19 Before & After Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Examples
Refacing Kitchen Cabinet Doors
When people decide that it is time to replace their cabinets, it is typically because the cabinet doors are all dinged up and don’t look nice like they once did. It isn’t typically an issue of the actual cabinet having problems. Because of this, people assume that they need to go get new cabinets to replace the current ones. This isn’t the case, though. There is a way to make the cabinets that you have right now look as good and as clean as new without having to go out and purchase new cabinets. It’s a great way to save money and keep the cabinets that you wanted from the beginning.
This technique is called refacing cabinet doors. As the name implies, what you are going to be doing is actually giving the face of the cabinet door a redo so that whatever dings and dirt might be an issue for it currently won’t be after the refacing. What you’ll need to successfully and effectively reface your kitchen cabinet doors are the following things:
- New hardware. This includes new knobs, pulls, handles, and hinges.
- New paint and finish.
- Sand paper
The first step to refacing cabinet doors to get rid all of the hardware. If you are going with a totally new look in the kitchen, you want new hardware to go along with it. Make sure that you get hardware that really matches what you are looking for. If you put in new appliances, see what sort of look they have and try and match the hardware with it. However, don’t put the hardware on yet. You need to strip the cabinet door clean.
Stripping the cabinet door clean is the next step. Get rid of the old look so that the door is bare once again. The best way to do this is to use sand paper. You can sand away all of the old paint as well as any dirt and the such. This is a messy job and can be unhealthy because breathing in saw dust is never good. So, wear a mask while doing it. Get rid of all the old cabinet so that it is a piece of wood again with the basic design on the front of it. Use a much finer piece of sand paper afterwards to get rid of any jagged parts and to make it so the door is smooth once again.
The next step is to apply the paint and finish to the wood. If you want to go with a more natural look, finishes are a great way to give it a great wood look where you can appreciate the grain of it. If you decide to go with paint, the grain of the wood disappears some under the coats of paint, but it can make the cabinets really fit in place in the room you’ve designed. The kitchen is one of the most visited rooms, so you want your refaced cabinets to look good.
The final step is to add the new hardware that you purchased for the cabinets. Because you are refacing the cabinet doors, you’re probably going to need to use hardware that fits in the same style that the previous hardware did because of already drilled holes for the screws. However, there are still a lot of different samples out there to choose from that can make this last step very enjoyable.
A lot of people dread having to go out and purchase new cabinets because it can get expensive, especially if you want to get higher quality cabinets. You don’t need to go out and spend an arm and a leg, though, to get new looking cabinets in your kitchen. Instead, the only thing you need to do is get some new paint or finish, sand paper, and some new hardware and fix up the old cabinets. There’s a reason you liked them to begin with. Just fix them up, sand them down, add new paint, and screw on some new hardware and the old, dingy cabinets that you once loved will now be the new, stylish cabinets you currently love. It isn’t tough and it definitely isn’t an expensive project.
Thinking of attempting it on your own? Here’s a pretty basic DIY video to watch.
