Cabinet Painting & Refinishing in Cumming, GA
Stained oak or maple cabinets with raised-panel doors are still common in Windermere and Polo kitchens built from the mid-90s through the mid-2000s, and in Cumming those boxes are usually worth keeping and painting. Newer homes in Vickery often have factory-painted shaker doors chipping at the edges. Both get a sprayed finish with different prep, and our estimate shows the degreasing, the grain decision and the primer chosen after an adhesion test.
Forsyth County · Cumming, GA
Cabinet Painting & Refinishing for Cumming homes
The oldest subdivision stock outside the downtown core sits along Lake Lanier, where communities like Habersham on Lanier and Canongate on Lanier date to the mid and late 1980s. A wave of 1990s golf and swim-tennis neighborhoods followed, Polo Golf & Country Club among them. Windermere filled in through the early 2000s, Notting Hill started around 2006 with brick and stone fronts and front porches, and Vickery, a village-style community with its own shops, is mostly 2010s construction. Across those eras the common house is a two-story traditional with a masonry front, painted lap siding on the sides and rear, and wood or composite trim. The ground rolls, so many lots step down to a daylight or walkout basement, while slab and crawlspace homes turn up in the same subdivisions. For painting, that means tall rear elevations standing on a basement wall. For remodeling, it means unfinished lower levels and original builder kitchens and baths now well into their second or third decade.
Areas we work in Cumming
- Polo Golf & Country Club
- Windermere
- Vickery
- Habersham on Lanier
- Notting Hill
- Bethelview Downs
Near Cumming City Center, Sawnee Mountain Preserve, Cumming Fairgrounds and across the rest of Cumming.
Recent work from our crews
Cabinet Painting & Refinishing on Cumming houses
A lot of Cumming kitchens built from the mid-90s through the mid-2000s still have their original stained cabinets: oak or maple with a honey or cherry tone, raised-panel doors, and a builder crown along the top. In Windermere and the Polo neighborhoods those boxes are usually solid enough to keep, which makes painting them the sensible alternative to tearing out a kitchen that works. The newer homes in Vickery and the 2010s subdivisions more often came with painted shaker doors that are now chipping at the edges and around the pulls. Both get a sprayed finish, but the prep is different: stripping years of cooking grease and sealing grain on the stained oak, and feathering chips and recoating on the factory-painted stock.
What usually gets missed
Open-grain oak is the classic mistake. Brush paint straight over it and the grain telegraphs through every coat, and a cabinet that was cleaned with ordinary dish soap will shed its new finish around the handles within a year. We degrease with a proper cleaner, test adhesion on the back of a door, and decide up front whether the grain gets filled. On factory-painted doors we check what the original coating is before choosing a primer that will bond to it.
On a Cumming job we check
- Degrease doors and boxes fully, especially around pulls and the range
- Decide whether oak grain gets filled before quoting the finish
- Adhesion-test a door back so the primer matches the existing coating
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 Cumming
- 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 Cumming 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
“It is very important to find people who do what they say and show up when they say they will. The paint job is top quality with top quality workmanship and paint. We are very pleased with the results.”
Painting
Want a real number for your Cumming 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 Cumming — 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
- 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.
- 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.
More in Cumming
Forsyth County housing, neighborhoods and what we do there.
Painting & remodeling in Cumming →Other work in Cumming
- Interior Painting in Cumming
- Exterior Painting in Cumming
- Deck & Fence Staining in Cumming
- Commercial Painting in Cumming
- Drywall Repair & Patching in Cumming
- Kitchen Remodeling in Cumming
- Bathroom Remodeling in Cumming
- Basement Finishing in Cumming
- Deck & Porch Building in Cumming
- Siding Replacement in Cumming
- Flooring Installation in Cumming
Prefer to talk it through? Dan picks up.
(470) 419-0922