Cabinets are usually the single biggest line in a kitchen budget, so this is the first decision worth getting right. The honest answer is often “some of each.”
When refacing makes sense
Refacing (or re-skinning) means keeping the cabinet boxes and giving them new faces: new doors, new drawer fronts, and a new finished surface on the exposed frames and sides. It works when the bones are good.
- The boxes are solid — plywood or sound particleboard, square, firmly attached to the wall
- There’s no water damage under the sink or along the floor
- You like the layout and aren’t moving appliances or plumbing
- Drawers and shelves can be repaired or upgraded in place
When you’re better off replacing
- Swollen, crumbling or moldy boxes — especially around the sink and dishwasher
- You want to change the layout, add an island, or move the range
- The uppers stop well short of the ceiling and you want that storage back
- The boxes were cheap to begin with and are coming apart at the joints
The hybrid approach
You don’t have to pick one. On a recent kitchen we installed brand-new full-height upper cabinets — that’s where the old ones were falling short — and re-skinned the lower boxes, which were perfectly sound. New subway tile tied it together.
The room reads as a completely new kitchen. The money went to the parts you see and use, not to tearing out things that still worked.
One thing to know about countertops
If you want to keep your existing countertops — and good stone is often worth keeping — the lower cabinets generally have to stay where they are. Pulling base cabinets out from under a countertop without breaking it is risky. That’s one more reason refacing the lowers and replacing the uppers is such a common combination.
How to find out which you have
Open the sink cabinet and look at the floor of the box and the bottom edges of the sides. That’s where trouble shows first. Then give us a call — Bryan will look at the rest and tell you straight what’s worth keeping.
