A converted cottage on the Lake Simcoe shore
Jackson’s Point is one of the older lakeside communities in Georgina, along the south shore of Lake Simcoe, and many of the cottages there have been winterized so people can live in them all year. This was one: a one-and-a-half storey cottage a short walk from the water, insulated and heated now, but still full of the knotty pine that cottages of its kind were built with. The walls in the kitchen had already been painted white by the owners. The cabinets had not.
They were site-built pine cabinets with plank-style doors, each made of narrow boards with V-grooves between them and a Z-brace on the back. The doors hung on black iron strap hinges with iron thumb latches. A short run of uppers, a longer run of lowers under a window that looks toward the lake, and an open shelf unit at the end made up the kitchen. Against the new white walls, the amber varnish on the pine looked dark and heavy, and the owners wanted the kitchen to feel lighter and more like the rest of the year-round house.
Knots, grooves and lake damp
Pine cabinets in a cottage come with their own set of problems, and this kitchen had most of them.
Knots that bleed
Every pine knot is full of resin. Water-based primer and paint will not stop it, so within days a pale paint over pine can show brown-orange rings around each knot. These doors were covered in knots, some of them large.
Grease in the grooves
The V-grooves between the boards act like small gutters for cooking grease and dust. Near the stove they were dark and sticky, and paint will not hold in a groove that still has grease in the bottom.
Mildew under the sink
The cottage had spent many years closed up through the winter before it was converted, and the inside of the sink base had grey-black spots of mildew on the back and the underside of the counter. Lake air is often damp in summer, and a closed cabinet around a sink is the first place it shows.
Soft wood
Pine dents easily. The lower doors had many small dings from chairs, boots and the vacuum, which a clear finish hides and a solid colour does not.
Getting the pine ready
- Protection. The pine floor was covered with rosin paper and drop cloths, the counters with masking film, and the stove and fridge were wrapped. The window over the sink was masked because the lake view was the point of the room and the owners wanted the glass clean.
- Removal. Doors came off with their strap hinges, and the latches were unscrewed. All the iron hardware went into labelled bags, one per door, to be cleaned with a degreaser and a soft brush, then reused.
- Groove cleaning. Each door was scrubbed with a degreaser and stiff nylon brushes worked along the grooves, then rinsed and dried. Near the stove, the grooves needed repeated passes before the brush came out clean.
- Mildew treatment. The inside of the sink base was washed with a mildew wash, rinsed, and dried with a fan running before anything else was done in it. Painting over live mildew only hides it for a while.
- Dents. Dents in the doors and drawer fronts were filled with a soft wood filler, sanded flush with a fine sponge and checked in side light.
- Scuffing. The old varnish was scuffed all over with fine sanding sponges, including the grooves, where a folded sheet of fine paper got into the bottom of each V.
- Knot sealing. Every knot got a spot coat of shellac-based primer first. Once that dried, the whole surface got a full coat of the same primer. After a light sand, any knot that still showed a hint of colour got a second spot coat. Shellac holds back pine resin far more dependably than other primer types, which is why we used it here rather than a water-based primer.
The colour coats
The owners asked for the lowest-odour option we could offer, since the cottage is small and they were living in it. We used a zero‑VOC acrylic cabinet enamel, which also cures harder than wall paint and stays flexible as pine moves with the seasons. The shellac primer did have a smell while it dried, so we limited it to the spray area and to short sessions in the kitchen with the windows open.
The doors and drawer fronts were sprayed in a tented spray area set up in the detached garage. Humid spells near the lake slow drying, so we ran a dehumidifier in the tent and followed the manufacturer’s recoat times, waiting longer on muggy days. The back of each door, braces included, got two coats first, then the fronts got two. Before each front coat, the grooves were wetted with a quick pass of the gun angled into each V, so paint reached the bottom and did not just bridge across.
The face frames and shelf unit stayed in place. We used small synthetic brushes for the inside corners and a slightly larger brush for the flats, two finish coats over the primer, laying off each stroke along the grain of the pine.
Why pale blue in a pearl sheen
For the colour consultation, a handful of light shades came along in sample pots: whites, a pale blue and a pale sage. They were painted onto primed pine offcuts so the samples showed the grooves and texture of the real doors. The whites disappeared against the walls. The sage looked grey on dull days. The pale blue looked clean against the white walls and picked up the colour of the lake on bright mornings, and in the evening, under warm bulbs, it softened without turning green. We looked at it at both times of day before the owners chose it.
For sheen, they picked pearl, which sits between eggshell and semi-gloss. It has enough shine to wipe easily in a kitchen, but it does not exaggerate the texture of the boards the way a high gloss would. Now the cabinets read as soft blue panels with fine shadow lines in the grooves, the black iron hinges and latches stand out against them, and the white walls and lake light do the rest.
Daily tidy-up in a small cottage
A cottage kitchen leaves no spare room, so we kept the work compact. Doors stayed in the garage, not stacked in the living room. The counters were cleared and wiped each evening so the owners could make dinner, and the floor coverings were taped down flat so no one tripped on them. Every evening the room was vacuumed, waste was bagged and taken out, and tools went back to the garage.
Looking after painted pine by the lake
- Run the kitchen fan when cooking, and keep the sink base door open for a while after any leak or spill so the inside dries out.
- If a brown ring ever appears around a knot, call us. It means resin has worked through, and it needs spot priming before touch-up paint.
- Wipe with a soft cloth and plain water or mild soap. Grease in the grooves comes out with a soft toothbrush.
- We left a labelled jar of the blue, with the sheen noted on the lid, for chips on door edges.
- Pine moves with humidity, so a fine line can appear where boards meet in the grooves. That is normal and does not mean the paint is failing.
Why it suits Georgina’s cottages
Many winterized cottages along the shore in Jackson’s Point, Sutton and Pefferlaw still have their original pine, and painting it is the most common way to brighten a cottage kitchen without losing the character of plank doors and iron hardware. The keys are sealing the knots properly and allowing for lake humidity when drying. You can read more about our kitchen cabinet painting service, see the work we do in Georgina, or browse other projects across York Region. When you are ready, contact us for an itemized written quote.
