures afterwards

All of our topcoats meet the federal VOC limits under SOR/2009-264, which matters in a dining room or a store that reopens the next morning.

Pricing

Multi-Unit and Repeat Work Pricing

Commercial and multi-unit work is priced per piece on a fixed written quote: about $110 to $150 per door, $75 to $95 per drawer front and $160 to $220 per tall door or full-height panel, before HST. A rental kitchen of up to 20 pieces typically runs $2,400 to $3,400.

For several units, we quote them together with each unit on its own line, so costs can be charged to the right property or account.

Greige painted rental apartment kitchen cabinets
ScopeTypical range before HST
Small rental kitchen, up to 20 pieces$2,400 to $3,400
Medium rental kitchen, 21 to 35 pieces$3,400 to $5,200
Rental unit bathroom vanity$650 to $1,100
Bar front and back-bar, 8 doors and 4 panels$1,520 to $2,080
Retail cash wrap, 4 doors, 4 drawer fronts and 2 panels$1,060 to $1,420

Tell us about repeat or multi-unit work when you ask for a quote so we can plan the units back to back. The minimum job is $650, and every rate is on our cabinet painting pricing page.

Why Kitchener Elite

Why Property Managers Hire Us

Property managers hire us because a unit or storefront comes back on the day we promised, finished to the same standard every time.

Our Own Crew at Scale

Our own trained painters have completed more than 1,700 cabinet jobs since 2010, and one lead painter runs each property from first visit to walkthrough.

Consistent Colour Across Units

Colour, sheen and product are written on each care sheet, so unit 12 matches unit 3 even when they are painted a year apart.

Nothing Left Behind

Empties, leftovers and masking leave with us, and painting instead of replacing keeps old boxes and countertops out of landfill.

Running a business office or a clinic instead? Our office cabinet painting service and our dental and medical office cabinet painting service, with its disinfectant test, are set up for those spaces.

Questions

Commercial FAQs

Owners and property managers usually ask about speed and colour before anything else.

Can you turn over a rental unit in a week?

Yes, for a typical rental kitchen. Most kitchens take 5 to 7 working days from first visit to walkthrough, so a vacant unit with a kitchen and one vanity fits a one-week gap if you book 2 to 3 weeks ahead.

Can you match our brand colour?

Yes. Give us your brand colour code or a physical sample, and we match it to the closest Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams colour and spray a sample board for your approval before any fixture is painted.

Can you paint melamine store fixtures?

Yes, if the melamine is intact and not swollen. We scuff-sand, prime with INSL-X STIX and test adhesion first, and the full prep is set out in painting melamine and laminate cabinets.

Do you work on Sundays?

Yes. We work Sundays from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, which suits stores with short Sunday hours and restaurants that close for the day.

Do you take commercial jobs outside Kitchener?

Yes. We work for businesses and landlords in Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph and the surrounding townships, with no travel charge inside Waterloo Region or Guelph.

Do you paint bar tops or countertops?

No. We paint the cabinetry and millwork below and around them, and we mask bar tops, counters and backsplashes while we spray.

Free quote

Request a Commercial Quote

Send photos of your fixtures, bar or rental kitchen, or ask for an after-hours walkthrough, and we will reply with a fixed, itemized quote within 1 business day of receiving photos.

  • Evening and Sunday work so you stay open
  • Brand colour matched and approved on a sample board
  • Certificate of insurance and WSIB clearance before we start
  • Multi-unit quotes itemized by unit
Call 519-555-0123
Shop
330 Gage Ave, Kitchener, ON N2M 5C6
Monday to Saturday
7:00 am to 9:30 pm
Sunday
9:00 am to 9:00 pm
Call 519-555-0123Free quote