Industry Update 2023

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing

Replace Or Reface Kitchen Cabinets? 4 Ways Of Knowing.

Kitchen cabinet refacing is an affordable and sustainable form of renovation that will yield the look of brand new custom kitchen cabinets for a fraction of the price. One of the downsides is that not all cabinets can simply be refaced. There are certain scenarios in which replacing your cabinets with custom or semi-custom options can be the best solution for your kitchen remodel-

1. Your kitchen cabinets have a cheap/weak design

If you moved into a home with ultra-cheap, low-grade cabinets (as in, the entire cabinet structure is made of particleboard and/or other cheap materials) refacing isn’t usually an option. The LFI kitchen’s method way indeed is to reinforce existing cabinet frames using a proprietary double-lamination process, but we still need good bones to work with. If we the bulk of your cabinet skeleton and interior structures are that cheap, compressed particle board stuff, we’ll say ix-nay on the cabinet-cay facing-ray.

2. Your kitchen cabinets are beyond repair

Sometimes, we take a look at the first cabinet and say, “Wow! Nice quality stuff here, this is perfect for….” and then we stop mid-sentence because when we open the second cabinet we observe a frame that is rotted, water damaged, or covered with mold. Maybe it’s been chewed by a puppy or wood-hungry pests. There could be serious swelling or the wood is simply falling apart. Whatever the reason, if your structure is damaged beyond repair, we won’t be able to reface the cabinetry. HOWEVER, please let us be the final judges. We may be able to reface some and replace some, which still lowers your final costs.

3. You are transforming the kitchen’s layout

The cabinet refacing process is designed for kitchens that will retain the same configuration – more or less. If you are going to completely change your layout, or are moving your kitchen to an entirely different room in the house, we’ll design new cabinets for you. You can only reface the cabinet boxes that remain in place. In many cases, owners do partial layout changes, which means we reface the cabinets staying put and design new ones for the kitchen island or peninsula

4. Metal Cabinetry

There was a time when metal cabinets and frames were popular, and we can’t blame people for getting behind durable products. Unfortunately, those durable products are much harder to work with when it comes to cabinet refacing. We’ll see what we think, but odds are we’ll recommend new cabinets in this case. And that reminds us, if you like the look of metal cabinets but don’t necessarily want the metal, ask us about our cabinet doors that look just like stainless steel!

Schedule an in-home consultation with LFI Kitchens to have us help determine whether refacing or replacing is best for you.