Cabinet Painting & Refinishing in Alpharetta, GA
Original oak and maple cabinets from the Windward build-out are still in plenty of Alpharetta kitchens, often clear-coated and never touched, with sound boxes that are worth painting instead of replacing. The prep covers grease, slick factory lacquer, open oak grain and sometimes a brushed coat from a pre-sale refresh. Avalon-area townhomes with thermofoil or MDF are a different job. Before spraying the whole kitchen, we finish a test door and check adhesion.
Fulton County · Alpharetta, GA
Cabinet Painting & Refinishing for Alpharetta homes
The bulk of Alpharetta's houses went up between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. Windward, the Mobil-developed lake community that began selling in 1983, is the clearest example: 44 neighborhoods in a variety of styles around Lake Windward, many on sloped lots with full daylight basements, some still unfinished and stubbed for a bath. Fronts tend to be brick or stone, with hardboard, cedar or early fiber-cement lap on the sides and rear, and some later homes in the area were clad in synthetic or three-coat stucco. Older still is Alpharetta Estates, built roughly 1972 to 1982 on large wooded lots near downtown, where the ranches carry four or five decades of wear. Downtown keeps a handful of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century homes, from Greek Revival to the 1912 Queen Anne Mansell House, with clapboard and old plaster. The newest stock is the townhome and condo infill around Avalon and City Center, where the work is mostly interior: paint, flooring and finish upgrades.
Areas we work in Alpharetta
- Windward
- The Spinnakers at Windward
- Alpharetta Estates
- Downtown Alpharetta
- Avalon
Near Avalon, Wills Park, Big Creek Greenway and across the rest of Alpharetta.
Recent work from our crews
Cabinet Painting & Refinishing on Alpharetta houses
A lot of Alpharetta kitchens from the Windward build-out still have their original oak or maple cabinets, solid wood frames with raised-panel doors that were finished in a clear coat and never touched again. Those boxes are usually sound, which makes them good candidates for painting instead of replacement. The work is in the prep: decades of cooking grease in the grain, a slick factory lacquer, and the open oak grain that shows through paint unless it is filled. Some of these kitchens were already painted once, by hand, during a pre-sale refresh, and that brushed coat has to be dealt with first. In the newer Avalon-area townhomes the cabinets are often thermofoil or flat MDF, which is a different conversation.
What usually gets missed
Oak grain is the thing people do not expect. Paint a red-oak door without grain filler and the texture telegraphs straight through, so the finish never looks smooth. The other hidden problem is an earlier homeowner paint job with latex brushed over the lacquer; it looks fine until it peels at the door edges where hands grab it. We do a test door first, degrease and scuff it, and check whether any older coat is bonded before the whole kitchen gets sprayed.
On a Alpharetta job we check
- Check whether the doors are oak, maple or MDF and plan grain filling
- Find out if a previous owner already painted the cabinets, and how
- Spray a test door and check adhesion before doing the full kitchen
What the job actually involves
Cabinets get touched, splashed and scrubbed every day, so the finish has to be hard and well bonded. That comes from degreasing, scuff-sanding and the right primer, not from a coat of wall paint.
We use a bonding primer and a hard-curing cabinet enamel rather than wall paint, because cabinets take constant handling and moisture, and ordinary paint stays soft and scuffs.
How we run a cabinet painting & refinishing job in Alpharetta
- 1
Label and remove doors and hardware
Doors, drawer fronts and hinges are taken off and numbered so everything returns to its original spot. Hardware is bagged. Drawer boxes and cabinet frames stay in the house and get masked.
- 2
Degrease and deep clean
Years of cooking residue sit on cabinet faces, especially near the stove. We clean with a degreaser, then rinse. Paint over grease will peel off in sheets, so this step is not skipped.
- 3
Repair, sand and fill
Dings, old hardware holes and gouges are filled. All surfaces are sanded to dull the existing finish. Open-grain wood such as oak may get grain filler if you want a smooth look, otherwise the grain will show through.
- 4
Prime with a bonding primer
A stain-blocking bonding primer goes on to seal tannins and grip old finishes. Dark or stained cabinets can bleed through, which is why primer matters.
- 5
Sand lightly and apply finish coats
We scuff the primer, then apply two coats of a hard cabinet enamel by spray or fine roller and brush, with drying time between coats. Humid weather slows this down and can leave a soft film, so we manage airflow and timing.
- 6
Cure, reinstall and adjust
Doors are rehung after the finish has dried enough to handle, and hinges and doors are adjusted so they close squarely. New or original hardware goes back on. The paint keeps hardening for days to weeks, so go gently at first.
What moves the price
We will not quote Alpharetta blind over the phone — these are the things we look at on site that decide the number.
- Number of doors and drawer fronts, which drives most of the labor.
- Condition and material. Water-damaged, peeling or heavily worn cabinets need repair.
- Wood species and grain. Oak and similar open-grain wood takes extra work to look smooth.
- Whether we paint cabinet interiors and the end panels and toe kicks.
- Color change. Dark to light usually needs more primer and coats.
- Whether doors are sprayed off-site or in a controlled space versus painted in place.
From a cabinet painting & refinishing customer
“Hands down the best contractor experience we’ve ever had! … They painted the exterior of our house and handled several repairs with incredible attention to detail. … Dan provided a detailed quote up-front that gave us full peace of mind.”
Exterior repaint and repairs
Want a real number for your Alpharetta cabinet painting & refinishing job?
The only way to price it honestly is to see it. We come out, walk the job and put it in writing — free, and with no obligation to book.
Call and we answer 24/7. Forms sent during the day get a call back the same day.
Cabinet Painting & Refinishing in Alpharetta — questions we get asked
- How long are my kitchen cabinets out of commission?
- Plan on about a week for a typical kitchen, sometimes a bit more. Doors may be gone for several days while they are painted and dry. You can still use the kitchen sink and appliances, but the cabinets themselves are partly unusable.
- Will the paint chip?
- Any painted surface can chip, especially at edges and around handles. Proper cleaning, sanding and primer, plus a hard enamel, cut that risk a lot. The finish continues to cure for weeks, so be gentle at first.
- Can you paint cabinets that are already painted or stained?
- Yes. Both are fine with proper prep. Laminate and thermofoil are trickier and we will tell you honestly if yours is a poor candidate.
- Is painting cheaper than replacing cabinets?
- Usually, if the boxes are solid and the layout works for you. If the cabinets are damaged, sagging or badly designed, replacing them may be the better move.
- Is there a smell?
- Some, during painting and for a day or so after. We use low-odor products where we can and recommend ventilation.
Planning cabinet painting & refinishing? Start here
- How to match cabinets and wall colors without a busy kitchen Why the cabinets set the palette, how undertones decide what works, and when to let the walls simply get out of the way.
- Should you paint or replace your kitchen cabinets? Painting beats replacing when the boxes are sound — here is how to tell, and the cases where paint only hides the problem.
More in Alpharetta
Fulton County housing, neighborhoods and what we do there.
Painting & remodeling in Alpharetta →Other work in Alpharetta
- Interior Painting in Alpharetta
- Exterior Painting in Alpharetta
- Deck & Fence Staining in Alpharetta
- Commercial Painting in Alpharetta
- Drywall Repair & Patching in Alpharetta
- Kitchen Remodeling in Alpharetta
- Bathroom Remodeling in Alpharetta
- Basement Finishing in Alpharetta
- Deck & Porch Building in Alpharetta
- Siding Replacement in Alpharetta
- Flooring Installation in Alpharetta
Prefer to talk it through? Dan picks up.
(470) 419-0922