CABINET RENOVATION OPTIONS

These helpful hints take the stress out of cabinet renovation

3 Approaches to Cabinet Renovation

There comes a time in the life of every kitchen when cabinets become a drag. They eventually get old, out-of-fashion, worn out or damaged. And cabinets are important. Cabinets make a powerful impression, especially in an unfurnished space, setting the tone for the entire home (along with the window coverings, flooring and fixtures). Cabinet renovation can be intimidating. Cabinets are the core of a kitchen – supporting the countertops, surrounding the flooring, entangled with the plumbing. If you start messing with the cabinets, where does it end? How long will it take? And how much will it cost?

There are a lot of questions associated with cabinet renovation. All those questions are a big reason why cabinet-related projects are sometimes delayed. Homeowner often don’t understand their choices, and they don’t have a lot of time for research. Let’s start with a big picture overview. There are three basic choices for cabinet renovation: Repaint the old cabinets (sometimes known as resurfacing), remove and replace the cabinet boxes, or reface the cabinets with new doors and drawer fronts. These three options have different strengths and weaknesses. The best solution depends on the circumstances of your kitchen. Here is a table with an overview of each of the three options:

Add the cabinet details…

	CABINET REPAINTING (Resurfacing)	FULL BOX CABINET REPLACEMENT	CABINET REFACING (Replace Doors & Drawers)
COST	Least Expensive	Most Expensive Requires removal and replacement of sink, countertop, cabinets and often flooring and backsplash	Half the cost of full box Twice the cost of resurfacing
SPEED	Fastest (can be done in one day)	Slowest Takes time to demo old cabinets, install new cabinets, reinstall countertops, paint walls and repair/replace flooring	Fast It generally takes one day to paint existing cabinet boxes and half a day to install new doors and drawer fronts
RESULTING LOOK	Newly painted surface on old cabinets Cannot create a wood grain finish Limited to the shape of the existing doors	Wide variety of looks and quality available at a wide range of costs	A variety of styles, colors, door shapes and wood grain finishes are available
INSTALLATION CONS	Often smelly Doesn’t easily allow hinge replacement Requires more ongoing maintenance than refacing or full box replacements	More construction waste to dispose of Often multiple trades involved	Cabinet interiors remain unchanged, unless they are also painted
ESPECIALLY SUITABLE WHEN	Budget is super tight This is often determined by the rent potential of the project location	Cabinet boxes aren’t structurally sound	Countertops are high quality Old hinges are face mounted or otherwise unfashionable Existing cabinet doors are damaged or have an unfashionable shape Cabinets are structurally sound
LESS SUITABLE WHEN	Door shape is unfashionable (e.g., slab doors with j-pull) Existing finish is peeling off (whether paint, vinyl or some other finish) Old doors are water damaged, swollen or falling apart A high-end look is the desired result	Countertops are high quality Flooring or backsplash would be difficult to patch or replace	Old cabinets are not structurally sound

These basic choices in cabinet renovation have been unchanged for decades. Repainting cabinets is easy to understand, as is removing old cabinets and replacing them with new ones. Cabinet refacing is a less understood option, but it’s a viable choice for many projects. And now a new door technology has the potential to make cabinet refacing a more popular choice than ever before.

For more than 20 years, many kitchen cabinets for both apartments and single-family homes were made with a vinyl coated door technology called “thermofoil.” These doors are a one-piece, fiberboard core glued to a vinyl face with a heat-activated glue. The backs of these doors are generally melamine. Over the years, many of these doors have failed, with the vinyl face “delaminating” or coming loose from the core because of heat exposure or glue failure over time.

A new cabinet door technology offers homeowners another option for refacing, an alternative to thermofoil. The new door technology is a five-piece foil door with four pieces of molding surrounding a center panel, the way most cabinet doors have been made for centuries. A five-piece door is constructed so the face of the door can’t peel off. The critical joints are tucked in where the moldings meet the center panel, to prevent failure. And because the front of the door is the same material as the back, these doors are unlikely to warp. This five-piece door style dominates the popular priced cabinet market in Europe and Canada and is growing rapidly in the United States. Many manufacturers offer it. Examples include some styles in the Marta Stewart Living collection at The Home Depot.

George Hagle is the founder of KitchenMakeover.com, a Houston manufacturer of complete cabinet makeover kits. KitchenMakeover.com ships kits for refacing your kitchen or bath cabinets in just a weekend. For more information, visitwww.kitchenmakeover.com, call 1-844-MY DIY KIT, or email [email protected].

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