The option of kitchen cabinet refacing gives you the chance to freshen up the kitchen without having to go through the sometimes arduous task of deciding on new door materials, patterns or styles. Removing and replacing kitchen cabinets will be an expensive exercise and in a lot of cases doing so is not necessary. If your cabinets are still in good condition, a refacing job on the kitchen doors can result in a transformation that will significantly modernize the room.

As the name suggests kitchen cabinet refacing is a treatment of the doors where they are given a complete freshen up. It may involve removing any old peeling paint or RTF foil, the wood surface may have to be stripped back, cracks will be filled, dents repaired and, if required, a new paint job is applied. The refacing will also include a thorough clean of the surface of the doors with dishwashing liquid. For RTF doors a new self-adhesive covering may be applied.

This process is sometimes also referred to as cabinet front replacement or cabinet restyling. It’s a job that you can do yourself quite adequately or you can remove the doors and drawers and send them away to be professionally refaced. Part of the process will also involve resurfacing the cabinet face frames and sides before refitting the door and drawer fronts.

When performing cabinet refacing the job is done on site with the cabinetry performed in the kitchen. The kitchen doors would naturally be removed and for the most part, they would be replaced with custom made ones.

If the doors are beyond repair the refacing job will involve discarding the old doors and buying new ones with only the cabinets getting the updated treatment.

When refacing your kitchen doors it will also be necessary to update the door knobs, handles and hinges. There’s not much point restyling the door surfaces so they look fresh and brand new and then leaving the old rusted hinges behind to stick out like a sore thumb. It’s the same for the kitchen door handles.

Performing a kitchen door refacing job may also give you the opportunity to change the style of the doors or to move up to a more expensive looking door. Changing to a wooden door doesn’t have to cost the earth either by updating the door surface with wood veneer or a combination of veneer and wood.

The option of turning dated kitchen doors into light and modern features is easily achieved through a professional refacing job. You can turn the dark cabinetry that was popular in the 1970s into a light, clean and stylish modern kitchen with the use of some oak or maple doors.

The first thing you will want to do, however, is to determine what style kitchen doors are going to be most flattering to your home. This basically involves comparing wood versus other materials, such as stainless steel or glass doors.

Color must also be considered; think of it in relation to the rest of your kitchen and make sure everything matches before you make your purchase. What kind of molding do you want? What about the handles and the overall style? It might help to keep a little checklist so you can follow along with yourself and cross out options that won’t work.

The next step in installing your kitchen doors is to determine whether you want to work with a stock, semi-custom, or completely customized set. These basically represent a range of options from most restrictive (stock) up to least restrictive (custom). The latter will obviously be more expensive and use a higher-grade wood.

A further option is to take your existing doors out of the kitchen and sending them off to be refaced. Cabinet refacing involves giving the kitchen doors a facelift, renewing tired and outdated surfaces if they are painted or if they’ve been knocked around to the extent that they simply devalue the entire room. A good kitchen cabinet refacing job can change the entire look of your kitchen doors. When they’ve been redone, it will be a simple matter of rehanging the doors to have them installed again.

One of the best things about going with stock kitchen doors is that beyond their cheap price tag they are quick and easy. All you have to do is make some measurements and then order them. They will arrive at your house quickly, and are the easiest to install.

If you plan on ordering custom cabinets, well I’m sorry but you’re going to have to wait upwards of a month. That’s the downside. But the upside is that you will (hopefully) have a nicer looking kitchen when all is said and done.

Nowadays kitchen door manufacturers have really gone a long way toward making the installation process easier for consumers. I really applaud them for this maneuver, as it allows us to save a bit of money when we want to take on some of the work ourselves. Big box vendors have made the process even more streamlined by having stock cabinets available all day every day, and even offering to deliver them right to your front step.