<p>I thought we should start labeling the home improvement threads…</p>
<p>Our cabinets are old and skanky. The doors are hollow-core and the hinges and pulls were 59-cent specials from Wal-mart. Since our modestly-priced home in the woods has somehow become a less-modestly-priced home in the more-crowded woods, we are looking into some upgrades. Our new deck was finished last week (TallSon and I tore the old one down last summer because it was rotting away), so we are on to project #2.</p>
<p>Our first thought was to buy new cabinets and replace the counter tops (30-year-old brown Formica), but after drawing different plans we’ve decided to keep the kitchen layout the same. This means we could reface instead of replace. </p>
<p>Has anyone done kitchen refacing? How did it work? How much do you think you saved? Did you get a warm Green glow from not replacing the cabinet boxes? It’s pretty attractive, but I’d be interested in some real-life stories.</p>
<p>(If you need a deck builder in King or Snohomish Counties, I have a referral for you. These guys did a great job.)</p>
<p>It depends on your cabinet boxes. If they are 5/8" particle board, I would go ahead and replace them. If they are 3/4" plywood, refacing is a viable option. Any decent cabintmaker can replace face frames (they are face framed aren’t they?) and make new doors and drawers. You can also retrofit sliding pot drawers behind doors, pullout shelves, lazy suzans, etc.</p>
<p>We had one of those cabinet refacing companies come out to give us an estimate. There were a couple of changes we wanted, but they were minimal. The estimate we got was out of this world! Basically, almost as expensive as all new cherry cabinets. I would suggest getting estimates for the refacing along with new cabinetry. If you are handy and able to do the installation yourself, you might end up better off buying new cabinets. In short, get estimates for both refacing and new and see where you stand. Refacing is a much cleaner installation, but it is labor intensive because of all the cutting and gluing they do on the cabinet boxes. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I took all 22 doors and drawer faces off myself and sanded and primed and painted them (inside and out). Add some new hardware and voila you have a new kitchen.</p>
<p>Now if I could get up enough nerve to try putting cement & painting over my formica on the countertops.</p>
<p>We had my 1950 formica without a backsplash and we lived with it for over 20 years. In fact one section was even cut out and had a cutting board over it. The cutting board hid the part that was cut out and not disclosed to us when we bought our home. We recently replaced our countertops with granite, and I love it. We also put in a tumbled marble backsplash. I cannot believe that we lived without a backsplash for two decades! I am enjoying my kitchen. Oh, and we bought middle of the road stock cabinets. They work for me. I cannot imagine living with resurfaced cabinets that were as old as mine. I just cannot imagine being happy with those old warped things.</p>
<p>We used a company with good references that specialized in cabinet refacing but they were out of business about a year after our job. Our experience was mixed. The cabinet doors and drawer fronts were finished offsite and then installed in our home. They were gorgeous. Not so gorgeous was the on-site finish applied to the exposed ends of the cabinet (not sure how to describe this, but I am talking about the large faces at the end of a row of cabinets that are very visible to the room.) These large surfaces were finished on-site and never satisfactorily matched the cabinet doors and drawers and doors in color and surface (the difference in sheen or gloss was noticeable). It was cheaper and it did just take a 5 days (we also replaced the countertops and sink at the same time) so those were pluses, but we are in a different house now and I don’t know if I would go the refacing route again.</p>
<p>We refaced and new-doored a kitchen with good bones and ugly appearance. The advice to look at the quality of the cabinets first is excellent. The reface was done with furniture grade plywood. It looked great and saved us a bundle.</p>
<p>I have an older home built in the late 60s with real wood cabinets. I hired a cabinet maker to come out and give me new doors and drawers. The cost was much cheaper than replacing the entire cabinet and the look was very good. IMHO when you are dealing with a resurfacing or refacing company they can be either not so good at doing the work or expensive. What you need is a referral for a good cabinet guy. Do you have a local contractors association? They should be able to give you a referral for a licensed contractor.
Here’s a link for an organization that might help: </p>
<p>Actually, ebeeeee, making kitchen cabinets is pretty simple, it’s just that it’s also repetitious and boring. It’s not that I can’t, I just don’t want to. Also, I buy materials retail and the manufacturers get it wholesale. For what I would pay for birch or maple plywood and the hardware to make my own cabinets, I could just about buy them pre-made, and then I wouldn’t have to sand or finish them. I gave up doing my own woodworking projects to save money a while ago. Now, I just build pieces that look interesting to make. There’s not much interesting construction in plywood boxes with face frames.</p>
<p>The only reason I would consider it is if WashMom and I decided we want Shaker-style cabinets with inset doors. It’s tempting – mostly because I don’t like “European-style” hinges very much – but getting all those tolerances right is time-consuming and fussy. I think I’ll probably just learn to live with overlayed doors and drawer fronts and spend my summer doing something else besides building kitchen cabinets.</p>
<p>I started with Angie’s List referrals for contractors. Thanks for the other ideas, everyone.</p>
<p>“We refaced and new-doored a kitchen with good bones and ugly appearance. The advice to look at the quality of the cabinets first is excellent. The reface was done with furniture grade plywood. It looked great and saved us a bundle.”</p>
<p>I would second this advice. It’s going to depend on what you’ve got there… putting really nice doors on really crappy cabinets, will look good till the you open them… </p>
<p>Veneer can look really good, or alot like veneer…depends on type, color and install. But I think you hit the point of life that I’ve discovered …long projects are for young new home buyers, not “seasoned” folks…</p>
<p>isn’t it funny about the time you really understand and could do a really good home improvement project… you really don’t want to anymore…:)</p>
<p>So true, Opie. I hired someone to build me a deck, which is, after all, a simple project, when it occurred to me that I really didn’t want to spend all those hours climbing up and down a ladder with heavy building materials. Life is too short, I thought, to risk my health building a second-story deck. The front porch, however, is like a small deck only four feet off the ground – a perfect July project. You have to learn to pick your battles.</p>
<p>I’m guessing here, and the guess is that your current cabinets have partial overlay doors. If the boxes are sturdy and plumb, you should be able to get a knock-your-socks-off look by replacing the doors with new, full overlay doors. We have a custom cabinet shop in our smallish burg. One option is, if you have such a shop, to ask them to fabricate and install new doors for you.</p>
<p>warning, if you haven’t priced this out lately: new hardware, whether for new or old doors, can really add up.</p>
<p>Washdad. We will have to compare notes. Our kitchen remodel will start next week and we too are refacing our cabinets. Our current cabinets are a descent oak. We are doing what mafool said above and doing full overlay doors. Also mentioned above, we are replacing 4 doors with deep drawers. We are going with a shaker type beaded style in a bright white. We are also having the refrigerator boxed in. Crown molding on top of the cabinets, under cabinet lighting, granite countertops, undermount SS sink, new appliances and backsplash. We are replacing the ugly shop looking flourescent light with can lights and dropping three pendent lights over the raised bar portion of the countertop. Somewhere along the way we are going to repaint as well. Got some great paint color ideas on the other remodeling thread here on CC. Anyone have recommendations for online shopping for faucets and lights?</p>
<p>Lukester, we were able to build a false wall because we expanded our kitchen. This allowed us to use a full sized fridge, but it looks like it is flush with our cabinets (Think they call the small fridges counter depth. It has that look, but our fridge is full sized). As far as faucets, I love our Grohe (bit high end though, but it was worth it to me). It pulls out to spray, and you can change the water flow to more of a shower spritz. For lights we had high hats (recessed lighting) put in. Our kitchen was an expansion as well, so it was fairly easy. I don’t know how easy this is to put in with an existing ceiling. As far as the sink, ours is a deep large stainless steel sink with another smaller side for peeling (it has garbage disposer).</p>
<p>I ordered knobs, etc. from thse folks for my kitchen a couple years ago. Their prices were great, they had copper before it was cool, and free shipping!
[KITCHEN</a> CABINET HARDWARE - WHOLESALE TO THE PUBLIC - FURNITURE HARDWARE](<a href=“http://www.dlawlesshardware.com/]KITCHEN”>http://www.dlawlesshardware.com/)</p>
<p>WashDad, I read this thread because I always get a kick out of your home improvement projects. (I am also jealous!) Our kitchen was redone about seven years before we bought our house, and it was cheap particle board. The Euro hinges come loose all the time. I would love to knock out a wall and re-do, but that’s a project far down the road, I fear. (EFC, ya know)</p>
<p>We painted our cabinets white inside and out. Right as we were in the middle of doing it my H got very ill so things were put on hold. 3 years later we are still umming about whether to paint the old doors, order prefab ones through one of the online refacing companies or have someone make the doors. So we have been door free for 3 year now - actually quite like it!!! But it is a good cheap option and looks good - even door free.</p>
<p>Word of warning - sticking your head inside a corner cabinet for too long to paint it can lead to getting high (or that is what I was told I was experiencing - don’t know why anyone would choose to feel like that)- racing heart and everything. Not pleasant - I though I was having a heart attack. Ventilate.</p>
<p>We redid the kitchen cabinets in a house we owned about a decade ago. The carpenter replaced all the doors and drawers and hinges and put some extras inside some of the cabinets (lazy susans, hidden soap and towel holders, things like that). The cabinets were solid maple but they were dark; we simply had the boxes refaced to the same light maple as the new doors. As I recall, it was more economical than replacing everything. The contractor helped us pick out new hardware and replaced the formica top with one that had a contrasting beveled edge. Everything coordinated and it looked fantastic–basically light cabinets with black accents which picked up the black accents on the appliances. We had a tile floor put in at the same time. The only hard part was living with the mess until it was all done.</p>
<p>Someone asked about supply place for faucets and such. One of my coworkers was raving about the prices and the quality of stuff he got from Homeclick. I have not tried them personally, but they seem to have great stuff!</p>
<p>I did the refacing trick for my brother when he bought his house. The carcasses for the most part were in excellent shape. I modified two existing cabinets, and built two or three more custom units to fill in where we bumped the room out a foot or three. New full overlay doors and drawers, in almond formica (sheesh…it was that long ago?) with full width oak pulls. </p>
<p>Added slide out racks, can racks, tray dividers, all the bells and whistles.</p>
<p>He and his wife were happy, and they’ve held up well.</p>