When thinking about making some style changes to your kitchen, you may be considering replacing your cabinets but
before ripping out your current kitchen cabinets and getting into a long remodel project you may want to consider refacing or refinishing your current cabinets. Refacing and refinishing are more economical alternatives to replacing your cabinets, especially if you’re already happy with the layout of your kitchen the way it is.

So what’s the difference between refacing cabinets, and refinishing?

Cabinet refacing is an increasingly popular consideration for homeowners, it is not uncommon for homeowners to want to salvage their existing kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Cabinet Refacing by definition means “to renew, to restore, to repair the face or surface of your cabinets”, so nothing is done to any part of the cabinets except the face and sides of the existing cabinet boxes. The inside is not altered, including the inside portion of the face frame, or the top or undersides of the cabinets. Refacing cabinets is a process in which the existing cabinet doors, hinges, drawer fronts, all moldings and trim are removed, and then the cabinet framework is sanded and prepared to be resurfaced with laminate or real wood veneer material in your choice of specie and stain or solid tone color. The existing cabinet boxes are kept, but all the cabinet doors, hinges, and drawers fronts are replaced. It is also possible to replace all of the old drawer boxes and hardware with new dovetail solid wood drawer boxes and updated, full-extension, soft close hardware. Other options include installing new crown molding and new decorative door and drawer hardware. Adding new cabinets to the existing layout and installing modern day accessories such as lazy suzans and pull-outs is also possible when refacing your cabinets.

When deciding which is the right choice for you there are a few things to keep in mind. If you’re considering refinishing but your cabinets are made of laminate or thermofoil, it is not an option because these materials cannot be sanded or stripped and it’s nearly impossible for the paint to stick.If you have wood cabinets you can refinish or reface. If you’re content with your current kitchen’s layout, but dislike your cabinet's current style you may want to consider refacing the kitchen cabinets. If budget is your main consideration, refinishing is often the cheaper option. Estimates have shown that refinishing cabinets costs about two-thirds the cost of refacing, meanwhile refacing is about 50 percent the cost of installing new cabinets. One of the main money-saving factors is that you don’t have to replace your countertop or flooring, also no changes need to be made to your existing electrical, plumbing, natural gas or lighting (although changes can be made depending on how major they are.

A typical refacing candidate has cabinets that are in good shape structurally, have already had a new countertop installed recently, are happy with the current kitchen layout, and are looking to change the style of the kitchen by choosing a different door style and moldings, specie and stain color.

We at Ideal Home Improvement hope this helps you in your decision process.