Kitchen Cabinets – Reface or Replace?

Refacing Kitchen Cabinets

Refacing kitchen cabinets can vary in scope but typically involves replacing the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers, as well as the mechanical hardware on them.

Wood veneers are also frequently affixed to the exposed fronts and sides of the existing kitchen cabinetry. With some kitchen refacing companies they can also outright replace the entire drawer and drawer glide system to provide the proper functionality, however it does raise the cost somewhat.

Refacing, versus replacing kitchen cabinets, is often a good idea if you don’t expect to live in the house for that much longer, e.g. another year or two. If the mechanical aspects of the kitchen cabinets are functional, i.e. the drawers still open and close properly, it’s typically the more affordable way to go. The only real downside of refacing, versus replacing the kitchen cabinets outright, is that you don’t have the opportunity to add the latest kitchen cabinetry features to your kitchen.

However the costs savings can be so significant with refacing kitchen cabinets, for many people it’s an acceptable compromise to forgo the benefits of the new cabinet features.

Replacing Kitchen Cabinets

Though refacing kitchen cabinets can save substantially on a kitchen remodel, replacing kitchen cabinets have many other advantages.

First, as I just hinted to, you can incorporate many of the latest kitchen cabinetry features in a new kitchen cabinet design. New features include built in wine racks, interior cabinet lighting, glass cabinet doors, and cabinet doors with rollout drawers, just to name a few.

Replacing kitchen cabinets, versus refacing them, also affords you the opportunity to completely change the floor layout of your kitchen and possibly integrate into it a kitchen island or breakfast bar. Replacing kitchen cabinets also allows you to better utilize the existing space in your kitchen due to the improved efficiencies of today’s modern kitchen cabinet design tools and cabinet features. Installing new kitchen cabinets also comes with warranties, whereas with refacing kitchen cabinets, it’s a much more nebulous situation.

Save money on your Kitchen Remodel with this Kitchen Remodeling Bid Sheet.

So before going out and spending a fortune on replacing your kitchen cabinets assess how long you plan to live in the home, and obtain quotes for both approaches. Then determine what makes the most financial sense, as well as provides you with the look and functionality you desire in your remodeled kitchen.

In some cases the cost savings of refacing the kitchen cabinets may be relatively small that it’s a better investment to spend the extra money and simply replace the kitchen cabinets altogether.