Cabinet Refacing

New Faces on Cabinets That Still Have Years Left

Cabinet refacing means keeping your existing cabinet boxes and replacing everything you see and touch. The doors and drawer fronts are new. The face frames get a new skin, either a real wood veneer or a thin applied panel that is painted to match. Hinges, drawer slides and pulls are replaced. The boxes, the countertops, the sink and the appliances all stay where they are.

In a kitchen built in Orangecrest or Mission Grove in the 2000s, that is often the most sensible way to spend money. The typical builder cabinet from that era is a framed cabinet: a box of particleboard or plywood sides with a solid wood face frame glued and nailed to the front. Those frames are usually still tight. The doors are what aged, with a raised panel profile that dates the room and a stain that has shifted color after years of sun.

Whether Your Kitchen Is a Good Candidate

We decide this in person, and we decide it with the doors open.

The sink base

This is the cabinet that fails first, every time. A slow drip from a supply valve or a dishwasher connection soaks the floor of the sink base for months before anyone sees it. Particleboard that has taken water swells, crumbles at the edges and starts to smell. If the sink base is gone, it gets replaced with a new box built to the same width, and that box is refaced with the rest. One failed cabinet is not a reason to replace twenty.

Shelves, frames and drawers

We look for shelves that sag in the middle, face frames that have separated from the box, and drawer boxes stapled together at the corners that have started to spread. Sagging shelves can be replaced or supported. Weak drawer boxes are usually replaced during refacing anyway, because new full extension slides need a drawer box that is square and strong enough to carry them.

The layout itself

Refacing changes what the cabinets look like, not where they are. If the room works, it is a good fit. If you are constantly bumping into someone at the island, the dishwasher door blocks the only path to the refrigerator, or the aisle between the island and the range is so narrow that two people cannot pass, then new doors will not fix the part that bothers you. A comfortable working aisle is roughly 42 to 48 inches. When a kitchen is well short of that, we will tell you it is a layout problem and price it as one.

Choosing Doors and Finishes

Most people refacing a 2000s kitchen move to a flatter, simpler door. A shaker style door with a recessed center panel is the most common choice and sits comfortably against almost any countertop. A slab door works well in a more modern room. Inset doors, where the door sits flush inside the frame, are generally not a refacing option on a framed builder cabinet, because the frames were never built to the tolerances inset doors need.

For the finish, the choices are real wood veneer, painted wood or MDF, and thermofoil or other laminate surfaces. Painted MDF doors are stable and hold a crisp edge. Real wood veneer shows grain and can be stained. Thermofoil costs less, and for some rooms it is a fine choice, but it is a vinyl film heat pressed over a core, and near a range or in a window that takes direct afternoon sun it can yellow or start to peel at the edges. In a west facing Riverside kitchen we steer people away from it for the cabinets closest to the glass.

Hardware Makes the Old Storage Usable

Builder cabinets from twenty years ago mostly used basic hinges and three quarter extension drawer slides, which leave the back of every drawer out of reach. During refacing we fit soft close concealed hinges and full extension soft close slides. It sounds minor. It is often the part owners mention first a month later.

This is also the time to change how the lower cabinets work inside. Deep base cabinets with a single fixed shelf can take roll out trays. A cabinet beside the sink can become a pull out for trash and recycling. The awkward blind corner can get a pull out mechanism in place of a shelf nobody could reach.

What the Process Looks Like

1. Inspection and measurement. We check the boxes, measure every opening and photograph the run.
2. Ordering. Doors, drawer fronts and veneer are made to the measured sizes. Lead times vary by door style and finish, and custom painted doors commonly take several weeks. We give you the ship date in writing once the order is confirmed.
3. Preparation. Old doors and hardware come off, face frames are cleaned and sanded, and any damaged cabinet is replaced.
4. Veneer and install. Frames and exposed sides are covered, new hinges and slides go in, then doors and fronts are hung and adjusted until the gaps are even.
5. Walkthrough. We open and close every door with you and fix anything that does not sit right.

Because the countertops and sink stay connected, the kitchen stays usable for most of the job. You lose cabinet doors for a few days, not your stove.

What Moves the Price

The main cost drivers are the number of doors and drawer fronts, the door style, the finish, and how many cabinets need interior upgrades. A painted shaker door costs more than a thermofoil slab. A kitchen with a tall pantry cabinet and a long island has more surface to veneer. Replacing a water damaged sink base adds a modest amount. As a rough guide, refacing a mid sized Riverside tract kitchen usually lands between $11,000 and $22,000 before any backsplash or countertop work, and we give you a written, itemized number after the inspection.

To find out whether your cabinets are worth keeping, call (951) 335-7261 and we will come and open the doors with you.