What is the Refacing Process?
Refacing means that the outside of your cabinets are finished with a veneer of real wood, rigid thermal foils (RFT), or plastic laminate, while new doors and drawer fronts are added, along with new hardware to complete the look. The process costs about half of what replacing the cabinets would be, with a lot less hassle. Since the cabinet boxes are still in place, you can still use your kitchen during the remodel, which often takes less than a week.
The look you can achieve with the refacing process is indistinguishable from new cabinets. Laminate products used for resurfacing come in solid colors and wood grain looks. For a more realistic wood grain, RFT is even better. It is malleable vinyl foil that can be molded over fiberboard doors distinguished by detail such as arching, cathedral styling, or raised panels. True wood veneers can add 10 to 25% to the cost of refacing, but the result is a cabinet in beautiful oak, cherry, maple, birch, walnut, or any other type of wood you like.
One of the biggest advantages for environmentally conscious homeowners is that this remodeling project uses many of the materials already in your kitchen, so that you create less waste in the remodeling process. Since many cabinets built years ago are often better constructed than many prebuilt stock cabinets today, refacing gives you the opportunity to retain quality without cost and waste.
Is Refacing Always Better than Replacing your Cabinets?
The refacing process only makes sense if the cabinets are in good condition. If the original cabinets are not sound, are out of alignment, or are made of now-rusted metal, refacing is not going to give you an attractive, long-lasting solution. Also, if the kitchen was badly laid out and needs cabinets of a different size or configuration, refacing is not a solution.
If refacing is otherwise the best option, but you find you need an extra cabinet or two, most refacing companies can also supply a new cabinet that will fit in place with what you already have. In addition, if you want to replace the drawers in your cabinets, you can order whole new drawers, rather than just have the fronts be refaced - this would be a good option for utensil drawers or junk drawers that got a lot of abuse over the years. You can also order other popular cabinet accessories such as Lazy Susans, pull out trash bins, wine racks, pull out shelves, and other handy accessories to have installed during the refacing.
Most companies that offer cabinet refacing also offer countertop and floor replacement. This offers you the benefit of having one vendor that can provide an integrated solution for replacing your cabinets and making other kitchen upgrades.
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