Cabinet Refacing

Keeping the Boxes, Changing Everything You See

Refacing replaces the parts of a cabinet you look at and touch while keeping the structure behind them. The doors and drawer fronts are new. The face frames and exposed end panels are covered in a matching veneer or a thin applied panel. Hinges are replaced, drawer glides are usually upgraded, and new pulls go on. The boxes, the shelves inside and the layout stay exactly where they are.

Done on the right kitchen, refacing gives most of the visual change of new cabinets for roughly half the cabinet cost, with far less disruption. Done on the wrong kitchen, it puts new doors on a problem. The job is telling the two apart.

When Refacing Makes Sense

The boxes are sound. We open every cabinet. We look for water damage under the sink, sagging shelves, loose face frame joints and particleboard that has swollen near the dishwasher. Solid plywood or hardwood face frame cabinets, which a lot of 1960s and 1970s homes in Eastbluff, Harbor View Hills and Dover Shores were built with, are good candidates.

You like the layout. Refacing keeps the sink, range and refrigerator where they are. If the work triangle already works and the aisles are comfortable, there is no reason to pay for a new floor plan.

The cabinet sizes still fit your appliances. Newer refrigerators are often deeper or taller than the opening an older kitchen was built around. A dishwasher opening that is slightly narrow can be a problem too. We measure these first, because an appliance that does not fit is the most common reason a refacing quote turns into a replacement.

When It Does Not

If you want to move the sink, add an island, change the counter height or open a wall, refacing stops making sense. So does a kitchen where the boxes are water damaged or built from particleboard that has already started to fail. We will tell you that directly rather than quote something that will disappoint you in two years.

What the Work Includes

• New doors and drawer fronts, in the style and finish you choose, including shaker, slab and raised panel.
• Veneer or applied panels on face frames and exposed ends so the old finish is fully covered.
• New concealed hinges with soft-close, and full extension drawer glides where the boxes allow them.
• Hardware in stainless or solid brass near the water, since plated finishes pit in salt air.
• Optional additions such as a new pull-out trash cabinet, crown molding to the ceiling or under-cabinet lighting on its own circuit.

Where Refacing Shows and Where It Does Not

Refacing cannot change the reveal between doors much, because the face frame openings stay the same size. It cannot turn an overlay kitchen into a true inset one. And the interior of the boxes stays as it was, which is fine if the interior is clean and solid. Once the doors are closed, a well refaced kitchen reads as new. That is the honest limit: you get a new face on the old shape.

Schedule and Disruption

Refacing usually takes a few days of on-site work once doors are built, and the kitchen stays usable for most of it. Countertops can stay if they are in good shape, or be replaced at the same time. Door lead time is typically four to eight weeks. Call (949) 969-6052 and we will open your cabinets and give you a refacing price next to a replacement price.