Have any of you refaced kitchen cabinets?

[napi21]

I've done quite a bit of research and found a company that makes just the doors custom sized but also sells veneer and the other items you need to complete the job. I did all the calculations and the total price including all the hinges veneer and cover panels for the cabinet side will be $1,100. It sounds like a good deal and the finished job would look like a whole new kitchen, but I'm getting cold feet. I'm looking for someone else who's done this before to tell me just how difficult it is.

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. There are so many other options to give your cabinetry a facelift

and methods that you can do with success.

Google cabinetry facelift and you will find a lot of ideas, and many that don't cost over a $1,000...many cost a lot less than that.

However, there are a lot of books that can guide you through doing the resurfacing yourself

Here's one:
http://tinyurl.com/279bcp

[napi21]

2. I've already done that. I know I could paint the cabinets, but

you don't understand. The cabinets are 31 years old. They were cheap builder grade back then! The doors and drawer fronts appear to be masonite or something like it, just plain flat panels with a routed groove in each and the darn groove ins't even smoothe and crisp. The cabinet boxes are fine, and I'm in the process of painting all the insides with a really nice white high gloss enamel and I'm very pleased with the results. The only thing other than replacing the doors and drawer fronts that I can think of is to put molding on eash of the existing doors to cover that stupid groove. The problem is, the groove is a "french provincial" style...each corner has a 1/4 circle instead of being square. I have searched the net for hours, using every phrase I could think of, but I can't find anyone who sells circle molding that I could cut into 4's or anything else that would work. And NO, I'm not going to try to fill in the darn grooves and start from scratch!

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. My apologies

Didn't mean to frustrate you.

Can you post a pic of the cabinet front? Would be happy to see what I can find. :hi:

[napi21]

4. I will do that tomorrow. Thanks for your help so far.

I'm going to be 64 in Sept and hubby is going to be 65 that same month. I'm not sure we're going to keep the house or sell it. I know one of the big things that sell a house for a lot more $$ is a nice kitchen. That's part of my rational in this project.

I'll take some pics and post them tomorrow.

Thanks

[DrDan]

5. I just redid mine

bought this house 2 years ago and hated the cabinets - blue laminate.

So we started getting estimates - up to $35K to replace.

So decided to attempt to paint them - and just finished. It was a very very labor intensive chore - sanding and priming and sanding and several coats of good oil-base paint - sanding between each coat.

Finally done with the cabinets - and have the granite top ordered.

So - instead of $35K I will have less than $6K invested. And they look pretty darned good - not as good as new solid wood cabinets - but unless you look closely, they look perfectly fine.

[goddess40]

6. I had mine re-faced - still a lot cheaper then new cabinets

and they turned out great. I watched the women that did it and it really didn't look like brain surgery.

[napi21]

7. THANKS! I'm planning to order what they call RTF doors. I want

a white kitchen and I just can't see buying the wood ones and painting them! I've checked the RTF out at the different home improvement stores and they look great! I called the mfg. last Thursday and asked about durability and warranty. They have a 15 year warranty, and he told me the only problems he's ever experienced were when someone had cabinets so close and even with the oven door, the heat generated when they broil all the time caused the RTF to shrink. He said it's guaranteed to be no problem as long as the temp doesn't get to 350 degrees. As long as your oven door sticks out an inch or two from the cabinet face, there will be no problem.

So far, I haven't found any reason not to go for it!

[goddess40]

8. we ruined a door because the coffee maker wasn't pulled out

from under the cabinet and the steam warped the covering. Since I'm not a coffee drinker I can honestly say it wasn't my fault.

We had three estimates and one guy didn't do white cabinets and the other guy insisted that white was out and there was no resale value (he was also $1000 higher than the women we eventually hired). When we did sell our house we did it by ourselves in three weeks so I don't think there was a problem with the white cabinets.

[napi21]

9. I don't think white is out! Look through any home improvement

kitchen dept, or the kitchen designs that are shown on the net. There are LOTS of different white cabinets in different styles. It's just one of the many different choices available, from oak, light, medium and dark woods and even colors.

I know it's personal preference, but my kitchen is fairly small, and I think the white makes it look bigger and certainly much brighter than any wood would.

[goddess40]

10. The guy that said that just didn't like to work with white

- he was a wood guy.

We went with white because we had very little natural light in our kitchen and the former owners used red z-brick as a back splash. The white looked great with the brick and we used a denim colored laminate counter top and I put in a maple laminate floor. It really brightened up the space.

[Nite Owl]

11. I had my cabinets refaced

about four years ago. They have held up well. Had it done though didn't do it ourselves. Took two guys about a day and half, much, much cheaper and faster than new cabinets. They are white and three have dark grey glass inserts. It didn't seem too difficult a job, just a lot of measuring and being careful.