Refacing kitchen cabinets

Hey Ladies...

DH and I recently bought a new house and the kitchen has great cabinets, except for the color. Has anyone ever refaced their cabinets? Do you know roughly what it would cost for a large kitchen?? And do you guys have any recommendations?

TIA!!

Refacing kitchen cabinets

I would love to know this too! I asked this same question about a month ago and got no responses. Hopefully someone will chime in on your post.

Refacing kitchen cabinets

Do you mean refacing or painting? If the cabinets are great except for the color, then it would probably be easiest and much cheaper just to paint them. Actual refacing, though gets expensive. The exact figures depend on the kitchen, but it's usually about the same cost as getting new cabinets from Ikea or other places offering cabinets. It is, however, cheaper than custom cabinets.

But really, if it is just the color, we did our whole kitchen for under $200 (including replacing the hardware and adding moulding to the doors). It is not difficult but it is very time consuming.

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

We had priced it when we bought our house. For 28 cabinets it was going to be about 13k.

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

Type in 'cabinet refacing' on lowes.com. You'll get a link to Rust-Oleum's new product to reface your kitchen cabinets. We were thinking of doing this but then decided to wait bc we'd still have the same ugly laminate counter and backsplash. rust-oleum

They have it in store as well where you can see the colors.

Refacing kitchen cabinets

I am also thinking of doing the rustoleum for my kitchen cabinets. They are solid wood (my fil made them). It looks easy enough.

Refacing kitchen cabinets

Refacing is not a cheap option. You might as well replace the entire cabinet as the doors and drawer faces are the most expensive component.
If you want to stain the wood a different color, look into General Finishes Gel Stain and Topcoat. It is really easy to work with and looks beautiful. We just did DS's toy shelf-it was so easy to do. There are lots of shades available but it is not available locally.
If you are looking to paint, the best cabinet paint is Cabinet Coat by Insl-X available at Ace Hardware. The only problem is they only have limited pastel shades. But the finish is sturdy and won't crack with use like other paints.

Refacing kitchen cabinets

We used the Rustoleum product when we painted our cabinets and it was easy enough. However, if I could go back and do it over again I would probably just buy everything separately. Even though they say it's no sanding, we still sanded anyway, based on the online experiences I just didn't trust the deglosser to prep the surface enough. The "top coat" step is just simply water based poly. I did like that it narrowed down the color choices for me though, or I would probably STILL be deciding between 100 different whites.

Another option would be Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I've not used it on cabinets, but I have used it on other wood and it truly is no sanding, no prep. You just slap the paint on and then rub some wax on it. It's not cheap by any means, I think it's like $40 a quart, but I've painted 3 huge furniture pieces with a quart and still have over half the can.

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

Wow.... didn't realize how $$$ refinishing could be. Right now my cabinets are a honey color (I think maple???) I am looking to stain them mainly to something pretty dark. For those of you that have painted your cabinets...how often do you have to re-paint them? Also, do you have pictures?

Thanks guys...

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

We refaced our cabinets and used Home Depot's in-house company, US Remodelers, to do the job.

Basically, this is what happened. DH and I wanted to completely update our kitchen: cabinets, countertop, sink, floor and wall tiles/backsplash, and paint the whole kitchen. And knock down a wall.

We priced out all of our options for new cabinets - IKEA, Home Depot, various local cabinet shops throughout Queens and Brooklyn and what we found was a combination of two issues:

- cabinets in our price point were crappy material and we weren't sure how long they would last...and our price point was moderate. We weren't cheaping out on things, but we didn't have an endless amount of money.

- our current cabinets were in good condition, just OLD and not our style at all. But the boxes, the base...that shit is sturdy! We didn't want to give up something that was really sturdy and made from real wood.

So, we stumbled upon refacing one night at HD.

Had a guy come in to our home with a bunch of samples one Saturday morning. No pressure. Went over pricing and design.

By this point in our kitchen remodel brainstorming, DH and I were set on refacing, so we decided on everything right then and there.

Had a person come in a few days later to take all of the measurements.

Work was ready to begin on time a few weeks later, once all of our parts were ready.

Guys who worked were very professional and cleaned up after themselves every night before leaving. On time every day. Work was done in the timeframe they gave us.

I am THRILLED with the results. I can take pics from home if you'd like.

I cook all the time, I slam drawers and doors, I get messy...I'm cooking in that kichen at least once a day, prepping food twice a day, and everything looks great. It really holds up.

It was about $8K for refacing, new doors (Martha Stewart brand), countertop (which we splurged on), sink, faucet, hardware, two custom pieces that they made for us, a few doors with glass panes.

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

Posted by PearlJamChick

Posted by nraboni
Did HD paint or sand/stain the cabinets boxes and base?

No - basically, they removed any existing laminate on the boxes/base, remove the adhesive and sand it down, then put a veneer on them that is custom made (based on the measurements that the measure tech took down...they measure EVERYTHING)

The drawers we had were tossed and new ones put in with new rails and drawer fronts.

This link - click me! will give you a better understanding in a nutshell of how it all works.

Let me know if you have any more questions! I meant to take pictures last night but I was lazy

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

Sooo.... I had seen your pics earlier, but didn't see the updated you posted in this thread... In the meantime, I was at HD buying blinds for the house and signed up for a free estimate for refacing....

Couple of questions...

The guy came to our house and gave us pricing that was $$$ Our kitchen would cost a little over 20K...which we are not really willing to do right now...

In the quote, they would be replacing all drawers and DOORS to the existing cabinets.... Did they do that for you? I don't really see why they have to if I just want a different color... Did they give you pricing to keep your old drawers at all?

Also, how big is your kitchen, roughly?

When I was talking to the lady at HD, before I scheduled to have an estimate, I told her we weren't looking to spend more then 10K...she laughed and told me "not a problem, it shouldn't be anywhere near that", even though I told her we hve a fairly large kitchen....so needless to say, I was shocked when the price was double +...

I'm getting so frustrated shopping around...

TIA

Re: Refacing kitchen cabinets

we were approached at HD last night by someone promoting their refacing and offering free quotes like the poster ^^. she said its usually 60% cheaper than replacing cabinets.

We are not interested as the quality of our cabinets are terrible, plus they are very shallow and we want to change the layout of our kitchen. but it seems like a good option for someone who has existing cabinets they like and just wants a change of the front. that said, i would try painting them first. i have seem amazing results from that and its sooo much cheaper than refacing