A year ago, our kitchen looked like this:
We painted the cabinets and generally brightened up the kitchen:
This was a major improvement on what we previously had but it still wasn’t as functional as we wanted. Six months later, our kitchen has once again been transformed (and for under 10k!):
We had no plans to completely re-do our kitchen, but thought it would be interesting to entertain a quote from a Home Depot representative to try to sell us on “refacing” our cabinets.For anyone who isn’t aware of kitchen cabinet refacing, it’s a much more cost effective solution than completely gutting a kitchen and starting from scratch.
From Home Depot:
Cabinet refacing is a cost-effective way to give your kitchen a whole new look by replacing cabinet door and drawer fronts and veneering the exterior of the cabinet boxes. Your kitchen layout stays the same and the cabinets stay in place, so you avoid the inconveniences associated with major renovation and demolition. Enhancements like organizers, shelving, moldings and other accessories add the finishing touches.
We couldn’t believe that the quote for our kitchen was less than what we had spent to overhaul our bathroom. AND with 0% interest for 24 months it was an offer we apparently couldn’t resist. We signed on the dotted line and had the measuring guy at our house 3 days later.
My main concern was making the kitchen more functional. You might remember the cabinets that (1) I couldn’t reach and (2) that wouldn’t even open:
We decided to extend the length of the cabinets above the stove so that they matched the length of the other cabinets. We also decided to add a breakfast bar where we previously had the Ikea table and chairs.
The cabinet doors that we decided on were a white shaker style with a beadboard accent:
Kitchen Cabinet Refacing: The Process
Four weeks later, the construction company (actually one guy named John) was ready to begin work. Before John could start, all the appliances had to be removed from the kitchen.
Day 1: Two hours after John began work….much to our surprise, we ended up getting an entire wall of new cabinets:
I guess I didn’t listen very well when the blue prints were being explained to me! ha!
The breakfast bar was also quickly put in place:
Day 2: Countertops arrived and were installed. The countertop we chose was Wilsonart’s Deepstar Slate:
The veneer was cut to fit the cabinet boxes and glued on:
Day 3: John attached the cabinet doors and hardware, and trimmed, caulked and siliconed until everything looked beautiful and finished!
Day 4: We had a electrician come in to install our new stove and over-the-range microwave, and we put the fridge back into place:
Kitchen Cabinet Refacing: The Finished Product
Here’s the before and after:
I’m still amazed that it only took a total of 4 days for such an an amazing transformation. We now have a fully functional kitchen that I actually enjoy cooking in! I’m happy to entertain guests and no longer have to store the “good dinnerware set” in the linen closet!
We still need to get a pair of stools for the breakfast bar and EVENTUALLY replace the floors…but I’m exceptionally happy with what we have right now!
Have any of you refaced your cabinets? Maybe if you’ve been eager to update your kitchen this would be a good option for you!
**Update** The following additions have also been added! Check out the Home Tour page to see the FINISHED kitchen!
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New Pendant Lights | 
Peel & Stick Backsplash |
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I have a very small kitchen, went to Home Depot for a quote to reface the cabinets, $15000.00 WAY above my budget. So we will paint and add hardware instead
This is a really amazing tips, thank you for sharing. Really appreciated.
Great job keep up the good work.
This is amazing! I can’t believe how easy it was to reface your cabinets! We have been trying to figure out the most cost effective way to redo our kitchen, so we will definitely be looking at this option. Thanks for sharing!
Love your site with all the DIY’s and house proud projects, like this one refacing your cabinets.
I had mine refaced By HD 1 week ago and still smelling the glue although it is slowly getting better. My question to you is how long until the smell is totally gone? We have a fan on them and keeping windows open. I’m thinking the glue needs to cure which I’m thinking will take about 30 days? Using that number in comparison to other paints and glues that need full curing time. Even though it is a bit smelly I absolutely love my kitchen and would recommend HD Refacing. I hope you are able to answer my question. Thanks, Nancy.
Hi Nancy,
We didn’t have any issues with residual smell after about 24 hours. I’m so happy your kitchen turned out well, though!
If you didn’t get thermofoil, what did you get. I had an estimate on thermofoil which was not bad, but my gut was telling me they would not last.
Ours were particleboard, I believe. That was 9 years ago, though, so I’m not sure exactly what they are offering these days.
We bought thermofoil doors from Home Depot to replace the doors on our kitchen cabinets. They are peeling and cracked. Junk.
Thermofoil is not a good product – they always peel and crack eventually! The ones we purchased were not Thermofoil.
good work for kitchen makeover!
Wow! What a transformation! I’m in the cabinet door business and always like to peruse what others are doing with theirs. The clean, white cabinets really make the kitchen look beautiful. Very nice!
Looks great! We re-faced our cabinets and they’re awesome. I was just curious if you thought about adding a larger sink during the process? Just a larger hole in the counter would have done the trick….
Hi Nancy,
We actually couldn’t add a deeper sink due to some weird plumbing issues. It would have been cost prohibitive. Honestly, we really never used the sink apart from rinsing things so it wasn’t an issue for us!
Hi there, could you please let me know where you get the white shaker door cabinet as I am thinking to change one of mine that just got burned. I couldn’t find it anywhere on the net, just saw this and thought I should ask you. Thanks. – Nor
Hi Nor, we got them at Home Depot.
Hi Jenna,
Your kitchen turned out so beautiful with a clean look. Love those white shaker style cabinet doors and drawer pulls.
Nice!Thank you for sharing This post.
Hi, Jenna. Your kitchen looks great! I have a question – how durable have the new fronts been? How are they holding up? It looks like it’s been a few years since you had the refacing done. Thanks!
Hi Wendy Ann! We actually sold that house last July but at that point they were still in perfect shape! We were very happy with how they turned out and they added a lot of value to our house!
I live in a Cape Cod in PA. Your old kitchen layout looks like my current kitchen, with the stove shoved right in the corner. I’ve been trying to plan the best layout in such a small, heavily used space.
OMG – your old kitchen look almost exactly like mine (even the weired windy thing above the window and the hard-ware is the exact same). I too went to home depot, but not for re-facing – for a complete makeover – because I needed to change location of appliances and add a dishwasher, smaller sink, etc… but after a lot of back and forth, they measured and said they couldn’t install it, cause my home has Adobe Brick walls and they were scared the kitchen wouldn’t hold (odd, because the current kitchen obviously held up over 50 years). So, I’m now looking at changing just the doors (which have bent out of shape and don’t close anymore). So sad. I want your kitchen!!!
Oh Anne, what a bummer! Home Depot will totally replace your doors, if you’re still looking to go that route!
Hi Jenna, what kitchen flooring are you thinking of doing next?
Cris
Cris, we WERE planning on tiling but never got around to it. We are currently in the process of selling our house so I guess we will never know what we would have chosen!!!
Did they replace the drawer slides?…. I’m interested in talking my husband into something like this, but we have a couple of drawers that are just crap and the tracks they side in/out on need replacing… we also have one drawer in which just a new front won’t cut it, it would need the entire box thing as well as sliders….
Hi Jessica,
All the drawers were completely replaced (not just new fronts)!
Hi there. Your kitchen looks absolutely amazing. We’ve been wanting to reface our cabinets and thinking home depot is the way to go. I have a question about your microwave. Does it vent outside?
Hi Crystal, yes it does. We originally had a vented hood and kept the same vent which runs through the cabinet above the microwave.
I did not go through all of the comments to see if someone had already asked… but what wall coloring do you have in there? ;) Thanks!
Hi Kristen! It’s Natural Gray by Behr :-)
It looks like they ,HD, did a good job. I just got an estimate for a similar size .kitchen…priced out initially at 16000. poly doors …kept .dove tailed drawers and dropped extended slides. with promo just over 14K…..curious to know your total running distance top and bottom ..thanks..
This looks great Jenna! I love the new style of cabinets and the handles too. What a beautiful job! I bet you are loving it every single day. Thank you so much for sharing!
I am loving it!! Thanks for stopping by to check it out!! :-)
Can I ask how much this eneded up costing. We have a simlar kichen to yours and were thinking about maybe refacing it the price is right.
Just under $10,000! Keeping in mind, we had quite a bit of custom cabinetry done. Refacing alone would be a good deal cheaper!
May I ask the estimated price of refacing alone? We are looking to remodel a very similar kitchen. Did you reframe the window or just paint it? Thank you!
Hi Lesa,
Because we had a lot of custom work done along with the refacing (an entire new wall of new cabinets plus a breakfast bar) the cost was close to $10,000 including the countertops and new sink/faucet. We just painted the window. If you just do refacing alone it will be significantly less.
Reface or Replace But NEVER PAINT. The paint will inevitably peel if you don’t strip, sand, and prime beforehand — a lengthy process… Not worth it. You won’t be happy with the results. Even the highest-quality paint job can’t hide damaged cabinets. Refacing can work miracles, especially when coupled with new cabinet hardware. Your kitchen is beautiful Jenna.
Wow, what a great before and after picture! Kitchen refacing really makes your kitchen look like brand new for so much less than all new cabinets. I’d just be careful on the financing. If you don’t pay it off by the 0% term (24 months), the big box store wins for sure!
Paul….I know, you’re so right. The APR skyrockets to about 23% after the 24 months! Luckily, we’ve got most of it paid off already. Tax refunds are the best! :-)
Love the new kitchen. You could add a jar of lemons to brighten it up!
Hi Jenna, I am really intrested in your experience with Home Depot. We have a child and another on way. Just don’t have the money or energy for a total re-do. Did you like home depot? Did you price out a full kitchen (with new cabinets)? Did it cost a lot to build the new cabinets? (We would like to add a large pantry). Also, did you go with laminate counters (vs. granite)? Ok…enough questions!
Hi Jessica!
We’ve had a really great experience with Home Depot. They did our bathroom remodel too :-) They subcontract out to local companies, so I’m sure not everyone has the same experience. However, the two companies we worked with for both our bathroom and kitchen were really great. The Home Depot quote for the kitchen came in at almost half the cost of a traditional kitchen re-model. We were initially tempted to buy cabinets from Ikea and install them ourselves, but just didn’t want to deal with the hassle. This whole process took about 12 weeks from the initial sale to the finished kitchen!
The additional cabinets actually didn’t cost that much extra. They had some deal where if we bought two we got a third for free. The sales guys are pretty good at figuring out the cheapest way to go. We told him what he could afford and he figured out a way to get everything we wanted! We did get laminate countertops (the granite would have been an additional $3000). I have to say….it’s the best laminate I’ve ever seen! We’ve had so many compliments on it!
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions! :-)
Jenna
Hi Jenna,
Thanks for the great post. I have been going back and forth on whether to paint my cabinets, or have them refaced by Home Depot. You pictures and description really edges me towards having Home Depot reface them. Your after looks great. My kitchen is about three times the size of yours(it include a big built in area in my nook). I just wanted to let you know you’ve been very helpful! Enjoy your new kitchen!
Theresa
Thanks Theresa! Good luck with your new kitchen!
Hi Jenna, thanks for sharing your experience! What an awesome after kitchen. Our look very similar to your before pics and definitely have been thinking about an upgrade. What laminate counters did you get??
Cris
Hi Cris! We chose Wilsonart laminate counters in the color Deepstar Slate. They’ve been mistake for granite several times and we’re very happy with them!!
Your kitchen looks awesome! I love the beadboard cabinet doors so pretty!
It’s beautiful! So crisp and clean!
Aww thanks Robyn!!
Jenna