Should You Reface Cabinets in Your Kitchen?

We get a lot of questions at Envy Home Services: why might someone want to choose cabinet refacing rather than replacing their exciting kitchen cabinets? Unfortunately, many people don’t realize they can have a much better kitchen remodeling experience by choosing to reface kitchen cabinets instead of replacing them.

What are the Advantages of Refacing?

The significant advantage of refacing is how much time a kitchen renovation will take. A complete kitchen tear-out can take months to finish, especially if the cabinets need to be custom ordered. Kitchen refacing takes weeks to complete rather than months and looks like a total kitchen makeover.

Another benefit to refacing is you’re able to skip the permits. In most cities, remodeling projects require permits for any work that includes tearing out cabinets, plumbing, or electrical work. The average cost of a kitchen remodeling permit costs $500-$1500 in Illinois. There is no need to pull permits when refacing a kitchen, as nothing is removed or replaced

What is The Cabinet Refacing Process?

When doing a kitchen refacing project, your cabinet doors and drawers are first removed and discarded. Next, we strip your cabinet boxes of any vinyl or laminate and resurface them. New wood adheres to the existing cabinet boxes. Next, we replace the doors and drawers with custom versions to match your color and style choices. Finally, we install the hardware and at this point, add upgrades, such as lazy Susans or tilt-out trays, along with trim and molding.

When is Refacing a Better Option?

There are five main reasons someone might want to reface their kitchen cabinets. First, kitchens with good layouts, study, or custom-built cabinets are great candidates for refacing. Another reason refacing might be a better option is when keeping the countertops or flooring as is. Additionally, if you are remodeling rental property, refacing can be a lower-cost way to give the kitchen an upgrade.

1.) Your Kitchen Layout Is Good

The sink, stove, and refrigerator should create a triangle to make moving about the kitchen easy. When designing your new kitchen, one area to pay attention to is the layout of your working triangle. The working triangle is the position of the refrigerator, stove, and sink area. Ideally, you want to quickly get to each other without having anything obstructing your path. If your working triangle is good, you may not need to change your kitchen layout, saving you thousands of dollars in labor costs.

2.) Your Cabinets are Sturdy and In Good Shape

Your cabinets might be outdated, but they are very sturdy. Many older houses have solid wood cabinets that are extremely expensive to replicate today. Cabinets that are well-made and have insides in good shape are excellent candidates for beautiful refacing. Additionally, should you have kitchen soffits, you want to make sure you want to leave them there. If you want to remove them, look at this post for some good tips about removing kitchen soffits.

3.) Your Cabinets are Custom Built

Modern cabinets are typically built-in standard sizes. A problem with removing custom cabinets in an oddly shaped kitchen is that it can be challenging to get standard-sized cabinets to fit well. Generally, if a cabinet is too long, the next size down is used, along with a filler for the gaps. That means overall; you lose inches of storage space, which can add up to a foot or more if many cabinets require adjustments. Additionally, custom cabinets are often all one piece, which is difficult to adjust.

4.) Your Countertops or Flooring Has Already Been Replaced

Refacing is a much better option if you have countertops or flooring you are happy with and want to keep. A good quality countertop that is adhered to correctly is not easy to move onto new cabinets, and there is a risk of snapping or cracking it. Also, flooring not going under the cabinets can pose a problem if the new cabinets don’t follow the same floor plan. Refacing can change the look of the cabinets without replacing the countertop or flooring.

Conclusion

Cabinet refacing is an excellent option for many kitchen remodeling projects. The significant advantages of choosing to reface your kitchen are the time saved in the renovation process and avoiding the need to obtain costly permits. The refacing process leaves the cabinet boxes in place and adheres to a new wood layer on the outside. We replace doors and drawers with new hardware and upgrades. Refacing is a better option for any kitchen where the layout is good. The cabinets are in good shape but maybe just outdated. The cabinets are custom-built, and the countertop or flooring is new.

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