Cabinet painting vs refacing vs replacing

If your kitchen looks dated, there are three ways to go. You can paint the cabinets you have. You can reface them, which means new doors and drawer fronts and a new skin over the boxes. Or you can tear them out and put in new ones.

We only do the first one. So below you’ll find how we paint and price cabinets, and a plain description of the other two, including the times when they’re the better call.

The short answer

• The boxes are solid, the layout works, and you’re tired of the color: paint.
• The boxes are solid and the layout works, but you want a different door style: reface.
• The boxes are damaged, the layout doesn’t work, or you’re remodeling the whole kitchen: replace.

Most kitchens we look at fall in the first group. The rest of this guide is about how to tell.

Painting your cabinets

Painting keeps everything you have: the boxes, the doors, the layout, the countertops. What changes is the color and the finish. Done right, it’s a hard, smooth, even coat, not brush marks over old varnish.

How we do it

1. Take off the doors and drawer fronts, label every one, and remove the hardware.
2. Clean and degrease everything. Kitchen cabinets carry years of cooking grease, especially near the stove, and paint won’t hold to grease.
3. Scuff sand, fill dings and dents, and sand again.
4. Prime. Stained cabinets get an adhesion primer so the topcoat has something to grip.
5. Spray the doors and drawer fronts with Sherwin-Williams Gallery Series Waterborne Topcoat, a spray-only cabinet coating rated to KCMA standards.
6. Mask off the kitchen and paint the face frames and exposed ends in place.
7. Rehang the doors, put the hardware back on, and adjust the hinges.

That’s the only cabinet coating we use. One spec, every kitchen.

What goes into the price

We price cabinets by the piece, so the count matters most: doors, drawer fronts, exposed ends and island panels, and glass-front doors. A kitchen with more of them costs more to paint.

A few other things move the price:

• Stained cabinets need the adhesion primer, so they cost more than cabinets that don’t.
• Factory-finished cabinets don’t add to it. Raw wood costs less.
• Oak. Oak has open grain that shows through paint. If you want it smooth, we grain fill it, and that adds to the price. If you like a little texture, we skip it.
• Inside the boxes can be painted too if you want, priced per cabinet.

We count the pieces and look at the finish at the free estimate, and you get a written price before we start. More detail is on cabinet painting cost and how we price.

When painting is the right call

• The boxes are solid wood, plywood or sound MDF, with no swelling or soft spots.
• The doors are flat and not warped.
• You like the door style, or at least don’t mind it. Shaker, raised panel and flat slab doors all paint well.
• The layout works for how you cook.

What paint can’t fix

Be honest with yourself about these before you pick paint:

• Paint won’t change the door style. A raised panel door is still a raised panel door, just a different color.
• Paint won’t fix water damage. A swollen particleboard floor under the sink is still swollen after it’s painted.
• Peeling vinyl-wrapped doors (often called thermofoil) aren’t good candidates. Paint over a peeling surface peels with it.
• Painted cabinets can chip with a hard knock from a pot or a chair. A good spray finish holds up well to daily use and cleaning, and a chip can be touched up, but it isn’t armor.

Refacing your cabinets

Refacing keeps your cabinet boxes where they are. The face frames and exposed sides get covered with a thin veneer or laminate, and the doors and drawer fronts are replaced with new ones made to match. New hinges and pulls usually come with it. Your countertops normally stay put.

When refacing makes sense

• The boxes are sound but you want a different door style, like going from an arched raised panel to a flat shaker.
• The doors themselves are damaged, warped or peeling.
• You want a wood or laminate look instead of paint.

What refacing doesn’t do

• It doesn’t change the layout. Same cabinets, same spots.
• It doesn’t fix damaged boxes. Veneer over a sagging or water-swollen box just hides the problem.

We don’t do refacing, so we don’t quote it. A refacing company or a cabinet shop can price it for your kitchen.

Replacing your cabinets

Replacing means pulling the old cabinets out and installing new ones. That usually brings other work with it: the countertops have to come off (and stone tops don’t always survive the trip), plumbing and electrical may need adjusting, and the flooring and walls behind the old cabinets often need repair. Your kitchen is out of service for longer than with either of the other two options.

When replacing makes sense

• Water damage. A slow leak under the sink or behind the dishwasher can leave boxes swollen, soft or moldy. That needs to come out, not get covered.
• Boxes in bad shape. Sagging shelves, drawers that fall apart, face frames pulling loose.
• Layout changes. Moving the sink, adding an island, making room for a bigger refrigerator, opening a wall.
• A full remodel. If the countertops, floors and appliances are all being replaced anyway, new cabinets often make sense too.

A kitchen designer, cabinet shop or remodeler is who you’d call for that.

Side by side

	Painting	Refacing	Replacing
Cabinet boxes	Keep	Keep	New
Doors and drawer fronts	Keep, painted	New	New
Layout	Same	Same	Can change
Countertops	Stay	Usually stay	Often replaced
Fixes damaged boxes	No	No	Yes
Changes the door style	No	Yes	Yes
Kitchen out of service	Shorter	Shorter	Longest

A quick check you can do tonight

Open the cabinet under your sink and look at the floor of the box. Press on it. If it’s firm and dry, that’s a good sign. If it’s swollen, soft, stained or smells musty, find out why before you decide anything.

Then open and close every drawer. Look down the face of the doors for warping. Ask yourself whether you’d keep the layout if money were no object.

Sometimes the answer is a mix. A cabinet maker replaces one damaged sink base, and then we paint the whole kitchen so everything matches.

Getting a straight answer

We’ll look at your cabinets at the estimate and tell you if paint is the right fit. If it isn’t, we’ll say so. Estimates are free, and a color consult comes with every one. See our color consultation page if you’re stuck between whites. Financing is available through Wisetack or Klarna; see financing.

We paint kitchens all over the Upstate, from Boiling Springs to Five Forks. To see how we work, visit our cabinet painting page, or call or text 864-800-8275 to set up a time to look at your kitchen.