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When remodeling your kitchen, obviously the cabinets are a major component of the project. Depending on your budget and situation, kitchen cabinet refacing may be the choice to make instead of replacing the cabinets. Your options for refacing cabinets are nearly limitless. So if your 1970s goldenrod yellow is getting on your last nerve, it's easy enough to change it to basic white or any other color or wood finish. Thousands of homeowners make the decision each year to opt for kitchen cabinet refacing over replacement. One reason for this choice is the underlying structure of some of the cabinets in older homes being of such good quality. When the foundation is good, there's very little reason to start from scratch. The homeowner can choose a new look for the kitchen and the contractor can go to work to make it happen.

The process can take as little as one day, but usually takes two to five days, depending on the size of the kitchen. After the homeowner chooses the finish and replacement hardware, the kitchen cabinet refacing project begins with the replacement of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts and covering the exposed cabinet fronts with a plastic or wood veneer. Usually handled by one or two craftsman, the doors and drawer fronts are removed and the underlying surface is roughed up to prepare it to receive its new face. Depending on the job, the new covering is either glued or nailed in place. The seams and cabinet edges are cleaned up and new panels or molding are used to cover the exposed undersides of the upper cabinets making them as attractive as the fronts. A new toekick is installed on the base cabinet and the new cabinet doors and drawer fronts are attached and new hardware put in place.

Some of the options for refinishing materials are plastic laminates, rigid thermofoils (RTF) and wood veneer. Laminates are readily available and come in a variety of solid colors as well as wood-grain looks. Although more costly than RTF, laminates lack malleability which limits choices to plain cabinet door styles. RTF is a vinyl foil pressure-molded over medium-density-fiberboard doors and can be shaped into a range of cabinet door styles. For the homeowner wanting cathedral or raised panel door styles, RTF makes it possible. It isn't available in quite as many solid colors as laminates, but its wood grain is much more realistic and a very attractive choice. From a few feet away it would be difficult for the average person to tell RTF from real wood, but up close is different. This is why wood veneer remains a popular option although it is more costly than laminates or RTF. Choosing wood veneer will generally cost a homeowner from ten to twenty-five percent more on his kitchen cabinet refacing project, but it can be done in oak, cherry, birch, or almost any wood finish wanted.