· Michael Blair
Refacing replaces doors, drawer fronts and the visible face frame surfaces while keeping the boxes in place. It is a legitimate route to a new-looking kitchen when the underlying cabinetry is sound and the layout works.
When the boxes are worth keeping
Solid plywood or good particleboard boxes, square and firmly fixed, with no water damage at the sink base. Face frames in sound condition.
And a layout you are happy with, because refacing changes appearance and not geometry.
When to replace instead
Swollen or delaminating boxes, particularly under the sink where a slow leak has been. Sagging shelves, racked carcasses, or a layout you dislike.
Also when you want deep drawers instead of doors and shelves, which is a carcass change rather than a facing one.
- Boxes sound and square: reface
- Water damage at the sink base: replace those units at least
- Layout change wanted: replace
- Want drawers instead of shelves: replace
- Budget-led refresh, layout fine: reface
What refacing actually includes
New doors and drawer fronts, matching veneer or laminate over the face frames and exposed ends, new hinges and hardware, and usually new drawer boxes if the existing ones are tired.
Ask specifically about drawer boxes and soft-close hardware, since those are what make a kitchen feel new day to day.
Painting as the third option
Painting existing doors is cheaper still and gets a large part of the visual change. It keeps the existing door style, which refacing does not.
Where the door profile is dated rather than the colour, refacing is the better answer; where the colour is the problem, paint is.