Cabinet refacing in the Bay Area, a new look in days.

Signs your cabinets are good candidates for refacing

Refacing works when the structure is sound and only the surface has aged. Open each base cabinet and look at the floor of the box, especially under the sink: it should be flat and dry, not swollen or soft. The face frames should be tight to the boxes, the shelves should not sag and the doors should hang without the hinge screws pulling out of the wood.

The layout matters as much as the condition. If the sink, the range and the refrigerator are where you want them and you only dislike the look, refacing is usually the better value. If you want an island, more drawers in different places or a new opening for the refrigerator, new cabinets make more sense.

Cabinet painting: when it is enough

Cabinet painting keeps your doors and changes only the color, so it works best when the doors are solid wood or a sound painted door in a style you still like. A durable result depends on preparation: the surfaces are degreased, sanded and primed before the finish coats go on, and the doors are usually finished off the cabinets.

Painting is usually the lowest-cost way to update a kitchen, but it cannot change the door shape, fix worn hinges or hide damaged veneer. Dated raised panels painted white still look like raised panels. When the style is the problem, refacing or new doors give a bigger change for the money.

Replacement cabinet doors: wood or painted MDF

Our partner cabinet shop makes replacement cabinet doors and drawer fronts in wood or painted MDF. Wood suits stained finishes and natural grain, and it is the classic choice for shaker doors. MDF is very stable, so it moves less with heat and humidity, which makes it a good base for painted doors because the paint is less likely to crack at the joints.

Each door is made to the size of its opening, so the gaps between doors line up once they are hung. At the visit we show you samples of both, in the colors you are considering, so you can compare them in your own kitchen light.

What happens to the cabinet boxes

In refacing, also called cabinet resurfacing, the boxes stay in place with your countertop on top. The exposed face frames and the visible sides of the cabinets are cleaned and covered with a veneer that matches the new doors, and new end panels can be added where a cabinet side shows.

The inside of the cabinets usually stays as it is, which is part of why refacing costs less. If the interiors are worn, new shelves, drawer boxes or pull-outs can be added in the same project. Because the countertop and the plumbing are not touched, the kitchen keeps working during the installation.

Upgrades worth adding while refacing

Refacing is the right moment for the small changes that make a kitchen easier to use. Soft-close hinges stop doors from slamming, and new drawer boxes on full-extension slides make the back of each drawer reachable. Pull-out trash and recycling under the sink, a spice pull-out beside the range and roll-out shelves in deep base cabinets add storage without new cabinets.

Crown molding along the top of the uppers and finished panels on the ends give refaced cabinets a built-in look. If the countertop is also dated, it can be replaced in the same project; see our countertop prices by material.

Cabinet refacing across the Bay Area

Many Bay Area kitchens were built with solid cabinet boxes that are worth keeping, from tract homes in Antioch and Concord to older houses in Oakland and San Jose. In those kitchens, refacing gives a new look without the dust, the weeks without a kitchen and the cost of tearing out sound cabinets.

We reface and paint cabinets across nine counties from our base in Brentwood. If your cabinets turn out not to be good candidates, we tell you at the visit and price new custom or semi-custom cabinets instead. Book a free cabinet check.