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Cabinets: reface, repaint, or replace?
Three very different jobs that get talked about as if they were one. How to tell which one your kitchen actually needs.
A kitchen can be transformed without being torn out, and it can also be polished when it should have been replaced. The deciding factor is almost always the boxes — the carcasses fixed to the wall and floor — rather than the doors you are looking at.
Start by checking the boxes
Open a door and look inside. Are the sides solid and square, or has the material swelled or delaminated anywhere, especially near the sink? Do the shelves sag? Pull a drawer right out and look at how it is built and whether the runners are worn. Push gently on a wall cabinet — it should not move at all.
If the boxes are sound, you have options. If they are not, everything else is money spent on a bad foundation.
The three jobs
- Repaint. Boxes and doors stay; they get properly cleaned, degreased, sanded, primed and finished. On solid wood doors this is transformative. The whole result lives in the preparation — kitchen cabinets carry years of cooking grease, and paint over grease fails no matter what it cost.
- Reface. Boxes stay, doors and drawer fronts are replaced, and the visible faces of the boxes are covered to match. This changes the door style, not just the colour, and it leaves your layout exactly as it is.
- Replace. Everything out. The only route if the boxes have gone, and the only route if you want the layout to change — moving a run, changing where the tall units are, opening something up.
How to decide quickly
If you like the layout and the doors, and the boxes are sound, repaint. If the layout works but the doors look dated, reface. If you find yourself describing how the kitchen should be arranged differently, you are describing a replace, and refacing will not scratch that itch.
One thing worth knowing either way: hardware and hinges are the cheapest meaningful upgrade in a kitchen. Soft-close hinges on doors you already own change how the room feels to use every single day.
Send me a few photographs — a wide shot of the run, one with a door open so I can see the box, and one of a drawer pulled out. That is usually enough for me to tell you which of the three you are looking at.
Related: Custom Cabinets
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- Why a texture repair shows, and how matching actually works
- Choosing flooring that survives a Central Texas house
- Gutters: what they are actually protecting, and when to clean them
- After a Texas storm: what to check, and in what order
- Interior painting: the preparation is the job
- Building outdoors in this sun: what actually lasts
Ready to get that list handled?
Send a few photos and I'll tell you what it takes. Free written estimates across Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Round Rock and the towns nearby.