The boxes stayed. The finish changed. The kitchen reads as new.
Studio City Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing — Island Colour Change and Full Cabinet Resurfacing
A cabinet resurfacing project in Studio City — the existing cabinetry refinished in a warm ivory with a hand-applied glaze, a dark gold-gilded island refinished to match the perimeter, brass hardware throughout, and panel-front appliance fronts built to match the doors.
CSLB #1071589Permitted & InspectedGreater Los Angeles
The Project
Project Overview — Studio City, CA
A full cabinet refinishing project — no boxes replaced, no layout changed, and a kitchen that reads as a complete remodel.
The cabinetry in this kitchen was solid. Well-built raised-panel doors, substantial face frames, dentil crown molding, a custom range hood, and a full run of uppers and base cabinets in good structural condition. What did not work was the finish, and one element in particular: the island.
The island had been finished in a dark, near-black tone with gold-gilded trim on every panel edge. Against warm ivory perimeter cabinetry, it read as a separate piece of furniture that had wandered into the room rather than the centerpiece of the kitchen. The homeowners were weighing a full replacement to fix it.
Replacement was not the right call here. The boxes were sound, the layout worked, and the millwork detail was better than most stock cabinetry available today. The finish was the problem — so the finish is what we changed. The result cost a fraction of a full gut, kept the existing millwork, and left the kitchen looking rebuilt.
Location
Studio City, CA — San Fernando Valley
Project Type
Cabinet refinishing and resurfacing
Scope
Perimeter cabinetry, island colour change, hardware, appliance panels
Finish
Warm ivory with hand-applied glaze in the profile detail
Island
Refinished from dark gold-gilded to match the perimeter
Hardware
Brass bar pulls throughout
Boxes
Existing — retained, assessed, and reused
Contractor
US LA Home Remodeling Inc — CSLB #1071589
Status
Completed
What We Did
Scope of Work
Assessment first, materials second. No finish work was scheduled until the condition of every box and door was confirmed.
- Box condition assessment across the full kitchen before any scope was quoted
- Full removal of doors, drawer fronts, and hardware for off-face preparation
- Degreasing, sanding, and priming of all door, drawer, and face-frame surfaces
- Warm ivory finish applied to perimeter cabinetry, uppers and base
- Hand-applied glaze worked into the raised-panel profiles and moulding detail
- Island refinished from dark gold-gilded to match the perimeter cabinetry
- Custom range hood refinished to match the surrounding uppers
- Dentil crown moulding refinished as part of the continuous run
- Panel-front appliance fronts finished to match the door profile and colour
- Brass bar pull hardware installed throughout, drilled to consistent centers
- Full alignment check — every door and drawer adjusted to hang level and close clean
The Challenge
Why This Kitchen Didn’t Need New Cabinets
The most expensive part of a kitchen remodel is usually the part that doesn’t need replacing.
Cabinet boxes are the structural frames mounted to your walls. They hold the shelves, they carry the weight, they anchor to the studs — and they don’t show. In this kitchen they were in good condition, properly anchored, with square face frames and no water damage at the sink run or the dishwasher.
Replacing them would have meant a dumpster, a week of demolition, new millwork that would struggle to match the existing dentil crown and custom hood, and a permit process the project didn’t otherwise need. All to solve a problem that lived entirely on the surface.
The island was the real issue. A dark, gold-gilded finish is a strong design decision, and when the rest of the room moved warm and light it stopped reading as intentional. Changing a dark finish to a light one is also the harder direction to work in — dark pigment bleeds through light topcoats without correct preparation and priming, which is why a colour change like this fails when it’s rushed.
The second constraint was matching. Refinishing a kitchen in stages leaves you with two finishes in one room. The island, the perimeter, the range hood, the crown moulding, and the appliance panels all had to land on the same colour and the same sheen — across different substrates, different profiles, and different ages of millwork.
The Approach
How We Did It
Assess the boxes, prepare properly, and finish every component in the room to the same specification — including the island.
The assessment came first: every box checked for water exposure history around the sink, the dishwasher, and the refrigerator run, plus anchoring to studs, face-frame condition, and door alignment. Boxes that pass make refacing and refinishing viable. Boxes that don’t get replaced before anything is ordered — and the homeowner gets that answer before they commit.
Doors, drawer fronts, and hardware came off so faces could be prepared off the cabinet rather than in place. Kitchen cabinetry carries years of cooking residue, and a finish applied over that will lift regardless of how good the topcoat is — so degreasing, sanding, and priming did the real work here.
The island was primed to block the existing dark pigment before any colour went on. That step is what separates a colour change that holds from one that ghosts through within a year.
Colour was then applied across every component in the room, with glaze worked by hand into the raised-panel profiles and the moulding detail. Glazing is what keeps a painted finish from reading flat: it settles into the profile and gives the door depth, which matters on traditional raised-panel millwork like this.
Brass bar pulls went on last, drilled to consistent centers, followed by a full alignment pass — every door and drawer adjusted until they hang level and close without binding. On a refinishing project that pass is the difference between a kitchen that looks refreshed and one that looks rebuilt.
Materials
Materials and Finish Detail
The finish is a warm ivory with a hand-applied glaze worked into the profile detail. On raised-panel doors the glaze is doing real work — it catches in the moulding edges and the panel shoulders, so the door reads with depth rather than as a flat painted surface.
The island now carries the same ivory and the same glaze as the perimeter, replacing the dark gold-gilded finish. Bringing the island into the room’s palette is what makes the kitchen read as one designed space instead of a room with a feature piece in the middle of it.
The dark stone island countertop was retained. Against ivory cabinetry it now reads as a deliberate contrast — the single dark element in a light room — rather than one dark element among several competing ones. The perimeter counters and the full-height stone backsplash are a soft cream with light veining, which keeps the run behind the range quiet.
Hardware is brass bar pulls throughout. Brass against warm ivory is a traditional pairing that suits the raised-panel millwork, and swapping hardware is one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost changes available on a refinishing project — provided the new pulls are drilled to consistent centers rather than fitted to the old holes.
The panel-front appliance fronts were finished to match the door profile and colour, so the refrigerator reads as cabinetry rather than as an appliance. The custom range hood and the dentil crown moulding were refinished in the same specification, keeping the millwork detail continuous around the room.
The Area
Cabinet Refacing and Refinishing in Studio City
Studio City sits inside our core Greater Los Angeles service area, dispatched from our office at 5530 Corbin Ave in Tarzana. Cabinet refinishing is one of the few kitchen projects that typically does not require a permit, because nothing structural, electrical, or plumbing is being altered — the layout stays, the boxes stay, and only the surfaces change. If a project does move plumbing, add circuits, or change the layout, that crosses into permitted work, and we identify it at the scope stage rather than mid-project.
Kitchens across Studio City and the surrounding Valley regularly have cabinetry worth keeping — solid plywood or well-built boxes behind dated door finishes. Whether refinishing is the right call comes down to the condition of those boxes, which is why the assessment happens before any materials are discussed.
Studio CityTarzanaEncinoSherman OaksWoodland HillsSan Fernando ValleyWestside LA
Planning Something Similar?
Update Your Kitchen Without Replacing It
Cabinet refacing and refinishing, island colour changes, and hardware — starting with an honest assessment of whether your boxes are worth keeping. Tell us your kitchen situation: approximate number of cabinets, any known water history, and what you’re hoping to change.
info@uslaremodeling.com · CSLB #1071589