Palm City and Stuart sit on opposite banks of the St. Lucie River, and the two sides of the water hold two very different kinds of kitchen. Drive Martin Downs Boulevard out toward Martin Highway and you pass roughly thirty years of Martin County construction in fifteen minutes: guard-gated yacht-and-golf clubs platted in the mid-1980s, DiVosta villages from the end of that decade, Toll Brothers waterfront estates from the early 2000s, and half-acre new construction that was still selling within the last few years.
We’ve already covered the other side of the county line in our Port St. Lucie cabinet refinishing guide — that one is about builder-grade oak, thermofoil, and Tradition-era painted MDF. This post is the Martin County version: what’s actually hanging in Palm City and Stuart kitchens, how the two dominant vintages fail differently, and what the work costs here. Full-system kitchen refinishing at KB runs $4,000–$7,000.
Vintage one: the golf-community kitchens, mid-1980s through the 1990s
Martin County’s private clubs went in early. Piper’s Landing Yacht & Country Club was established in 1984 and holds 302 homes across more than 600 acres. Harbour Ridge Yacht & Country Club spreads 695 residences over 885 acres in nearly thirty small neighborhoods, its River Ridge course dating to 1989. Across the river in Stuart, Mariner Sands was permitted in 1979 and dates as a community to 1981, with 771 residences built from the 1980s onward. Willoughby Golf Club dates to 1989 and added its 375 homes over the years since. And the Meadows at Martin Downs — six villages, more than 800 homes — was built by DiVosta between 1988 and 1993.
Different developers, same cabinet story. In the kitchens of that era that haven’t already been gutted, what we find behind those doors is overwhelmingly honey- or golden-stained raised-panel oak, sometimes with a cathedral arch on the upper doors, and it comes with two non-negotiables:
- Tannin bleed. Oak and the stain on it will push amber through a white or light topcoat unless it’s sealed. Every color change over oak gets a stain-blocking primer — not a general-purpose water-based one. Skip that step and the ghosting shows up in weeks, right where the grain is most open.
- Open grain. Some owners like a painted finish that still reads as wood; others want it glass-smooth, which takes an extra grain-filling pass. It’s a real style decision and it changes labor, so we settle it at the estimate rather than mid-job.
Two more things specific to this vintage. First, a lot of these kitchens have already been painted once, usually brushed latex laid over an unsanded factory finish by a general painter. We tape-test the existing coat at the estimate; if it lifts, it comes off before anything new goes on, and that’s a line item you should see in writing before you sign. Second, the hardware is 35 years old. Wrap-around hinges from 1988 aren’t made anymore, so we plan on cleaning and reusing them rather than promising a swap — a hinge change on a 1980s door often means new drilling.
Villa and patio-home kitchens in this era — Mariner Sands’ villas, the townhome villages at the Meadows — frequently pair solid oak face frames and doors with melamine box interiors. Good news, that: the interiors don’t need paint, and the whole project gets smaller.
Vintage two: estate kitchens, late 1990s and newer
The second half of Martin County’s inventory is a different animal. Palm Cove Golf & Yacht Club, a Toll Brothers community on the St. Lucie River dating to 1996, holds 232 residences that mostly run 2,000 to 5,000 square feet, built from the 1990s into the mid-2000s. Highlands Reserve in Palm City had its single-family homes built by D.R. Horton between 2006 and 2017, with Arthur Rutenberg building the Estates and Waterfront sections. Canopy Creek began development in 2013 as half-acre-minimum Kolter estate homes.
These kitchens are maple, birch, or cherry with tight grain and a sprayed factory finish — conversion varnish or catalyzed lacquer. The consequence flips: bleed isn’t the enemy, adhesion is. That factory film is hard, slick, and nearly non-porous, so the sequence is a solvent degrease, a genuine scuff sand of every profile and edge, then a bonding primer. Glazed or rubbed accents packed into the profile corners get sanded flat, or they telegraph through a light color like a shadow.
The other thing that defines these kitchens is count. A Highlands Reserve or Canopy Creek kitchen isn’t a kitchen — it’s a kitchen plus an island, a butler’s pantry, a coffee bar, and a beverage run, and the fronts add up fast. Thirty to fifty is normal; a Rutenberg estate can go past that. Refinishing is still the right call financially — our post on refinishing versus replacement walks the comparison — but the honest answer on price is that these sit at the top of the range or above it, priced off the count we take on site.
Out on the acreage it’s less predictable. Stuart West, 249 homesites on two- to ten-plus-acre equestrian lots in western Palm City, is custom construction of mixed vintage — we have found original 1980s oak and a ten-year-old sprayed maple kitchen in the same week. Those get tested at the estimate, not assumed from the address.
What Martin County kitchens cost to refinish
| Kitchen type | Where we see it | Door & drawer fronts | Typical 2026 range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villa or patio-home galley | Mariner Sands villas, Meadows townhome villages | 12–16 | $4,000–$4,800 |
| Standard L-shape | Meadows at Martin Downs, Piper’s Landing, Rio, downtown Stuart | 18–24 | $4,800–$5,800 |
| Open plan with island | Palm Cove, Willoughby, Highlands Reserve | 26–34 | $5,800–$7,000 |
| Estate kitchen with island and butler’s pantry | Canopy Creek, Highlands Reserve Estates, custom acreage homes | 35–50+ | Top of the range and above — quoted by count |
Two things reliably move a quote inside those bands: a large color change, which adds bleed-blocking coats and roughly $200–$400, and repair work on swollen sink-base panels. Both get flagged and priced at the estimate. If you’re still choosing a color, our 2026 cabinet color guide covers what’s holding up in Florida light.
River humidity, sink bases, and your thermostat
Martin County’s waterfront is the reason cabinet work here behaves differently than it does inland. Homes in Sewall’s Point, Rio, Port Salerno, and along the Palm Cove and Harbour Ridge dock lines run higher indoor moisture year-round, and summer afternoons sit above 70% humidity with a storm on the way by three o’clock. Enamel cures by chemical reaction, and moisture in the air slows it down.
So: we spray with your AC running normally — conditioned air is dry air, and a kitchen at 76°F is a good spray environment in any month. We ask you to leave it that way after we go, because the film keeps hardening for days. And we ask for 72 hours before you load shelves heavily or scrub anything, with full hardness closer to two weeks.
The sink base is the other Martin County constant. Thirty-year-old cabinets under a slow supply fitting swell at the bottom rail and the floor panel. Paint doesn’t fix swollen particleboard. We flag it, price the repair, and replace the panel before we prime.
Spray application matters more here than almost anywhere else, and not for looks alone — a rolled big-box latex job in this climate often never fully hardens, which is the cause of the tacky doors that stick and chip every time they open. The full comparison is in our post on sprayed versus brushed cabinet finishes.
Gate logistics and summer scheduling
Cabinet color is interior, so no architectural committee has a say in it — HOA color review applies to the outside of your house, and which Martin County board reviews what is mapped in our Martin County paint approval guide. What the gated clubs do want is the contractor on file, typically a vendor entry at the gatehouse and a current certificate of insurance. Requirements differ by association, so confirm yours with your property manager and we’ll send our certificate where it needs to go.
Season matters too. January through April, Martin County is full and calendars are tight. A lot of owners instead book cabinets for May through October while they’re north — which works fine, since we’re spraying in conditioned air either way. It just needs someone to give us access and a thermostat left on cooling, not a house closed up warm for three months.
Who’s actually in your kitchen
KB Painting & Refinishing is family-owned by Braiden and Kaylee Smith. We were founded in 2019, and the crew running your sprayer brings 25+ years of combined experience. Every job is staffed by our own W-2 employees — never subcontractors — we’re insured, we use Sherwin-Williams products throughout, we hold 4.9 stars across 350+ Google reviews, and we’re a Winner of the 2026 Treasure Coast Community’s Choice Awards. Cabinet refinishing carries a 6-month finish warranty.
We work cabinet refinishing throughout Palm City and Stuart, along with Jensen Beach, Hobe Sound, and Port Salerno. If you want a real number instead of a phone guess — an actual door count, an honest read on your oak or your factory finish, and a written line-item quote — request a free estimate or call our Treasure Coast team at (772) 222-3227.
KB Painting & Refinishing — family-owned, founded in 2019, serving Martin County and the Treasure Coast with our own crew and no subcontractors. Insured. Sherwin-Williams products. [email protected].
