Can you share some pics of what you have now, and also any inspiration photos you may have of kitchens or just the cabinet fronts you are considering?

I would go to someone local to see what the options are and related costs. Ordering online would scare me for something like this, as you will want the exact same size doors and hinge placement etc.

This is not a service that we provide, but i have heard of people doing it successfully.

You could change the hardware easily on your own if that would be enough of a change.

Thank you for posting photos of your project, April - your "new" cabinets look beautiful! What a difference the change of color made! Style-wise, I'm wanting to go from your new cabinet door shape to your original cabinet door shape, because it would better fit my decor. By the way, I love the brick on your counter base.

The doors and drawer fronts are the most expensive part of any cabinet. Cabinet boxes are cheap. Sure you can buy unfinished blanks online, but there isnt anyone local who will deal with staining anything third party. You just took away one of the profits on the job. And the ability to be sure that what is ordered is correct.

This type of project is only foablevsnd affordable if entirely done DIY. The minute that you have to pay anyone for anything is when replacement makes way more sense. You get a much better result as well by going the replacement route.

Your difficulty is going to match the new stain with the old stain as stain changes color over time. I would shop for a paint Professional first and him/her do a few stain samples for you to see if you are happy enough with the "match" and then you can decide whether to pursue changing the doors out. Plus, he can give you a quote to stain the doors at the same time and tell you what type of wood you need to order if you don't know since it will have to be what you currently have.

I've seen some amazing cost effective reface jobs that were not DIY and a great value compared to replacement.

Yes, tedbixby, old stain does change color, so that would be a consideration too. I think that a business here in town is the one that made/installed the original cabinets at time of construction, so they would know exactly what to use. All in all, it is beginning to sound as though attempting to change only the doors/draw fronts while maintaining an exact match with the type of wood & stain may end up being more complicated than refacing the cabinets!

Joseph Corlett, LLC, I've read that that a good refacing job is indistinguishable from a total cabinet replacement. I know that refacing would also allow me the opportunity to add hardware to the doors. The problem is that to one side of my kitchen are built-in cupboards (a pantry of sorts) with 4 sets of doors that match the kitchen cabinets. If I had the kitchen cabinets refaced in a different stain, I'd need to either have the built-in cupboards refaced to match, or paint them as a "stand alone" feature. They would stand out like a sore thumb otherwise!

I really appreciate the thoughts, points made, and suggestions - thank you. I'm going to have an estimate done for new countertops - the first priority! After that, I may re-visit cabinet options …….. or, I might love my new countertops so much that the doing something with the cabinets is no longer of any importance!

Stop! Never do new countertops if replacing the cabinets is even remotely in the picture. It locks those cabinets in place.

Why don't you measure out your space, and enter it into the Ikea planner? That will give you a bottom line price for cabinet replacement and improving the layout. And that's about the cost of having your doors done by a local Pro most of the time as well. Or more. Labor is the bigger bill always.

Thanks, The Cook's Kitchen, I understand what you're saying. However, the layout is fine, as is the structure of the cabinets. A total cabinet replacement is not a consideration at all! At the end of the day, if I have to live with my cabinets "as is", I can do so. The countertops are another matter altogether - which is why I'm thinking that countertops that complement the cabinets would make the small "annoyances" less noticeable!

I happened to glance at my local "big box store" yesterday, and saw cabinet doors that look very similar in the wood & color of my current kitchen cabinets. As mentioned, I wouldn't be attempting to match up existing wood/tone - I would leave that to a professional local remodeling business. It was suggested that I might want to try a glaze on my current cabinets, but I don't think that's something I'd want to tackle myself! By coincidence on T.V. last night there was an ad for "N-hance" cabinet refinishing services. They aren't local to me, but sound to be offering a similar service to that performed by "Refresh" on April Young's cabinets. I know I can't make a decision about a countertop color until I determine first if my cabinets are to be left "as is". However, all of this has given me lots of food for thought - thanks everyone for taking the time to comment!

April Young, I have a question regarding the process "Refresh" used on your cabinets. Did they move all the appliances, or simply cover them? Reason I'm asking is, because I see the "N-hance" has a photo of somebody working with the appliances left in place, but covered. I know the new sprayers are small and very precise, so perhaps it's no longer essential to move appliances?

That is a jackleg process. It will ensure that you need to replace them down the road when it starts to peel. It’s basically a tinted clearcoat that they don’t do a whole lot of prep to spray in your house. It’s targeted to flippers who don’t care about longevity.

Why can't you upload photos?

Newenglandgardenerct, thank you for posting photos of your project - it looks beautiful!

Thank you msokie, the pictures are not the best, but we where very happy and we saved about half of a tare out in our area

April Young, my eyes keep wandering back to that lovely brick base of your counter . You have inspired me to consider doing something with the textured drywall base of our bar height counter!

Perhaps this is semantics but I thought refacing cabinets was keeping the boxes and replacing doors and drawers and then staining or painting the visible portions of the cabinet boxes so they match the doors.

It seems easier to change the color of the frames of the boxes and possibly whatever exterior end panels show.

I would suggest you price out whatever option you are interested and compare to the cost of replacing cabinets.

I am currently doing a gut remodel and my actual cabinet boxes would probably survive World War III. They were built on site in 1965. I live in a condo and some of my neighbors refaced and some replaced. I chose to replace my cabinets because my layout wasn't what I wanted and the cost of refacing would have been about 75% of what it would cost me to replace with cabinets that had the exact layout I wanted.

You aren't showing your kitchen so other than your assertion that your boxes are in great shape it's difficult to know anything else about them. For instance, do you have lowers with doors and no pullouts - are you planning to retrofit with rollouts. With new cabinets you could get more functional drawers. How is the hardware on your drawers - are they full extension. My old drawers were so antiquated they didn't even HAVE glides :-)

Do not go for arch please.get a simple shaker style. Check dilemmas here, a lot of people rid off from arches. It seems it is out of date.

I wonder if a refacing installer could/would provide just doors and drawers that match the current cabinet finish. Matching that finish seems the biggest sticking point.

April, your brick would look great in my kitchen/dining area! Actually, I think it goes well with your tiled floor. Could you use a texture on it to give a smoother surface for painting? I hate to mention the word "trend", but bead board panels seem to be making a come back. I'm assuming some type of panel could be used over the brick? I guess it depends on what type of look you are going for in place of the rustic brick.

April, a lot of people would kill to have your brick wall etc. - but, that doesn't make any difference if you don't like it! If your tile flooring is going to be replaced, it would be a good time to do something with the brick that you hate. No matter what, your kitchen cabinets & countertops look beautiful!

raee_gw, that was my question, and matching the finish would be the deciding factor. The main issue there might be is matching something brand-new to the existing "old" cabinet finish. This might prove to be more of a headache than it's worth in the long run! It still seems to be coming back to three options: attempt to replace the doors/drawer fronts with new (stock) "matching" ones, have the cabinets refinished, or simply "put up" with what I have now!

Have you tried giving the cabinets a really thorough cleaning yet? Often darkening of the finish is really just accumulated grime, even though they might not appear dirty -- once they are cleaned the finish is much closer to when new. Then they might be easier to match, or at least close enough to not be terribly noticeable.

April, I was searching for something entirely different on the "big box store" website, and came across this https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fasade-96-in-x-48-in-Argent-Copper-Audrey-Decorative-Wall-Panel-S58-10/205929822. Not suggesting you add this design, but pre-made panels of some kind might be an alternative to painting the brick?

Yes, raee_gw, I know that will make a big difference - even furniture polish can accumulate to the point that the finish is changed drastically. Out of curiosity, I might take a drawer or door (after a thorough cleaning!) into the big box store to see just how close it is in color to the sample door I saw on display.

Thanks again to all those who took time out of their busy schedules to post positive things. It's all about the sharing of ideas, suggestions, and prior experience to help each other! As noted earlier, the suggestions and advice have given me much food for thought. April Young & Newenglandergardenerct, please ignore the negative comments made about your projects - I can assure you that I found the details & photos very helpful. To the posters listed as Pros, who behaved like professionals - thank you! I appreciate the input & have a great evening everyone!

Attn. Beth H & Sophie Wheeler, please delete all of your posts from this thread. You have each attacked helpful posts made by April Young & Newenglandergardenerct, as well as personally attacking me. My mistake was in lowering myself to your standards by responding to you, and I have deleted all my posts that may be considered offensive in any way. Please delete your posts, as requested. Thank you.

celerygirl, sorry I didn't respond sooner to your post. I guess my kitchen would be considered "up to date", since my cabinets are shaker-style! They aren't the style I would have chosen, but I can't deny that this style has a clean look to it.

After more research I came across this Houzz article: https://www.houzz.com/magazine/how-to-reface-your-old-kitchen-cabinets-stsetivw-vs~21506444

The article was very informative, and while reading about cabinet refacing something occurred to me. The climate where I live ranges from hot & dry, to humid during the monsoons, to below freezing winter weather. As a result, I doubt cabinet refacing would be a good option for me (questionable durability due to the contraction/expansion of wood). I do like the idea of a professional perhaps cleaning & adding a new coat of slightly darker stain to the existing cabinets, so that's certainly something to consider in the future. But for now, I'm going to focus on the new countertop. I've come across a few samples of Corian that would look great with the current cabinets, and I know changing out the countertop will make a world of difference! Since I don't plan on any kind of replacement, or even refacing, of the cabinets I'm content to reassess the situation once I've adjusted to a complete change of countertop. The input I received has been valuable in helping me to decide which options won't work for me - thanks again to all of you!

Fiddlesticks - wondering if you made any decisions yet?

I refaced a few years ago--new drawers and cabinet doors--however, my BIG mistake was NOT painting the frames of the cabinets and used thermal foil as the contractor suggest, well to make a long story short--the rubber bumpers on the doors and drawers pulled the thermal foil, and now I have a big mess-contractor wont make good--only way to correct it is to have the thermal foil removed, sanded and painted--another big project, I don't have the energy for. Just paint the frames and order new drawers and doors--good luck

salonva, I've decided to not do anything with the cabinets ……… at least for now! The doors are solid & in very good condition, plus they have hidden hinges so they do have a very "up to date" appearance. I'm still thinking that I would like them better if the ugly countertop was replaced!

Teresa, thank you for your input, and photos. Sorry to hear that you are in a situation whereby correction would be as big a job almost as the original project. I would rather live with my cabinets as they are than go through that kind of stress! As noted above, I think changing out the countertop would make a huge difference to the appearance of the cabinets (i.e. tone down the yellow tones of the wood). However, in the area where I live it isn't easy finding experienced, trustworthy contractors. Even a contractor listed on Houzz has not only failed multiple times to provide the requested estimate for our project, but has also been totally dishonest! Needless to say, he'll be losing out on any current or future business from us, and we will advise others not to use that business.

What did you end up doing? Hope you are pleased with the result.