Refacing replaces the parts you see. New doors and drawer fronts go on, and the exposed box faces get covered in matching veneer or laminate, so the door style and the color can both change. Refinishing keeps your existing doors and recoats them, so the color changes but the door style does not. Refacing gives you more change. Refinishing costs less.
Cabinet Refacing & Refinishing
Cabinet Refacing and Refinishing in Seattle & the Eastside
Kitchen cabinet refacing and cabinet refinishing for homes in Seattle, Ballard, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, and Issaquah. Cabinet work from a licensed carpentry-led contractor.
What Cabinet Refacing Is
Cabinet refacing keeps your existing cabinet boxes and replaces everything you see. New doors and drawer fronts go on. The exposed box faces and end panels get covered in a veneer or laminate matched to the new doors. The layout does not change and the boxes stay attached to the wall. What changes is the surface, the hardware, and the way the kitchen reads.
Refacing sits between painting what you already have and tearing the kitchen out. It costs less than replacement and moves faster, because there is no demolition, no plumbing work, and in most cases no permit. It only works when the boxes underneath are sound.
Refacing, Refinishing, or Replacement
These three terms get used interchangeably and they describe three different jobs. The difference decides what your kitchen can become and what it costs, so it is worth settling before anything else.
Cabinet Refacing
New doors, new drawer fronts, and new veneer over the box faces. Both the door style and the color can change completely. Flat slab doors can become shaker. Orange-toned oak can become painted white. The one thing that stays fixed is the footprint, because the boxes are not moving.
Cabinet Refinishing
Your existing doors and boxes are stripped or deglossed, prepped, and recoated. The door style stays the same, because the doors stay the same. What changes is the finish. Refinishing suits solid wood doors in good condition where you like the profile but not the color, and it is the least expensive of the three paths.
Full Cabinet Replacement
Everything comes out. New boxes, new doors, and a new layout if you want one. Replacement is the answer when boxes are water damaged, when the layout does not work, or when you want different cabinet sizes. It takes the longest and costs the most, and it is the only one of the three that lets you move anything.
A Short Way to Tell Which One You Need
- Boxes solid, layout works, you want a different door style: reface.
- Boxes solid, layout works, doors are solid wood and you like the profile: refinish.
- Boxes swollen or sagging, or the layout is the real problem: replace.
What a Refacing Scope Includes
Refacing generally covers removing the old doors and drawer fronts, cleaning and prepping the box faces, applying veneer or laminate to the exposed faces and end panels, hanging new doors, fitting new drawer fronts, installing hinges and pulls, and adjusting every door and drawer so the gaps and reveals line up across the run. Crown molding, light rail, toe kick, and filler pieces usually get replaced at the same time, because the old ones will not match the new fronts.
Drawer boxes are a separate decision from drawer fronts. Refacing replaces the front you see. If the boxes behind those fronts are stapled particleboard that has started to sag, new boxes on soft-close slides are worth doing while the fronts are off and the openings are clear.
What a Refinishing Scope Includes
Refinishing is a prep-heavy process. Doors and drawer fronts come off and get labeled so every piece returns to the opening it came from. Hardware comes off. Everything gets degreased, because cooking residue builds up on kitchen cabinetry over years and no coating bonds through it. Surfaces are sanded or chemically deglossed, damaged areas are filled, then primer and topcoats go on. The boxes get the same treatment in place with the kitchen masked off.
Most of the quality in a refinishing job lives in the prep. It is the part nobody sees when it is done properly, and the part everybody sees within a year when it is not.
Why the Boxes Decide the Answer
Before we scope either option we look at the boxes. We check whether the sides are solid or delaminating, whether shelves have sagged, whether the boxes are still square and firmly fastened, and whether there is water damage under the sink. That last one is the most common failure we find. A slow supply line or a disposal leak can swell a cabinet floor for years before anyone opens the door and notices.
If the boxes are failing, hanging new doors on them is money spent on a structure that will not hold them. We will say so rather than take the job on those terms.
Cabinet Refacing and Refinishing Across Seattle and the Eastside
Older Seattle neighborhoods, Ballard among them, run heavily to homes whose kitchens still carry solid wood cabinetry in sound structural shape underneath a dated finish. Those are strong refinishing candidates, because the material worth keeping is already there and the only real problem is the color.
Postwar and mid-century homes in Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish often present the opposite case. The boxes are fine, but the door profile is what dates the kitchen. Refacing is the better fit there, because refacing changes the style and refinishing cannot.
What Drives Cabinet Refacing Cost
We do not publish a price for this work. The number moves with cabinet count, the door style and material you select, whether drawer boxes and slides are replaced, whether any boxes need repair first, and how much trim and filler has to be remade to match. Refinishing is generally the least expensive path and replacement the most, but a large kitchen refaced in a premium door can cost more than a small kitchen replaced in stock cabinetry. We scope it in writing after a walkthrough so you can see what each decision changes.
How the Project Runs
- Walkthrough and box assessment, including a look under the sink and at the shelf and hinge condition.
- A written recommendation on refacing, refinishing, or replacement, with the reasoning behind it.
- Door style, material, finish, and hardware selections.
- Field measurement of every opening, since doors are made to your sizes.
- Order and lead time, which is usually the longest part of the schedule.
- Installation or finishing on site, then adjustment of every door and drawer before we call it done.
Related Services
- Kitchen Remodeling for projects that change the layout
- Custom Cabinet Modifications for altering cabinets you are keeping
- Built-Ins and Shelving for added storage
- Carpentry Services for trim, molding, and finish work
- Painting for the walls and trim around the kitchen
FAQ
Cabinet Refacing and Refinishing Questions
Yes. Refacing is the option that changes style. Flat slab doors can become shaker, oak can become painted white, and the new veneer on the box faces is matched to the new doors. The one thing refacing cannot change is the layout, because the boxes stay where they are.
Yes. We work across Seattle, including Ballard, and throughout the Eastside. Older Seattle kitchens often have solid wood cabinets in sound structural shape sitting under a dated finish, and those are strong refinishing candidates.
It depends on the cabinet count and on lead time for the doors, which are made to your sizes and are usually the long pole in the schedule. The on-site work is shorter than a full kitchen remodel because there is no demolition and no plumbing. We give you a schedule during planning and tell you which days the kitchen is disrupted.
No. Refacing works on the surface, so it cannot correct a box that has swollen, delaminated, or come loose from the wall. Water damage under the sink is the most common version of this and it is easy to miss. We check the boxes before quoting, and if they are failing we will tell you that replacement is the honest answer rather than face new doors onto a structure that will not hold.
Often yes, as long as the boxes are still solid, square, and firmly attached. Particleboard is not automatically a problem. Delaminating edges, sagging shelves, and soft spots are. Refinishing is the option that usually does not work on laminate, because a factory laminate surface is a poor bonding surface for a new coating.
Generally no. Refacing and refinishing do not move plumbing, electrical, or structure, which is what usually triggers a permit. If the project grows to include moving a sink, adding circuits, or taking out a wall, that changes and we tell you before the scope is set.
Cabinet refacing and refinishing are real projects and we take them on their own. What we do not take is single-fixture repair work, punch lists, or emergency calls. If the cabinets turn out to need replacement rather than resurfacing, that becomes a kitchen remodeling scope and we scope it that way.
Cabinet Refacing and Refinishing in Seattle & the Eastside
Tell us your city and what is bothering you about the kitchen. We will scope the cabinet work and tell you which of the three paths fits. Serving Seattle, Ballard, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah, and surrounding communities.