If the boxes are sound and the layout works, you are paying for doors. Refacing replaces every part you see and touch — doors, drawer fronts, the visible frame and end panels, hardware — and keeps the carcasses that are screwed to your walls. A kitchen's whole face changes in about a week, without demolition.
When refacing is the right answer
Open a base cabinet and look at the box. Solid sides, a floor that is not sagging, hinges that still hold a door where you put it, no water damage under the sink — that is a kitchen worth refacing. Doors that are dated, chipped, yellowed or simply the wrong colour are the cheapest problem in a kitchen to fix.
When it is not
Boxes that are swollen at the base, shelves that bow, a layout that has always fought you, or a plan to move the sink or the range. None of those get better with new doors. In those cases we will quote custom cabinets or a full kitchen remodel instead, and say why — refacing a kitchen you will rebuild in three years is money spent twice.
What actually gets replaced
- Every door and drawer front, in your door style and finish
- The face frames and any visible end panels, veneered to match the new fronts
- Hinges and drawer slides, including soft-close if the old ones are tired
- Cabinet hardware — pulls and knobs, sized and drilled to the new fronts
- Optional additions in the same run: a new panel over a dishwasher, toe kicks, crown at the ceiling
About a week, and the kitchen stays usable
Doors and fronts are ordered to our measurements and arrive before we start, so nothing is stripped off to sit and wait. The crew removes the old fronts, prepares and veneers the frames, hangs the new doors and drawer fronts, adjusts every hinge, and fits the hardware. You keep the counters, the sink and the appliances working the whole time.
Where it sits next to the alternatives
Refacing changes the finish and the style. It cannot change the layout, and it cannot change the interior of the boxes. Cheaper and faster than new cabinets; more thorough and more durable than painting the cabinets you have, because the fronts are new rather than refinished.
Pair it with new countertops and a backsplash and you have a cosmetic kitchen refresh. Start with a free in-home measurement: we look inside the boxes with you and tell you honestly which of the three jobs your kitchen actually needs.
