Kitchen Cabinet Refacing

 If you're wanting to spruce up your kitchen, either your own or for a house you've purchased to resell, its always your first dream to be able to buy entirely new cabinets. However, its common for the budget crunch to come along and convince you to look for another option.

Fortunately you can achieve a similarly impressive overhaul by simply doing a little kitchen cabinet refacing. Refacing cabinets typically involves replacing or painting the doors and drawers, getting new kitchen hardware, and touching up the cabinet body fronts.

Don't bother refacing cabinets if your kitchen doesn't meet these basic criteria. Be sure your kitchen layout is something you satisifed with. Refacing is cheaper than all new cabinets but it won't change the positioning of your current ones. Also be sure that your existing cabinets are in good shape. Check all the panels to be sure they're firmly attached. If these areas are damaged there's no point in completing the other touchups. Don't forget the drawers. Be sure the drawer joints are solid. Dovetail joints will last much longer than stapled pieces. Refacing cabinets is mostly a cosmetic change and will not improve the basic condition of the cabinet structure, but it can raise the actual and perceived value of your home which is immediately beneficial for real estate sales.

The good news is that kitchen cabinet refacing is less intrusive than replacing cabinets. You can update each cabinet seperately and continue using others during the process. There's also less dust, less mess and less noise. All benefits worthy of consideration.

In our old house we had these really nasty cabinets that needed a lot of help. Their base structure wasn't good enough for total replacement so we just went with the cabinet refacing idea. That led us to painting kitchen cabinets.

Basic Touchups

Painting kitchen cabinets is the quickest and simpliest way to spruce up your cabinetry. You have to be careful but it doesn't take a degree in woodworking to do it. We recommend only painting cabinets that are already painted. Painting over wood cabinets is considered sacriledge to some homeowners and could actually devalue your kitchen.

For wood cabinets (non laminate) you can refinish them. You'll need to strip off the old finish with varnish and then refinish the cabinets with a polyurethane coating. Consider lightening the wood for a completely different look.

The most common thing people do when refacing kitchen cabinets is to replace the doors and drawer fronts. This is more expensive than painting but far less costly than all new cabinets. It can also be a lot of fun and give the appearance of a whole new kitchen in just a few simple steps. The cabinets themselves will need to have the knicks and scratches repaired to maintain the freshness of your new look.

Be sure to measure the doors and drawers carefully so the new ones fit exactly. You don't want to get replacements too large or too small. The wait time for new doors is usually around 2-3 weeks. It is advised that you choose your new hardware (if you intend to get any) before you install the new cabinet doors so that you can take one with you and make sure the hardware matches the door style. Grossly disproportionate hardware would ruin the effect you're trying to achieve.

If you don't want to replace the entire cabinet door you could just replace the inset pieces with clear or stained glass (imagine the beautiful lighting from stained glass door fronts!). If the door panels are entirely flat with no insets you could add a decorative molding to the exteriors (cheap and easy) for a new look, also. Molding pieces run a couple of dollars each at any hardware store and come in a variety of sizes, colors and styles.

The point is there's a lot of ways to do cabinet refacing, it just takes a little imagination.