Your boxes are solid. The doors are orange oak, the hinges squeal, and the finish by the sink is peeling.
Cabinet refacing means I keep the boxes screwed to your wall, hang new doors and drawer fronts on them, and skin the exposed ends and face frames in veneer that matches. No demo, no drywall patching, no eating off a card table in the dining room for a month. Most of these take the first two or three days and then you have your bathroom back.
What moves the price is door and drawer count, whether you want a cabinet refinish on the interiors too, and what we find under the sink once the old doors come off. Soft water damage at the base changes the plan.
Below is how the work actually goes, when it is the wrong fix, and the questions people ask first. Call me at (773) 377-9135 and I will come look.
Cabinet Door Refacing
Cabinet door refacing is the part anybody actually sees, because nobody swings open a vanity to admire the box. We template every opening, order doors and drawer fronts in the style and finish you picked, and bore the hinge cups so the doors sit dead level instead of fanning out like a bad set of teeth.
What moves the price is simple: how many doors and fronts you have, whether you want solid wood or a laminate face, and whether the drawer boxes get swapped while we're in there.
Done badly, the veneer edge lifts. A bathroom runs hot and wet twice a day, and a seam that wasn't rolled tight will curl at the corner inside a year.
If the doors are still solid and you only hate the color, a cabinet refinish beats refacing. Most vanity jobs through our Chicago Bathroom Remodeling work start right here.
Upgrade Kitchen Cabinets
You can upgrade kitchen cabinets without gutting the room, and that's the whole argument for cabinet refacing. If your boxes are solid and still hanging square, the carcasses are the expensive part and they're already bought and paid for. We skin the face frames and end panels, hang doors and drawer faces, and the kitchen reads as new while your sink, your counters and your plumbing never move an inch.
Cabinet door refacing is the part people picture, but the frames and exposed ends are what sell it. Miss those and you get a nice door bolted to a tired kitchen.
What pushes the work up is opening count, glass fronts, soft-close hardware, and odd corners like a dead lazy susan. A galley in a Logan Square walk-up is less work than a big L with an island.
Done cheap, veneer lifts at the stile edge within a year, right where the kettle steams.
Kitchen Cabinet Refurbishing
Kitchen cabinet refurbishing is the part people underestimate, because it's the boxes, not the doors, that have been soaking up bacon grease and dishwasher steam for twenty years. Before anything new goes on, we degrease every face frame with a real solvent wash, scuff it, re-glue the joints that have gone loose, and swap tired drawer slides for soft-close hardware. Skip the degreasing and the new finish won't bond.
It peels first by the range and the sink, usually within a few months, and then you've paid twice.
What moves the number on cabinet refurbishing is the door and drawer count, the shape your boxes are in, and whether a slab wall or an old soffit has to come out so the run looks right. Done properly, it's the cheapest honest way to upgrade kitchen cabinets without gutting the room.
Laminate Cabinet Refacing
Laminate cabinet refacing is the thriftiest version of this work, and done properly it lasts: we skin the existing boxes and face frames in a rigid vinyl or 3D laminate, then hang new doors and drawer fronts to match, so nothing gets torn out.
The failure everyone has seen is peel-and-stick slapped straight over a glossy, greasy old finish. Give it one summer of shower steam above a vanity and the corners curl like a dollar-store bumper sticker. So we degrease, scuff-sand the whole face, wrap the edges instead of butting them, and roll the laminate down with heat rather than a thumb.
What shifts the price on a refacing job like this is the door count, the condition of the boxes underneath, how many exposed end panels need wrapping, and whether a cabinet remodel calls for new hinges and soft-close hardware while we're in there.
Kitchen Cabinet Makeover
A kitchen cabinet makeover is the version of this job where the boxes stay put and everything you touch gets replaced: new doors, new drawer fronts, matching veneer skinned over the face frames, new hinges and soft close slides. If your maple boxes are still square and solid, there is no sense tearing them out.
What swings the price on a cabinet remodel is door and drawer count first, then the finish you pick, then whether your island and any end panels need wrapping too.
Where cabinet refacing goes wrong is the sink run. Steam and drips lift cheap veneer at the edges within a year, and once it curls you are looking at it every morning. We scuff, prime and roll the adhesive down hard on those three doors in particular, because that is the spot that tells on a bad job.
Cabinet Refurbishing
Cabinet refurbishing is the option where we keep your doors and fix what's wrong with them instead of skinning anything: regluing loose stile and rail joints, filling the stripped screw holes that let the hinges sag, swapping tired drawer glides for soft close ones, and replacing the swollen sink base floor that a slow supply valve has been feeding for two years.
Then it gets degreased properly. Cabinets over a stove carry a film you cannot see and paint will not stick to it, so we wash, scuff sand, prime and spray in thin coats.
The price moves with how many doors and drawer fronts you have, how much of the box work needs rebuilding before anything gets finished, and whether you want open oak grain filled smooth or left showing.
Kitchen cabinet refurbishing suits solid wood doors. If yours are hollow or delaminating, cabinet refacing is the better call.
What the job involves
Cabinet refacing means your boxes stay bolted to the wall and everything you look at gets replaced. We pull the doors and drawer fronts, scuff and degrease the face frames, then skin them in veneer or rigid laminate so the frames match the new fronts instead of fighting them. New hinges, new pulls, new end panels on any exposed side, and fresh toe kick trim along the bottom.
Done badly, the giveaway shows up in a few months: veneer lifting at the corner nearest the stove, because somebody glued over twenty years of cooking grease instead of cleaning it off first. That edge will never sit back down.
What moves your number is the door count, whether you want glass or solid, and whether laminate cabinet refacing or real wood veneer is going on those frames. An island with three finished sides adds work too.
What it costs
What moves the price on cabinet refacing is mostly arithmetic: how many doors and drawer fronts you've got, whether the boxes are solid enough to skin or need repairs first, and what material you pick for the new fronts. A galley kitchen in a walk-up with twenty doors lands in a different place than an L-shaped layout with an island and forty. Soft-close hinges, end panels, crown on top of the uppers, all of it nudges the figure.
If your doors are solid wood and still square, the cost to restain kitchen cabinets instead usually comes in lower, because nobody's paying for new fronts.
Where it goes wrong is the veneer around the sink and the dishwasher. Cheap adhesive plus steam equals a curling edge by summer, and then you're paying twice.
Call me on (773) 377-9135 with a rough door count and I'll talk you through what yours would run.
When cabinet refacing is the wrong fix
Cabinet refacing is the wrong fix when the boxes underneath have already given up. If the particleboard under your sink swelled from a slow supply line, and the shelf bows when you set a stockpot on it, new doors and fresh veneer just dress up a carcass that's turning to oatmeal. Hinge screws spin in mush inside a year. That's a replacement, and I'd rather say so standing in your kitchen than after the invoice.
It's also wrong when the layout is the real complaint. Moving the dishwasher to the other side of the sink, or opening the wall to the dining room, doesn't get solved by prettier fronts.
And if your doors are solid wood in decent shape and you simply want them darker, refinishing is the smarter spend. The cost to restain kitchen cabinets sits well below a reface, since you're not buying new doors and end panels.
Why choose us for this
You've been looking at those doors for two years, and you want cabinet refacing because the boxes are solid and you'd rather not lose your kitchen for a month. Fair enough.
I'm not the cheapest quote you'll get. The cheaper number usually leaves off the part where we clean, scuff and prime the boxes before any veneer touches them, and about six months later you can see the edges lifting at the sink corner, where steam does the most damage. That prep takes hours, and it's the whole difference between a kitchen cabinet makeover that holds and one you're apologizing for.
The mess on this work is fine dust from scribing and trimming, so we tent the room and run plastic to the door. Your floors go back the way we found them.
The estimate costs nothing, and measuring doesn't commit you to anything.
Frequently asked questions
Is cabinet refacing the same thing as replacing my cabinets?
No. With cabinet refacing we keep your existing boxes, skin the face frames in matching veneer, and hang fresh fronts and hardware. Replacement rips the boxes out, which means new plumbing connections at the vanity and usually a new top. If your boxes are solid plywood and square, refacing gets you the look without the demolition.
Will it damage the cabinets I already have?
Rarely, and the ones that can't take it we spot before we start. We check for water swell under the sink, soft particleboard at the toe kick, and hinge screws spinning in stripped holes. Swollen or crumbling boxes don't hold veneer or new hinges, and I won't glue a pretty face onto a base that's already going.
What makes one refacing quote higher than another?
Door and drawer count first, then the material you pick, how much face frame is exposed, and whether the hardware holes line up or need plugging and redrilling.
Contact Bathroom Remodeling Chicago Pros now
Ready to get moving on this? Pick up the phone and call us at (773) 377-9135, and we can talk through whether cabinet refacing is the right call for your vanity or your kitchen run before anybody pulls a single door off its hinges.
It helps if you've counted your doors and drawer fronts before we talk. Tell me whether the boxes are solid or whether the sink base has gone soft from a slow supply leak, because a swollen bottom panel under a vanity changes the whole conversation. Photos help too, especially of the corners and the toe kick.
We're on the tools weekdays, nine to five, so if you get the voicemail during the day it's because we're mid refacing somewhere on the North Side. Leave a message and you'll hear back. Licensed, bonded and insured, certificate on request.