Your Kitchen Was Sprayed and It’s Already Peeling - What Now?
If your kitchen was professionally sprayed within the last year or two and you’re already seeing paint lifting at the corners, chipping around handles, or cracking along the door edges, you’re not imagining it and it’s not something you did wrong. This shouldn’t happen with a properly done respray. Here’s what’s usually gone wrong, whether it can be fixed without starting from scratch, and what to check before you pay anyone to sort it.
Why is my kitchen peeling after only a year?
A properly prepared respray shouldn’t fail within a year. When it does, the cause is almost always a skipped preparation step — usually no cabinet-grade adhesion primer, incomplete degreasing before spraying, or coats rushed through without proper curing time. The paint itself is rarely the problem.
Where the failure shows up is usually the fastest way to tell which one it is:
- Peeling around handles and high-touch areas → most likely a degreasing issue
- Chipping at corners and edges, especially near the oven or hob → most likely a missing adhesion primer
- Cracking, or a finish that’s stayed slightly soft or tacky → most likely rushed curing time between coats
We go through exactly why each of these happens in why resprayed kitchens chip or peel — the mechanics are the same whether you’re checking before you book or working out what went wrong after the fact, so it’s worth a read if you want the detail. What matters more at this stage is what it means for fixing it, which depends less on which cause it was and more on how far it’s spread.
Can a peeling kitchen respray be fixed without a full redo?
Sometimes, if the failure is isolated to one or two doors near heat sources and the rest of the kitchen is holding up fine. If peeling is showing on multiple doors or across different parts of the kitchen, it points to a preparation step missed on the whole job, and a proper fix means starting again with correct prep, not touching up the visible spots.
This matters because it changes what “fixing it” actually involves:
- Isolated failure (1–2 doors, usually near heat sources) can sometimes be addressed by stripping and respraying just those doors, once the underlying cause is identified and corrected.
- Widespread failure (multiple doors, different areas of the kitchen) almost always means the whole job was missing the same step — no primer, no degreasing, or both — and touching up individual doors just delays the same failure reappearing elsewhere.
At survey stage, we look at where the failure is, how it’s failing, and whether it’s consistent with a specific missed step, so you get an honest answer about what’s actually needed rather than a quote for the smallest possible job that doesn’t actually solve it.
What does properly fixing a failed respray involve?
Fixing a genuinely failed respray means treating it the same as spraying an unpainted kitchen for the first time — not painting over the existing failure:
- Full assessment of every door and drawer front, not just the visibly failing ones
- Stripping back to a sound substrate where the existing coating has failed
- Full degreasing of every surface, including areas that look fine
- Cabinet-grade adhesion primer applied properly this time
- Two or more topcoats, each given proper curing time
- Written guarantee on the finished work
Skipping any of these steps to save money is exactly how the kitchen ended up failing the first time. See what’s included in every quote for the full process we run on every job, redo or not.
How much does it cost to fix a failed kitchen respray?
Fixing a genuinely failed respray usually costs the same as a fresh respray - typically £2,500 to £4,000 - because doing it properly means stripping back to a sound surface and starting the preparation process again, not painting over the existing failure. See our full respray cost breakdown for what affects that price.
It’s a frustrating position to be in twice, but it’s worth being wary of any quote that comes in noticeably cheaper than a fresh respray for a redo job - that’s usually a sign the same shortcuts are about to happen again.
What should I ask before paying someone to fix it?
Ask specifically whether a cabinet-grade adhesion primer will be used, what degreasing and preparation the quote includes, and whether the work comes with a written guarantee. If a company can’t answer these clearly, you risk paying to have the same failure happen again.
A few direct questions worth asking any company quoting a redo:
- “Will you use a cabinet-grade adhesion primer, and is it included in the price?”
- “What does the preparation process involve before any paint goes on?”
- “Is there a written guarantee, and what does it actually cover?”
- “How long will the job take, and how much curing time is built in between coats?”
If the answers are vague, or the timeline sounds compressed compared to what a fresh respray normally takes, that’s a red flag before you’ve even started.
Will Cole’s Decor guarantee a redo job?
Every respray we do, including redo work on a kitchen someone else sprayed, comes with our standard written 2-year guarantee against peeling, fading, cracking and discolouration, once it’s been properly assessed, prepared and sprayed to our process. We’ll tell you honestly at survey stage what caused the original failure and what needs to happen to fix it properly — not just quote to paint over the problem again. Full terms are on our guarantee page.
Get an honest diagnosis, not another guess
If your kitchen is peeling and you’re not sure whether it needs a full redo or something smaller, the free survey gives you a straight answer on what actually went wrong and what it’ll take to fix it properly.