Cabinet Refacing vs. Replacing vs. Repainting

Cabinets are usually the largest line in a kitchen budget, so the question of whether you can keep the ones you have is worth a careful answer. There are three routes. They differ less in how the kitchen looks on the first day than in what they leave unchanged, and that is where people are most often disappointed.

What each option actually changes

In the terms used on our kitchen remodel levels page, repainting and refacing are part of a cosmetic refresh, and replacing is a pull-and-replace or a full gut.

When the boxes are worth keeping

Empty a few cabinets and look properly before deciding. The boxes are candidates for keeping if you can say yes to all of these:

1. They are dry. Check the sink base floor, the cabinet sides next to the dishwasher and the bottom edges near the floor. Swollen, crumbling or stained panels mean water has been in, and swollen particleboard does not recover.
2. They are square and firmly fixed. Doors hang evenly, face frames are tight at the joints, and the boxes do not rock or pull away from the wall.
3. The shelves are flat and the shelf supports are intact.
4. The face frames or box edges are sound where hinges screw in. Stripped, enlarged or split screw holes can be repaired, but many of them is a warning.
5. The material will take the new finish. Solid wood and wood veneer accept paint and new veneer. Thermofoil and laminate faces need different preparation and sometimes cannot be coated reliably. Our article on whether kitchen cabinets can be repainted goes through the materials.
6. The layout works. You would arrange the kitchen the same way if you were starting again.

Older site-built and solid plywood boxes are often sturdier than what would replace them at a modest budget. Thin, stapled boxes from a builder-grade kitchen usually are not worth the investment of new doors.

What repainting and refacing cannot fix

• Layout. The sink, range and refrigerator stay where they are. So do the dead corner, the narrow aisle and the dishwasher that blocks the walkway.
• Storage. A base cabinet with a fixed shelf behind two doors is still that cabinet with new doors. Converting door bases to drawer banks means new boxes for those cabinets.
• Cabinet sizes. Uppers that stop short of the ceiling, a soffit, a refrigerator opening too small for a current model, or a range opening that does not match a new range all remain.
• Interiors. Stained shelves, worn melamine and the smell of an old sink base stay.
• Construction. A partial-overlay framed kitchen will not become a frameless or inset one. Refacing can move a framed cabinet from partial to full overlay with larger doors, within limits set by the frame.
• What is behind the cabinets. Old wiring, too few outlets, an undersized or recirculating hood and tired plumbing are untouched, because the walls are never opened.

Getting more out of a reface or repaint

If the boxes pass, a few additions make the difference between a kitchen that looks new and one that works better:

• New drawer boxes on full-extension soft-close slides. This is the single largest improvement in daily use.
• Soft-close concealed hinges in place of old exposed or worn ones.
• Roll-out trays in door base cabinets, and a trash pull-out.
• New crown, light rail and end panels so the old boxes are fully dressed.
• New hardware. If the new pulls use different screw spacing, refacing hides the old holes; repainting means filling them. See the cabinet hardware guide.
• Under-cabinet lighting, which can often be added without opening walls.

Add up the reface with these extras before comparing it with replacement. Once drawer boxes, hinges, trays, trim and a few new cabinets are included, the gap to new stock or semi-custom cabinets can be narrower than expected.

A decision table

Rules that apply to the lighter options too

Cost in relative terms

Repainting is the lowest tier, refacing sits in the middle, and replacement is the highest, with the widest spread, because it ranges from stock cabinets in the same layout to custom work in a new one. JDI Construction's published planning ranges describe full kitchen remodels with new cabinetry; they do not include a range for repainting or refacing alone. The figures for full remodels, by kitchen size and tier, are on the kitchen remodel cost page.

When you collect prices, ask each company to state exactly what is and is not being replaced: doors, drawer fronts, drawer boxes, slides, hinges, end panels, crown, interiors. Two refacing quotes can differ mainly in what they leave out.

Who should choose which

• Repaint if the doors are a style you still like, the cabinets are wood, and the goal is a fresh color at the least cost and disruption.
• Reface if the boxes are good, the layout works, the countertops are staying and you want a different door style with new drawers and hinges.
• Replace if the complaint is how the kitchen functions, the boxes are tired or wet, or the rest of the room is being renewed anyway.

If you replace, sound cabinets may have a second life. The page on demolition debris, recycling and donation lists what local reuse stores accept.

Where to go next

If replacement looks likely, start with the overview of kitchen cabinets and with cabinet construction, which explains how to judge a box. If you are unsure whether your boxes are worth keeping, an in-home look settles it faster than photographs. JDI Construction offers a free in-home consultation, and you can ask at that visit which of the three routes we would take on for your kitchen. See our Vancouver kitchen remodeling page.