Refinishing vs Refacing Kitchen Cabinets

The only thing that refinishing and refacing have in common is that they both can change the color of kitchen cabinets, but definitely in different ways! They are both good options but when I think about refinishing vs refacing kitchen cabinets, it is obvious that refacing is the one that will add value to the house the most.

REFINISHING Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing is applying a coat of stain or paint after sanding and stripping off the old finish. This job can be done by the homeowner, a bit better by a painter or preferably done by a professional refinisher using a spray gun and spray booth to produce a flawless finish on the doors.

The main challenge about refinishing is dealing with the side panels, toe kicks, edges, etc. Basically whatever is exposed that is not a door or drawer front. Hiring a professional refinisher to spray the doors in a spray booth, and then to have the exposed areas of the boxes finished with a roller or brush in my opinion is just wrong! The smoothness of the doors will highlight the imperfection of the finish of the side panels.

To avoid this downside, some refinishers have adopted a low pressure spray gun to be used on site. Of course kitchen cabinet refinishing requires a lot of masking around walls, doors, windows and floor. Would you be willing to breathe the fumes left behind for several weeks after your kitchen has become a giant spray booth? Probably not! Is the battle refinishing vs refacing already lost?

REFACING Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing is replacing cabinet doors and drawer fronts…but not before investing a good amount of time (about four days for an average size kitchen) to apply the matching veneer or laminate on the exposed areas. So…no painting is involved and the kitchen will look brand new at half the cost of replacing!

Let’s try to make a point here, when compare refinishing vs refacing….on average, refacing will cost about double what refinishing will but, it will give you the opportunity to change the door style, the functionality of some cabinets and the total overall appearance…not just the color.