Can My Kitchen Be Refaced?

Can my kitchen be refaced? This is a question that we see often. People want to know if they can get the cost benefits of cabinet refacing but are unsure if they can do so.

Aside from the obvious reasons NOT to reface – like needing to make significant layout changes or having cabinets that are literally falling off the walls. What factors mean your kitchen can/cannot be refaced?

Signs You Cannot Reface Your Kitchen

1. Water damage. If the sides or bottoms of your cabinet are warped and showing black mildew, refacing is a no go.
   
   Refacing doesn’t structurally repair cabinets. It would just be covering those water damaged spots up, potentially leading to mold and rot.
   
2. Warped/out of square cabinets. This may not seem obvious, but if your cabinet frames are twisted and out of square it can be difficult to reface them and have the final result look good. The face frames should be flat and planed through and the openings should be square and true. It’s not common to see this issue in newer cabinets, but we do see it in older homes where the cabinets were built on site.
   
3. You don’t understand refacing. Is this silly?
   Yes BUT almost every project we talk to clients on they don’t fully understand refacing…
   “So you’re going to just paint the sides? What about the crown molding? Do you finish the toe kick? Do you sand the doors?” Here’s the simplest way to explain refacing.
   We apply new hardwoods to all of the visible surfaces (on the exterior) of your cabinets. These finished hardwoods can be painted or stained. Your current doors and drawer fronts go in the trash and we replace them with new. Soft close doors are standard. You can upgrade drawer boxes and add roll trays as an upgrade. You can’t (and probably wont’) enjoy the benefits of cabinet refacing if your don’t know how it works!

Signs You Can Reface Your Kitchen

1. Doors falling off. Ok this one may seem strange. But, often times when doors are falling off it’s not necessarily a structural problem. As long as the face frame of the cabinet is in tact, you can fix this. A longer screw or one with more aggressive threads can hold a door, even if your current doors are falling off.
   
2. Blind corner cabinet problems. We hear this one a lot. “I need all new cabinets because I have to crawl into the back of this cabinet to get anything” . Common problem – easy solution. We often install blind corner trays to make access easier in these cabinets. And we install roll trays make organization easier.
   

3. My cabinets are too old. That’s okay. We’ve refaced cabinets that are 50 years old. As long as they’re solid, refacing can give them new life and add another 15-20 years onto their life and your kitchen a fresh look.

4. My current cabinets have been painted. Yes we can reface over painted cabinets. Even DIY painted. We sand the loose debris from cabinets before using an industrial strength contact cement to apply the new refacing stock

5. My cabinets are peeling. As long as the peeling isn’t from water damage, they can be refaced. We often see old RTF cabinets peeling. We treat this during our prep process. Ensuring your new cabinet refacing products remain solid.