Cabinet Redooring vs Cabinet Refacing
Your kitchen has lost its lustre. It has gone from sleek or stylish to drab or dated. Or perhaps you are a homeowner looking for a sure way to boost your asking price. In any event, you know your kitchen could use a refresh. The question remains - do I go for a cabinet refacing or a redooring of my kitchen cabinets?
Should I Get My Cabinets Redoored or Refaced?
In both cabinet refacing and cabinet redooring, you keep your existing cabinet boxes while replacing the more visible aspect of your cabinets. To decide which service you need - refacing or redooring - you need to consider which style of cabinets you have.
Full-Overlay Cabinetry
In this style of cabinetry, the doors completely cover (or nearly cover) the entire surface of the cabinet. To give full-overlay cabinets a new revitalized look, there is no point in refacing (since the faces of the cabinets are not visible). Instead, consider cabinet redooring where your cabinet doors and drawer fronts are replaced with new ones, color-matched to blend nicely with your existing cabinet boxes.
Partial Overlay Cabinetry
In this style of cabinetry, the doors only partially cover the cabinet face frame. If the wood is worn or damaged, or you simply want to give your kitchen a brand new look, you don’t necessarily have to do a complete overhaul of your cabinets. Cabinet refacing allows you to keep your existing cabinet boxes while changing the doors and the veneer of the cabinet face frame.
Inset Cabinetry
In this style of cabinetry, the doors sit inside the cabinet face frame openings. This style is associated with Shaker, Craftsman, or Mission style cabinetry. With inset cabinets, so much of the cabinet face frame is visible that a simple redooring is unlikely to leave you satisfied whereas a cabinet refacing will give your cabinets a complete makeover.
And the Winner Is?
Regardless of the overlay on your cabinets, most cabinets can be either redoored or refaced and the choice comes down to your personal preference and expectations. While redooring works best for full overlay and swapping your original doors for a matching new door (think white to white), you do have the option to paint your cabinet boxes to match the new doors. By painting your boxes to match, you will save on material and labor cost over refacing, but you have to have the expectation that a painted cabinet box will not have the same look and feel as a veneered box. By painting, you will lose out on any wood graining feature and will show wear over time, where refacing will not. The best solution is to talk to the experts at Kitchen Tune-Up so they can explain the difference between the two services and they can help you decide what is best for your space and budget.
The Kitchen Tune-Up Design Tool
With so many options available to you to revitalize or transform your kitchen, the task may, at first, seem overwhelming. Try our free user-friendly virtual design tool. Explore your options and get the creative juices flowing. Getting a “new kitchen” look without spending “new kitchen” money is possible. And for cabinet refacing or redooring, it takes a mere matter of days - at most. Ask for a free virtual or in-home consultation with one of our Kitchen Tune-Up design experts today.
