cabinet refacing?

Has anyone here ever done this? We are looking to redo a few rooms in our place and thought maybe refacing the kithcen cabinets would be less money than a total redo. Any help is appriciated.

Joe

Maybe swing by your closest Rockler store and talk to them.

If you have no woodworking equiptment or skills it make be better to have them done.

On the other hand, once stripped they have some pretty nice wipe on poly’s that look almost like they were sprayed on.

Take your time, and light coats and gentle sanding will make for less mistakes.

Al

Find a good complimentary color to your kitchen and give the cabinets a couple coats of paint. It’s a inexpensive, easy and quick way to give your kitchen an updated look.
Just my 2 cents.

Take care!
Kevin

I did mine a few years ago, we had the super dark (70’s) looking stain. so took all the faces off, put stain remover and let sit for a few hours and wiped off, then took the hand orbital and sanded the fronts down to regular look (but be careful as you use to much grit, or sand 1 spot to long and you will burn through the top face (if not a solid oak/wood face). then for the grooves/designs that are routered in take sand paper, wrap it around a deck of cards and the then sand away by hand. it is a lot of work if there are designs in the faces, but worth it in the end. and only real expoenses fro me were sanding disks (as I already had the sander) and stain to redo. then I also sanded the cabinets. there I just used a big grit to get through the “outside” layer before the stain the sanded just like the fronts. mine took me a couple weekends. Good luck if you decide to try.

Joe, I am a trim carpenter who has refaced cabinets several times using both wood and laminate veneers. My litmus test for refacing is the condition of the cabinetry and the quality of the cabinet build details. Refacing usually entails new drawer heads and new doors which comprise the greatest expense in cabinet building. Then the materials and labor to reface the frames is added to that cost. My experience is that refacing is equal in cost to replacing (plus or minus 10-15%) and is often not worth the cost.
One notable exception is built-in cabinetry in which replacement would require damaging the surrounding walls or is an unusual size or depth requiring special ordering.
Refinishing may be the better option and there are some excellent low odor strippers on the market. Painting is another good option especially if there is an artistic person in the house that could apply faux finishes like pickling or glazes. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

Thanks everyone. I am going to look into all the options.

Good advice Bob because thats what I’ve run into in the past too. If theres drywall or lath and plaster behind the cabinets its just as easy and almost the same price to buy a nice looking economy cabinet and hang them yourself. If there builtin you might want to strip or reface them if you don’t want the added expense or time to do the drywall work. Go to the web and look through the diffrent ways people are screwing the styles together with clamps, its important to hold all the cabinets together with screws through the styles( the vertical framing just behind the cabinet doors, what the door hinges are screwed too.

Also use shims to place in the void under the front of the cabinet so they all run straight. Its not that hard to do, watch the videos on U-tube or where ever to get some input. Think it through while your doing it and don’t get frustrated, if you can sand a piece of plywood so its nice, have used a drill a few times and you can read a tape measure your halfway home. Watch what they do on U-tube and see if you can do it.