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To Replace or Reface Your Kitchen Cabinets?

Renovation Help

Replace or Reface

Do you have questions about Kitchen Cabinet Refacing? We often get asked the tough question… Reface or Replace? We feel the best overall value is to Replace and Renovate your kitchen cabinets from scratch.  This is why we do not provide Refacing services. There are many capable firms that specialize in and provide cabinetry refacing services. We suggest you do a local Google search for companies, reviews, and references. Overall, there are advantages to both methods (Refacing and Replacing), and we wanted to share some of our ideas with you.

UPDATED ARTICLE – Cabinet Refacing vs. Replacement

Refinishing or Painting

Refinishing is a terrific way to cosmetically update your cabinetry. Refinishing an entire set of kitchen cabinets is a big undertaking. It’s best to hire a trained professional who can make your old cabinets to make them look new again. Whether you like the stained or painted look your cabinets can be refinished to reflect your personal style.

Some of the major benefits to refinishing your existing cabinetry is time and cost. You may not have the budget to replace the countertops, tile backsplash, and replace the flooring. Refinishing allows you to keep those components to the kitchen in place and with less downtime and disruption. The downtime will be significantly less than a full kitchen remodel.

A painted look can disguise wood grain but painted cabinets can peel if the surface is not prepared correctly. Painting cabinets can sometimes be more expensive than refacing them and usually requires more work. If painting over wood, the paint is more likely to crack over time due to shifting in the wood caused by humidity content in the air. Remember with all cosmetic onsite painting, you will never achieve the original factory finish as applied by a cabinet company.

Replace or Reface

Cabinet Refacing

Cabinetry refacing is an artform and should only be done by a professional firm. This firm needs to be versed in cabinet restoration, which includes deconstruction and then rebuilding. This process typically entails removing old cabinet doors and fronts, removing the hinges and hardware, removing the edge tape on the cases, painting any pieces that will remain, and repairing any damage. From there new premade doors and fronts are selected, the cases and reveals and fillers get painted or stained to match the new fronts, and new edge tape is applied to all of the cases. Needless to say, this process can be extremely time-consuming and complicated.

A local Google search is the best place to find cabinet refacing companies. Think of this in the context of cars. If you need to repair or restore your car, you typically go to a mechanic and specialty auto body shop, rather than the new car dealership that sold you the car several years ago.

For more information on some of the potential pitfalls of refacing cabinets including Patina, Hinge and Hardware Drilling nuances, and more, see Adding to Existing Cabinets.

Replacing, Remodeling, Renovating

Refacing or refinishing isn’t for every kitchen. Often the whole point of a kitchen renovation is to rework the existing layout into an arrangement that works better for you. Perhaps your existing cabinets are beginning to fall apart or weren’t well built to begin with.

A full kitchen remodel gives you the chance to look at new appliances, plan for the double ovens you’ve always wanted. You are also going to need to allow a budget for new flooring, new counter tops, a new sink and faucet.

Another major selling point to a renovation are all the solutions for cabinets offered today. Melamine boxes with side-mounted slides have been replaced with metal or dovetail drawers with undermount slides and integrated soft-closing features. Corner cabinets with different types of lazy susans, corner drawers, Pull-out garbage, recycling centers, racks for baking sheets, soft-close doors… the list of items that you can add to your cabinetry is truly endless. If the budget allows, a few of these bells and whistles could add extra functionality to your space.

Summary

You can view our Product Showcase Gallery to get a better idea for your next full kitchen renovation project, book an appointment or visit one of our showrooms located in Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton.

UPDATED ARTICLE – Cabinet Refacing vs. Replacement

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