Helping you choose the best cabinets for your kitchen
Refacing Kitchen Cabinets: Give Your Existing Cabinets a New Lease on Life
Do you have kitchen cabinets that are beginning to look their age? Don’t rip them out and throw them away; if they are well built and functional, they can be modernized by refacing. Refacing kitchen cabinets is one of the best ways to update your cabinets without having to go through extensive remodeling. As well as saving cash over replacing your cabinets with new ones, you are helping the environment! By not throwing away your old cabinets you reduce waste going to the landfill, and save the environmental impact of manufacturing new ones.
There are two methods to go about refacing kitchen cabinets: you can do it yourself, or you can use the tried and true approach of hiring a professional. Even if you choose to hire someone to do the job, you should really know how your contractor will carry out the refacing. Refacing (as opposed to refinishing) involves gluing a wood or laminate veneer over the existing surfaces of your cabinet boxes to change the finish completely. It may also involve veneering the door and drawer fronts, or you might choose to buy new doors and drawer fronts.
The first step of any kitchen refacing is to choose the finish that you would like your ‘new’ cabinets to be. Your local building store should be able to show you a wide variety of veneers and stains for your cabinets. It’s a great idea to take some samples home and try out different stains and finishes to make sure you will end up with what you see in your imagination.
If you’re going to be doing the work yourself, while you are at the store you should also pick up some wood filler, to fix dents and scrapes in the cabinet’s doors, and some sand paper to remove bumps and roughen the surface of old paint. If you are going to put veneer on your cabinets you may also need thin plywood to resurface any paneled cabinet ends or other areas which are neither frame surface or doors/drawers.
To add the veneer, first glue plywood to the exposed ends or sides of your cabinets, this will give you a base to work from. The plywood can be secured with glue or small finishing nails, glue being the best. Make sure all edges are sanded flush with the adjoining frames.
After the plywood has been secured to the cabinets, you are ready to install the veneer. To do this remove the paper on the back of the veneer to reveal the sticky side. Stick the veneer to the plywood, being careful not to leave any air-bubbles – start at one end and roll the veneer into place so that as little air as possible is trapped, then use a roller to press the veneer firmly against the base. Trim any excess veneer hanging off the side of the cabinet, using a small utility knife. Once the larger end and side panels have been veneered, the face frames also have to be covered. This is quite a painstaking process and too long to describe here, but I highly recommend the book Refacing Cabinets: Making an Old Kitchen New by Herrick Kimball which gives very complete instructions.
Now that the veneer has been applied to the cabinet you have another choice to make. Are you going to refinish the doors of your old cabinet, or buy new doors? Although your first thought may be to keep the old cabinet doors, and that’s definitely the greener choice, it really depends on the style and condition of your existing doors. In some cases it may make more sense to replace them with newer doors. Several companies specialise in making doors for existing cabinets.
The last step is to hang your doors. A drill is recommended for this process, as well as a helper to hold the cabinet doors level while you screw in the hinges. Keep holding the doors until both hinges have been installed to prevent the doors from sagging. Finally, you can attach knobs to your door. Then feel free to stand back and admire your handiwork!
