Live with what you've got at least 6 months to get an idea of how it really functions. You may find out that you hate how the kitchen works, and if you've spent money on rehabbing it, you'll feel imprisoned to living with it.

Professional refacing is often MORE expensive than new cabinets. The doors and the face frames are the most expensive part of any cabinet. That's the only part of any cabinet that is actually solid wood. Plywood boxes are no more solid wood than are furniture board ones, and you should do a forum search to educate yourself. Good quality furniture board box cabinets will still be better quality than poor quality plywood box cabinets.

Save your money on any cosmetic bandaids and plan on redoing your cabinets at a later time. It really won't be much more than refacing will cost you and you will have the opportunity to tweak your layout and enhance your organization.

Can you do full overlay doors? That'll cover up a lot of the boxes, and reduce the pressure for perfection. And since you're getting new doors, those old doors--if they're really the same finish as the boxes--will be great for testing a new finish.

Is the almondy veneer wood veneer or plasticky? If it's wood, you should be able to paint them. If it's plastic, then you probably still can, but might need to do some extra prep work. Anyway, if the boxes are in good shape and you're going to paint, I don't see why you'd want to reface. It seems like you could just paint and add new doors.

I'm sure just like factory cabinets and cabinetmakers, the range of quality can be quite wide for refacers too. I'm a KD and I'm just about to begin a quote for woman. She had her cabinets refaced about 5 years ago and she told me that within 6 months they were delaminating. The cost of refacing isn't that much less than replacing it all....and many times it's even more. Once you factor in having to replace it down the road....does refacing really save you at all?

How do you know that your cabinets have plywood construction and wood veneer interiors? Many of my clients think the wood-grained vinyl is real wood. Unless your cabinets were custom, I doubt they all-wood construction. If they are...that is rare for that style of cabinet.

Bottom line: I would not consider refacing unless you:
1. Like your existing layout
2. Have a custom box, all wood box
3. Drawer boxes and drawer guides are in good shape
4. Have checked out the costs of replacement as an option. You might be surprised.

Kompy

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies. I've lived with my kitchen for nearly five years now and while the layout is okay, the appearance is butt-ugly. The veneer on the cabinets is the plasticky kind. The inside of the cabinets is not covered by anything and is bare 3/4 inch plywood.

Live Wire Oak, can you explain a bit more about your statement that "Good quality furniture board (I assume you mean "particle board?") box cabinets will still be better quality than poor quality plywood box cabinets?" I've always been under the impression that plywood or solid wood is better quality than particle board. These cabinets were installed in the 80s.

Fori, what kind of prep work would be needed for these "plasticky" cabinets? If I could paint them and just replace the doors, that could be a viable option.

Krompy, thanks for your comments. There is no vinyl--the insides are bare, as I mentioned above. The "vinyl" or whatever it is is on the outside only. It's that almond colored "melamine" stuff that is glued to the outside and then has the oak trim piece that acts as a pull. I've attached a link to a picture that shows what my cabinets look like (hope it works--I've never posted a link before). Note, these are not my cabinets, it's just a picture I found that looks like mine.

What I've read and heard is that the complaints about refaced cabinets were regarding the peel and stick stuff that diy-ers use. My understanding was that professionally applied veneers held up better. Is that not your understanding?

Thanks again for the feedback. Educating myself is extactly what I'm trying to do. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Looks like my cabinets

Eek I don't know what would need doing for melamine cabinets, but I could certainly refer you to the painting forum. :D

Common sense tells me that if your boxes were installed in the 80s and they're still in one piece, it's quite possible they'd be good for another 20 years. Just because they are ugly doesn't mean they are poor quality--those things were so popular I'm sure some good manufacturers were making them too!

My current cabinets were refaced in the early 80s. There are a few spots lower down where they are losing some skin, but there is no delamination--they just have a few spots where the veneer is splintering due to excessive abuse, and a solid cabinet would be just as bad. Anyway, it was a great job. Iffy in terms of taste, and I wish they hadn't veneered the mahogany door to the garage, but I digress...

Thanks, Fori. I'll check out the painting forum. My boxes are solid as a rock--I think I could take a sledge hammer to them and they'd still be standing. They only thing wrong with them is that they were installed by someone who had no taste whatsoever. :-D

hi timaran,

What's under the melamine veneer? Do you know what the door material is? If it's also plywood (like the boxes), how hard would it be to strip the veneer off so that you have a plywood door to paint? Would the door dimensions still hold true? (this would be ideal, of course, and save you a lot of dosh.) You can use a marvelous product called waterbased wood grain filler to patch up any gashes from the de-veneering, then paint away.

Otherwise, it's not ideal, but there are definitely ways to prep plastic surfaces for painting. You'll need to do a lot of sanding (to roughen it up) and priming, but then can use the same paint (CabinetCoat, etc) that you'd use on any wooden cabinetry.

(fyi: you've inadvertently stepped into a hot topic here at Kitchens, otherwise known as The Great Plywood-vs-Furniture-Board Debate. ;-) If you run a search, you will find numerous looong threads detailing the merits and drawbacks of each for cabinet construction.)

Good luck, keep us posted!

Hi Circuspeanut. I don't think it would work to just take the veneer off, even if I could figure out how to do it. Removing the oak strip "pulls" would shrink the door size to being too small. I like Fori's suggestion of the full overlay doors to reduce the exposure of the boxes. LOL about the Great Debate. I just discovered these forums in the last few days -oh dear!

Antmaril, I'm laughing with you! At least I'm innocent of the crime, but well...we all grow wiser with age, don't we? I imagine that 25 years ago, they were soooo trendy, weren' they? Do you suppose that 25 years from now, everyone will be ripping out their granite countertops and stainless steel appliances saying, "OMG, WHAT were they thinking?" :-D

I've never refaced cabinets, but I was under the impression that refacing would save us way more money than replacing. WRONG! We got quotes a couple yrs ago to get our small kitchen refaced (house built in the 50's...custom carpentry cabinets....in great condition, just painted over 80 million times and needed some updating). The cheaapest for refacing 8 cabinet boxes (3 uppers and 5 lowers...yes it's a small kitchen) and replacing the doors/hinges/pulls and adding a new countertop, was 6K. We said no way. Instead we ended up buying unfinished oak cabinetry at the local lumber store. We finished them ourselves with a couple colors of stain mixed together to create the exact color we wanted, then we just ripped out our old cabs and installed the new ones. All together the cost was under 1K and took about 2 weeks from start to finish. We even were able to reconfigure the layout to add more cabinets! It took a lot of manpower and basically all of our spare time for that couple weeks was spent doing kitchen work, but we saved a lot of money and got completely new cabinetry!

If you don't want to do that, or love the cabinets and just want to change the look, you could buy replacement doors at any home improvement store, then paint the boxes and the new doors to look the way you want them to. Ask SW or other paint store (or the painting forum) what type of paint to use on the laminate cabinet boxes.

Hi Jenirvt. Thanks a lot for that information. Wow! 6K for just those few cabinets! I'm speechless! I'm beginning to lean way more towards painting the boxes and getting new doors. Thanks again for your valuable input.

Timaran:

Oh yes, those cabinets were the "in" thing back in the 80's. I was so happy with my kitchen at that time. Now, not so much. I, too, wonder if granite counters and SS appliances will eventually become my parents' avocado green appliances and my "Eurostyle" cabinets. I'd bet money that they will.

the debate about granite and ss appliances has been debated before. i have to disagree with those who think that it will be outdated any time or ever. i believe that colors come and go. layouts come and go. but, natural materials such as wood, stone are classic. as far as ss, thats always been here too. i don't think that ss has ever gone out of style, its just for awhile some people liked the look of white, black, and other colors. I remember my mother having a ss cooktop in the early 70's. she then later bought another house in the late 70's that was built in the 50's i believe that had a ss cooktop. there were laminate coutertops that were made to look like butcher block and marble. today, people are paying the $$$$$'s for the real thing, whereas back then it was unheard of for the average home to have it. there are some things that are just classics and will never be outdated.

Just a thought, but Rustoleum makes a paint specifically for laminate countertops that can be tinted to different colors. I used it on some really ugly pink countertops in my basement, and so far so good! If you decide to paint the boxes, you might look into it. In my mind, laminate is laminate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rustoleum countertop paint

Thanks for that tip, soooomanyboys. I will definitely check it out.

I would try to fix the existing doors on your cabinets. I had an 80s kitchen with the melamine and oak cabinets. For my remodel, I tore out all the old cabinets and replaced them. But I save some of the original cabinets, and put them in the utility room behind the kitchen. I painted everything with something called "Grip and Seal Latex Stain Killer" by Coronado and then had trim board nailed on to the old cabinets (to mimic my new kitchen cabinets). Then I painted everything the same color as my new kitchen cabinets (Benjamin Moore Collector's Item) and used the same cup pulls and knobs as I did on the new cabinets. I'm really pleased with how everything came out. So pleased that sometimes I wonder why I didn't just leave the old cabinets in place and fix them up. Here are some pictures.

Original kitchen cabinets:

Redone cabinets:

Just one thing. When the trim was added to the cabinets, they stuck out just a bit farther than the drawers (which were only painted). So I put a little block at the back of the drawers to make them flush with the cabinets.

Hope this helps.
Anne

Are these frameless cabinets or face frame?

If frameless, you can use an iron to soften the glue on the front edges and peel off the old melamine. Then get a preglued (hot glue) wood edge veneer and reverse the process. Then you can paint the front edge of the cabinets any color you want.

If you have faceframes, you can still go through this process, but it will be a more difficult because you'll have to cut larger pieces of veneer to cover exposed areas. Or else, you can paint over the melamine with paint made especially for this purpose.

Then I would replace the doors and paint them.

Actually, that's exactly what I did 4 years ago. I had ugly builders grade oak cabinets that had been painted purple. I replaced all 15 doors for $300 (shaker style maple), and painted the face frames.

Somebody here has replaced the edging on her IKEA cabinets with a wood veneer using the method I described. Wish you had some photos, I could have narrowed down your options.

Annes Arbor, I love your kitchen! The problem I have is that the oak "pull" runs along the bottom of the upper doors and top of the bottom doors. It doesn't sit flat as yours appeared to do but creates a raised profile that would not allow me to attach trim unless I were a lot handier than I am. :-(

clg7067, may I ask where you got your doors? Did you have a local cabinet maker make them or was there some other source? That sounds like a decent price. I'm leaning now to painting the boxes and replacing the doors. Even if it doesn't work, I'm unlikely to hate them more than I already do. :-D

I'll chime in with my cost experience that refacing is more. Granted this was a very highly recommended refacing co., but they quoted $18,000 (!) to reface my kitchen with alder doors. Strip and re-stain everything was quoted at $8,000 and replacement was about $10,000 (though that would have involved replacing the counters and backsplash and I only wanted to replace the counters). Since the cabinets were brand new with maple doors and decent quality, I just refinished them.

I actually had a carpenter do some work (including remaking the melamine drawers in maple with full extension glides and soft close) and he ended up ordering some new maple doors and drawer fronts at no extra cost to me. Now, I'm sure that reflects the fact that he was making quite a bit on my job, but I figured those raw wood pieces couldn't have cost him that much. They came from Cal Door.

timaran, I bought doors from two different companies. One of them was Kitchen Doors Online. From them I got paint grade maple. The other company I got regular maple, but I don't remember who that was. BTW, shaker style is the cheapest.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitch Doors Online

Wow, those redone cabinets look great. At first I was going to replace our doors to the shaker/inset style, then I just said I would repaint current and get better hardware, but I think I will check into a carpenter who can do what you had done. Environmentally friendly, especially since I was going to paint anyways.

Just found this thread -- I have the same almond laminate cabinets with oak trim with the cutout to open the doors ... hate them as well.

I was wondering if I could fill the 'pull' gap with wood putty and add doorknobs. I am also planning to paint the doors, and I would paint the wood trim so that it is all the same color (oak + wood putty).

Does this sound do-able? Anyone ever try this?

Thanks!

I know of a company that refaces over the existing cabinets with 1/4' solid wood rather than thin veneer. They also manufacturer their own custom doors, solid maple dovetail drawers, and solid drawer fronts. I believe this company offers the best quality cabinet refacing service. You might want to check out their website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet Refacing

1980's style kitchens with white Formica cabinets and red oak trim were all the rage 25 years ago but not anymore!
You have the option of replacing your almond doors with beautiful real wood red oak doors to match your cabinets. Next, add new knobs and some European style concealed hinges and you will have a beautiful new kitchen.

Here are some after photos of a 1980 style kitchen with the almond doors and red oak trim. After photos show the doors replaced with red oak doors that match the original trim and new knobs and concealed hinges. What a difference !