<p>My kitchen cabinets and veneer are falling apart! The previous owners used cheap materials for a quick job. I like the kitchen and layout so rather than replacing the cabinets, I’m thinking of refacing the cabinet boxes (painting or stick-on veneer) and new doors and hinges. The quotes I’ve gotten from professionals is about 9-12K so I’m thinking of doing it myself. There are lots of companies that sell the materials to the DIY (do-it-yourselfer) with instructions. It looks doable but am I crazy? Anyone else have experience with this?</p>
<p>My SIL thought about doing the same thing, but in the end they had the cabinet boxes re surfaced and had new doors made. I don’t think I would attempt a stick on veneer process because I would find some way to mess it up.</p>
<p>It would really depend on the quality of what’s there. Many find that with decent, inexpensive cabinets like ikea’s available, it’s just not worth the effort. This also seems like it would be hard for a DIYer to get right.</p>
<p>If they’re falling apart, replace them. Veneering won’t make them last any longer, whether you do it yourself or have someone else do it. Then you’ll have wasted time & money, and still have to replace the cabinets. Around here, there are places that can get you cheap cabinets for $4-6K installed. </p>
<p>Call around to some of the kitchen specialty stores in your area.</p>
<p>The cabinets aren’t falling apart. The veneer is coming off and the hinges on the cheap looking doors are failing.</p>
<p>We had a friend who wanted to do this. BUT to do it right, they found they had to remove ALL of the old veneer. They attempted it but in the end, the cabinets ended up quite damaged. And the husband was QUITE handy.</p>
<p>Now…if you can remove the veneer without damaging the cabinets, you should be able to paint or reface them…you would essentially be putting new veneer where the old was.</p>
<p>Sounds like a hard job to me!!</p>
<p>If you have the skills to veneer your old cabinets and replace the doors, you should have the skills to replace the cabinets. You can get decent quality RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets with solid fronts and doors and plywood boxes for pretty cheap.</p>
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<p>This guy is a friend of mine, he did all the work (except the counters) with the help of his father and father-in-law. It was a total gut job. The cabinets look pretty good.</p>
<p>BTW, you should probably plan on redoing the counters too; after refreshing the cabinets, the counters will probably not look too good.</p>