Refinishing kitchen cabinets or refacing them, instead of cabinet replacement, lets you upgrade your kitchen at a price you can afford and allows for the new custom look you desire. If you are planning to remodel your kitchen you have found out that it is not cheap and that a significant portion of the cost is for cabinetry. Also, new kitchen cabinets can be costly and time consuming to install. All is not lost though. As long as your cabinets are in decent shape, with these alternatives you can give your kitchen a fabulous new look quickly, without busting your budget.

The most visible and used elements of your kitchen are also the most abused, the kitchen cabinets. So it makes sense that after a while cabinets start to look tired and worn and so does your kitchen. The fact is that most kitchen cabinets are in good shape structurally and only in need of a new look. With many colors, stains and wood veneers refinishing or refacing kitchen cabinets is a surefire way to transform your kitchen from old and worn to a dramatically fresh new appearance, which is best for you.

The least expensive solution of the two, if you do not want to spend time and money on a big kitchen remodeling job, is refinishing kitchen cabinets. Kitchen cabinet refinishing is achieved by either painting or staining the cabinetry and cabinet doors. This is very inexpensive compared to cabinet replacement and can improve with dramatic effect the look of your kitchen. For the best results, a professional should paint or stain the cabinets. Great results can be achieved by a trained refinishing professional, inexpensively. However a DIY job is possible, if you have the time and tools you can easily refinish your own kitchen cabinets and save even more.

Refacing kitchen cabinets is more expensive than refinishing cabinets but still a fraction of the cost to replace them. Here is how it works, the old cabinet doors and drawers are removed, stripped, and inspected for damage then the door and drawer fronts are replaced with new surfaces ranging from new wood veneer to laminate. The cabinet frames and exterior surfaces are covered or refaced to match and the inside of the cabinets are cleaned and painted to complete kitchen cabinet refacing.

If the kitchen cabinet hardware is not damaged it can be cleaned and re-installed. But, this is a great time to choose new cabinet hardware, doing so will let you really add your personality to the kitchen and complete the stunning transformation of your new look, refaced or refinished kitchen cabinets, on the cheap.

The time required for refacing or refinishing kitchen cabinets depends on the size of the kitchen but usually can be completed within 3-5 days. This means that your kitchen will not be a unusable total wreck for weeks or even months that cabinet replacement requires.

Buying all new cabinets for a complete remodeling of the kitchen is not in the budget of most homeowners. But as you can see up dating your kitchen need not break the bank or be time consuming. Your kitchen and home can have a stunning new look by simply refacing kitchen cabinets or refinishing kitchen cabinets.