Design Notes

Cabinet Refacing: Should I or Shouldn’t I?

If your cabinets are looking worn or faded, they can bring down the appearance of your entire kitchen. There may be problems with other parts of your kitchen as well, such as worn flooring, insufficient counter space, or damaged light fixtures. In this case, a kitchen remodel might be a good idea. Our team at Walker Woodworking wants you to know that if it’s just your cabinetry that’s holding back the rest of the room, then refacing it might be a better option.

How Refacing Works

In the event you’ve never heard of cabinet refacing before, you may want to know what’s involved. The box and frame of your existing cabinetry are kept, and the cabinet doors and the fronts of any drawers are replaced. In other words, it’s just like it sounds. You’re changing the exterior appearance, or “face,” of your cabinetry without physically removing the existing cabinets.

Enhancing The Cabinet Box

Just because you’re keeping the box of your cabinets doesn’t mean they can’t be spruced up as well. You can opt for painting them, or, when a wood-finish appearance is desired, apply a veneer.

When you decide to handle a cabinetry refacing project yourself, be careful when applying the veneer. You can use either factory-finished or unfinished veneers. While unfinished veneers can be touched up later with staining, factory-finished veneers are difficult to touch up.

Replacing Cabinet Doors and Drawer Fronts

If you’re refacing standard, off-the-shelf cabinets, you should be able to find replacement doors and drawer fronts that fit without a problem.

If you are replacing custom cabinets or want a unique look for your new doors or drawer fronts, you may want to have custom ones manufactured with the size, design, material, or finish you desire. At Walker Woodworking, we’ve been designing custom cabinetry near Charlotte, NC, for our neighbors in North Carolina since 1999, and we’d love to take a look at your replacement project to see if we can help create what you’re looking for.

Hardware and Measurements

Don’t forget the necessary hardware you’ll need to go with your new cabinet doors and drawer fronts. You’ll want knobs and pulls that blend with the hinges, or if you find particularly nice new hardware, you may just want to get new hinges that match them.

Ensuring correct measurements for everything is critical when refacing your cabinets. No matter how nice a cabinet door looks in a showroom, it won’t matter if you get it home and it doesn’t fit.

Doing It Alone Or Hiring A Contractor

Even if you’re pretty adept at DIY projects, you will at least need to find someplace to buy ready-made cabinet doors and drawer fronts, or a place to create custom doors and fronts. Located west of Charlotte in Cleveland County, our team at Walker Woodworking has been building custom cabinetry and other fine furnishings for residents in the North Carolina foothills for over two decades. If you are doing a kitchen remodel and need custom cabinetry, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, and we’ll see how we can help your project turn out just as you’d like at a budget that you can appreciate. Read what HGTV has to say about cabinet refacing.

Disclaimer – while cabinet refacing is an option, Walker Woodworking can only provide you with doors and drawers or all-new cabinetry. We do not offer complete cabinet refacing. A contractor should be able to provide this service for you.

Located 45 miles west of Charlotte and only an hour from Asheville, we are your one-stop shop for all of your custom cabinet needs. We can provide beautiful, custom storage solutions for any room in your home. If you’re looking for distinctive cabinets for your kitchen, most of what’s available off the shelf at retail stores will not do. Contact us, and we’ll find a way to make your kitchen stand out from the ordinary at a price you can afford.

/onJanuary 7, 2019/updatedJanuary 28, 2026/inDesign Notes
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