Cabinet Refacing with your kitchen remodeling project

What is cabinet refacing?

Cabinet refacing keeps the existing carcasses and replaces or skins doors, drawer fronts and visible exteriors - often with new hardware. In a kitchen project it is the strategy that delivers a large visual change without a full strip-out, but it freezes the layout: sinks, appliances and aisle widths stay where they are. The Cabinets page owns materials and process; this page is about when refacing is the right kitchen-level decision and what else still has to move.

How cabinet refacing actually works

1. 1

   Honest box assessment before anyone prices doors

   Carcasses must be square, dry, solidly fixed and free of soft substrate under the sink and dishwasher. Refacing fails when the frame is the real problem.

   Watch forA quote based on photos of doors only. The decision lives in the boxes, hinges and floor fixings.

2. 2

   Decide what else in the kitchen rides along

   Refacing often pairs with a new worktop, splashback, lighting and hardware. Those lines need their own sequence: stone still templates from set boxes; a backsplash still sits after the worktop.

   Watch forAssuming refacing alone will modernise a kitchen whose countertop or floor has already failed. You will pay twice if those surfaces were next on the list.

3. 3

   Layout freeze is the trade you accept

   Because boxes stay, you cannot fix a bad work triangle, add a dishwasher opening that does not exist, or widen an aisle without cutting and rebuilding carcasses - which is no longer refacing.

   Watch forTrying to "reface" into a different layout. That is partial replacement dressed as a cheaper product.

4. 4

   Live-in sequencing: less demolition dust, still a working kitchen plan

   Doors come off in stages; boxes stay. Disruption is real but shorter than a full hang. Plan temporary cooking while doors and tops are in flux.

   Watch forNo temporary kitchen plan because "we are only doing doors". The room is still half-usable for longer than people expect.

What does cabinet refacing cost?

Refacing sits below full cabinet replacement and above paint alone. Drivers are door style, exterior cladding, hardware grade and how many boxes need repair first. Kitchen projects that also replace tops and splashbacks should budget those as separate lines - refacing does not include them.

See the full cabinet refacing cost guide - by material, size and region →

If the number is the problem, here are the ways people pay for it →