I just ordered new cabinet doors and drawers today! We moved into our 80 yr old house about 3 years ago. The kitchen was updated by the previous owners - granite counters, tile floor, stainless appliances, etc. The layout works pretty well and the storage is good. However, the cabinet doors are not my style. I wanted something more traditional. Like yours, the cabinet boxes were in good shape. Found a cabinet company who can provide me with new solid wood doors and drawers. They use Conestoga Wood for clients who want to reface. Someone from the cabinet company came out, measured every door and drawer, showed me lots of samples and spent a lot of time with me to make sure I get the look I want. I am replacing some of the solid doors with glass ones. I am getting the doors painted and glazed by the factory (a warm white with coffee glaze), but I had the option of different woods and stains or unfinished. The cabinets will come hinged and with the hardware I picked out. However, we will need to paint the exposed cabinet box fronts (the doors will be full overlay, but the outside of the cabinet boxes will still show when opened.) They will provide the same glaze as the doors but I will have to color match the paint. The painting should not be too bad and since the hinges will be placed to match the location of the current ones, all we will need to do is screw in the doors in the existing holes.

Can't wait to get them--with the new doors & drawers & new hardware and new paint on the wall I will have a brand new looking kitchen at a fraction of a total reno!

The only problem you may have is changing to full overlay. Full overlay cabinet boxes are usually framless.....it's just a box with the exposed edge of the plywod laminated with matching wood. Your cabinets have frames. Not sure if they make hinges that you'd need to offset the doors that far away from the opeining. but as far as refacing....my dad recently did it and it was wonderful! He actually refaced the cabinets too, with 1/4" oak plywood and also put on new oak doors. His old cabinets were sturdy, just really ugly. The face lift was amazing!

yes, even if you have face frames, you can reface and change the doors to full overlay or near enough full overlay so as to get the effect you want. The hinges will be different. i have face frames and full overlay doors.

We refaced and painted our 27 yo cabs just prior to listing our house for sale. They came out great. We didn't have enough room for full overlay, so we ended up w/ 5/8" overlay which is close enough. We used evans cabinets and doors out of Texas and bought unfinished doors (we used their cheapest option because we were selling- Wood door w/ MDF raised panel). I believe they can finish the doors for you too. We just had our painters spray them and paint the boxes to match.Here's a link to the thread about my Kitchen facelift w/ pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: 10K budget remodel

Just out of curiosity, has anyone done cabinet refacing with older cabinets? We have built-in-place wooden cabinets that probably date to the 1940s (and the boxes may even be original to the house, c. 1915). They're rock solid cabinets and we're fine with the number/placement, but the doors are hideous (just basic flat wood with decades of paint on top). Can you reface something like that, where the cabinets are all different sizes and the doors are sized to each specific opening? Or is that simply more trouble/expense than it's worth? (It would be purely cosmetic, since the cabinets themselves work fine.)

Thanks!

There should be no problem refacing your cabinets. Most kitchens have several different sized drawers and doors... You just measure accurately and order the new doors made to order.

Having just done a refacing I'll offer an opinion. Laminating a veneer over existing face frames and exposed sides is a method to be avoided. With incredibly great skill and care, working slowly, I think it may be possible to do well. But the risk of NOT getting that is too high.
Painting should be fine if you're up to the surface prep job. With paint, prep is everything.
Best option I've seen offered is to have the face frames replaced. This may even make it easier to switch to inset, overlay or whatever.

- D