Kitchen Cabinet Refacing - any recommendations?

[MarthaG]

Hey everyone... I have been MIA.

I have the "bug" to do some work in my kitchen, but money is limited. I have great cabinets that were custom built in the late 60's. And do not replace them. I originally thought of painting them, but I think I really want new doors and drawer fronts.

Has anyone had their cabinets refaced? And what experience have you had.

There is a company very close to where I live (Oak Forest) that I would probably use. They did my sisters house 15 years ago and she was happy, but she moved before we found out how they held up. A friend in another state recently had hers done and loves them.

Does $100 an opening sound about right for the price? I have 35 cabinets doors and drawer fronts, so I'm hoping price would be $3500. Any thoughts?

Appreciate help feed back you may have.

[cgallagher]

Does $100 an opening sound about right for the price? I have 35 cabinets doors and drawer fronts, so I'm hoping price would be $3500. Any thoughts?

It doesn't sound far off, but it depends on the amount of detail and wood species. Your on the right track to go ahead and get a company out there for a quote.

[sheeats]

We had ours refaced when we first moved in (a year and a half ago). Same as you -- well-built cabinets from the 1960s that we definitely didn't want to tear out. They just needed new doors and hardware. The old doors had the hinges on the outside and were barely hanging on by a thread.

We went through Home Depot because we had bought a few other large appliances there and we got a good deal on a "home loan" for the refacing -- 12 months, no interest, no payments. It was $1200 for our kitchen and we had 11 large doors, 6 small doors and 5 drawers replaced and the cabinets themselves refaced. The hinges for the doors were placed inside, the doors themselves are solid maple, all the hardware is new and the drawers are so smooth now (before, there was a lot of jiggling and coercing involved in getting one open or closed). The contractor that Home Depot used, coincidentally, was amazing. Very quick -- in and out in one day -- but did a very thorough, very expert job. You'd never know these weren't all new cabinets.

Some pictures are below (before we completely finished the kitchen, mind you -- there was some lighting that I installed that hasn't been done yet in these photos):

And this one shows the inside of the cabinets and the hinges:

We painted them to kinda-sorta match the exterior, since they were an awful mixture of poo brown and white inside before.

Overall, I'm a big fan of refacing. It's a lot less work, mess, money and stress than getting all new cabinets. Not to mention it's better overall for the environment (not just your wallet) when you salvage and work with what you can from a house.

[MarthaG]

Thank you so much for your post. I never would have considered HD as I would have been afraid of what kind of contractor they would send. I guess you never know. Those look like the nice hinges, which is something I must replace as well.

I got a kick out of your back splash because I have been looking at one similar (in copper) to save some costs until I can get the glass tile I really want.

What kind of counter tops are those? How is that Black sink working for you?... I was looking at that as well.

I do not want stainless... I'm all about black appliances.

Thanks again!

[sheeats]

No problem! I'm not saying we have the greatest kitchen (it still needs some work and the washer/dryer are stuck in it, which really sucks), but we're pretty happy with it overall. The counters are plain old solid black granite. The sink is also granite (80% granite composite). We wanted something that blended in with the counters and didn't interrupt the visual flow, since we have such precious little counterspace in our tiny kitchen. We love the sink, especially since it's so deep. The only minor issue with granite sinks is that you have to be careful because things like glass will break slightly easier; we've been lucky so far.

We were kind of limited as to our appliance selection. Black is my preferred color, but it would have been too much black in such a small space. Stainless doesn't fit with our style (antique eclectic?) and was too expensive anyway. White seemed to be our only other option, which made sense with the white washer and dryer we're stuck with in there. At least it's all cohesive, even if it's a lot in one space.

The backsplash was a royal b!tch to install. It took three solid days of work, two pairs of tin snips and the patience of a saint. I will never, ever do that again. Good thing, too, since those things are pretty much permanently adhered to the wall now. I don't know what the next buyer is going to think about that...

Not all HDs use brilliant contractors; we just lucked out. I've heard just as many horror stories as good ones, I'm afraid to say. That's why I'm slightly hesitant to rec them. I would advise sticking with a contractor that someone a bit more experienced recommends.

[toadfroggy]

Hey sheeats, who did your floors?

BTW: I like your kitchen, especially the cabinets. I wouldn't necessarily make the same choices, but if I bought a house with that kitchen, I wouldn't be looking to change anything. It looks like a good, functional, Houston kitchen, not some lame attempt to look like it's in France or (gag me) Tuscany.

[sheeats]

Hey sheeats, who did your floors?

BTW: I like your kitchen, especially the cabinets. I wouldn't necessarily make the same choices, but if I bought a house with that kitchen, I wouldn't be looking to change anything. It looks like a good, functional, Houston kitchen, not some lame attempt to look like it's in France or (gag me) Tuscany.

The contractor who did our tile (and the engineered wood floors, and the baseboards, and the crown mouldings, and fixed the front door...) is an old friend of the family. He's the most honest, hard-working, talented contractor I've ever met (and his crew of guys hasn't changed once in seven years; he treats them really well). As a result, he gets booked out months and months in advance. His name is Edgar. I can dig up his phone number if you're interested.

Given the chance to do it all over again, I can't say that I'd make the same choices in my kitchen, either. The cabinet guy talked us out of our first choice, which I still think would have looked much better than the maple. That said, I do like the maple. And I'm hoping that future buyers will, too... I also would have done a different countertop, but we got such a steal on the granite that it was stupid not to take it.

Oh, well. Next house, next time.

[sheeats]

Just thought I'd update this thread with some new info about the refacing... We had a guy come out last night to quote us on refacing the cabinets and replacing the doors and drawers in all three of our bathrooms, just out of curiosity. For 21 linear feet of cabinets with 10 doors and 5 drawers, the quote was $4800. I nearly fell out of my chair. Prices have gone up since our little remodel, it would seem...

[goastros]

Sheeats,

Have you considered getting a front load washer and dryer set and running the countertop over them? It would give you a lot more counter space and minimize the look of the w/d in the kitchen. Depending on how deep they are, you might even be able to build a little bump out cabinet around them with doors that slide back into the sides (like an entertainment center's doors). You could leave them open most of the time for convenience and then just close them if you have company.

Love your cabinet refacing by the way--the cabinets look great.

[sheeats]

We most definitely considered that. There are two problems though: (1) the cabinets aren't deep enough / W&Ds aren't shallow enough for that configuration to work. They still stick out. It's compounded by the fact that the plumbing/electrical for both units isn't built flush with the wall. Look at the dryer (on the far end of the kitchen) and see how far it sticks out. That's because the idiots who built the place didn't compensate for the fact that an actual dryer would be placed there someday. And (2) the cabinets/countertops are too low to go all the way across. We'd have to bump them up or find tiny little W&Ds.

Hate the W&D so much. HAAAATE.

[goastros]

Well, if you had the cash to throw around, you can get new lower cabinets that are 30" deep to match the washer/dryer, or some people bump out their standard size lower cabinets and then put a 30" deep counter top on it.

Another option is to get the front loaders and stack them so you free up one side of your kitchen, again only if you have the cash to throw around because you would need to move the gas or electric and vent for the dryer). Even if they stick out further than your cabinets, you can treat them like they are a pantry and slap a cover panel on the side (like a frig) and help disguise them a little.

[sheeats]

I love the assumption that we have cash to throw around. That would be awesome. But...yeah...not so much in keeping with reality.

Maybe one day.

[RobertAcct]

I just had one of the big box stores and the big appliance store come out to my house to give quotes on having my cabinets refaced. $24,000 for refacing with real hardwood doors from the big box store and $19,000 for refacing with fake materials from the big appliance store. I almost passed out when they gave me these quotes. I have a total of 50 doors and drawers. That is a medium sized kitchen. The funny thing is I also got a quote from the big box store to completely replace my cabinets with new ones and some nice upgrades. The quote was $16,000 with real hardwood doors and real wood on any exposed surfaces. I thought refacing was supposed to be the cheaper option.