Cabinet Refacing
Handis cabinet refacing is the kitchen-cabinetry trade that changes the entire face of a kitchen while keeping the boxes — from $6,500 for a partial kitchen to $15,000 for a full kitchen with replacement doors, new veneer skins on the boxes, new soft-close hinges, new pulls, and a new toe-kick. The 1998 oak kitchen with good cabinet boxes and dated raised-panel doors. The 1992 honey-maple where the boxes are solid but the look is the look of 1992. The kitchen where the homeowner wants a different door style (slab from raised-panel, shaker from slab) and does not want to pay for a full cabinet replacement. We measure every door and drawer opening, order the replacement faces in your finish, apply new veneer skins to every visible box face, hang the new doors on new soft-close hinges, drill the pulls on a single jig-set reference line, and install a new toe-kick. The box stays, the face changes. Costs a fraction of a full cabinet replacement and finishes in a fraction of the time.
Service
What Does a Cabinet Refacing Include?
Cabinet refacing is the full face-change of an existing kitchen — new veneer skins on every visible cabinet box face, replacement doors and drawer faces in the chosen style, new soft-close hinges, new pulls, and a new toe-kick — from $6,500 for a partial kitchen to $15,000 for a full kitchen of 30 to 50 doors and drawers. The cabinet boxes stay in place; the face of the kitchen changes completely. The work breaks into precise measurement, replacement-face order, prep, veneer application, door hang, hardware install, and walkthrough. Refacing costs about half of a full cabinet replacement on a comparable kitchen and finishes in six to ten working days versus four to six weeks for a full cabinet replacement.
Measure Every Door and Drawer Opening — to the Sixteenth
Every door and drawer opening measured to the sixteenth of an inch — width, height, and the reveal on the existing door (the reveal sets the overlay on the replacement door). The measurements ship to the door supplier as a measured shop drawing — Cabinet Door Shop, Conestoga, TaylorCraft, or a local custom shop in the Seattle area depending on style and finish. Lead time on a full kitchen order is typically 3 to 6 weeks from order to delivery. The veneer for the boxes and the matching end panels for the visible sides of the cabinets ship in the same order.
Veneer Application on Every Visible Box Face
Every visible cabinet box face — face frames on a face-frame cabinet, side panels on the end of a run, exposed bottoms on upper cabinets — gets a new veneer skin. We sand the existing box face flat (220 grit, then 320 grit, then vacuum and wipe with denatured alcohol), apply contact cement to both the box and the back of the veneer, let the cement flash off, and roll the veneer down with a J-roller from the center out — no air bubbles, no lifting at the corners. The veneer matches the new door finish exactly because it ships from the same supplier in the same color and texture.
Replacement Doors, Drawer Faces, and New Soft-Close Hinges
Replacement doors and drawer faces in your style (shaker, slab, raised-panel, beadboard) and finish (paint-grade poplar or MDF, stain-grade oak or maple, white or cherry thermofoil, or veneer over MDF) hung on new European concealed soft-close hinges (Blum BLUMOTION, Salice SilentSystem, or Grass Tiomos). Three-way adjustable hinges for door alignment after install — the door reveal on the top and bottom of every door is the same across the kitchen. Drawer fronts attach to existing drawer boxes with the manufacturer's drawer-front clips.
New Pulls Drilled on a Single Sight-Line
Every pull drilled with a Kreg or Rockler drill jig clamped to every door and drawer front, indexed off the same edge across the entire kitchen. Pitch as you spec — 3 inch (vintage), 96 mm, 128 mm, 160 mm, 192 mm, or 224 mm on center for oversized pulls on tall pantry doors. Backer block behind every door to keep the bit from blowing out the back face. Pulls end up on a single horizontal sight-line that you can sight down with the eye closed halfway.
New Toe-Kick and Finish Walkthrough
The toe-kick across the bottom of every base cabinet — typically the most-scuffed surface in the kitchen after a decade — gets a new pre-finished toe-kick in the matching veneer color. The toe-kick attaches with finish nails into the cabinet base, edges scribed to the floor on out-of-level runs. Final walkthrough, hinge adjustment for door alignment, and the one-year project warranty starts.
How Cabinet Refacing Works
Six sequential steps from the precise measurement through the final hinge adjustment — the actual sequence we follow on every full cabinet refacing.
Measure Every Door and Drawer Opening to the Sixteenth
Width, height, and existing-door reveal measured on every opening in the kitchen. Measurements compiled as a shop drawing for the door supplier. Veneer for the boxes and matching end panels for the visible sides ordered in the same purchase.
Order Replacement Doors, Drawer Faces, Veneer, and Hardware
Order placed with the door supplier (Cabinet Door Shop, Conestoga, TaylorCraft, or local custom shop) in your style and finish. Lead time typically 3 to 6 weeks. Hinges (Blum, Salice, Grass), pulls, and the new toe-kick ordered in the same window.
Remove Old Doors, Drawer Fronts, and Toe-Kick
Existing doors and drawer fronts removed and labeled for disposal or donation. Old hinges unscrewed from the box; old toe-kick pried off the cabinet base. Boxes left clean and ready for prep. Hardware bagged for the homeowner if requested.
Sand Box Faces, Apply Veneer Skins
Every visible box face sanded flat (220 grit, then 320 grit), vacuumed, wiped with denatured alcohol. Contact cement applied to both the box face and the back of the veneer, allowed to flash off, then the veneer rolled down with a J-roller from the center out. No air bubbles, no lifting at the corners.
Hang Replacement Doors on New Soft-Close Hinges
New European concealed soft-close hinges (Blum BLUMOTION, Salice SilentSystem, or Grass Tiomos) mounted to the new doors and to the existing cabinet box hinge cups. Doors hung, drawer fronts attached to existing drawer boxes with manufacturer clips, three-way hinge adjustment to align every door reveal across the kitchen.
Drill Pulls on a Jig-Set Sight-Line, Install Toe-Kick, Walkthrough
Pulls drilled with a Kreg or Rockler jig clamped to every door and drawer face, indexed off the same edge across the kitchen, backer block behind every door. New toe-kick attached to the base cabinet with finish nails, scribed to the floor on out-of-level runs. Walkthrough, hinge adjustment, one-year project warranty starts.
Cabinet Refacing Pricing
Final pricing depends on cabinet count, door style and finish, hardware choice, and whether the existing boxes need any repair work (soft bottom under the sink trap, end panel replacement on a damaged corner). Premium door styles (custom shaker in a paint-grade hardwood, raised-panel cherry, beadboard in a stain finish) add a premium on the material cost. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Send a photo of the kitchen and the cabinet count — we will measure on a site visit and quote the refacing.
Why Handis for Cabinet Refacing
Every refacing project we have ever been called to fix had veneer lifting at the corners by year two. The fix on a lifted corner is not a touch-up — it is the same prep sequence and the same contact cement, done right this time. The veneer is only as good as the surface it is glued to. We sand every box face flat, vacuum the dust to nothing, wipe with denatured alcohol to remove the last residue, apply contact cement to both surfaces, and roll the veneer down with a J-roller from the center out. No air bubbles, no lifting. Done right the first time, the refacing lasts the life of the cabinet box underneath.
Measured to the sixteenth before the order goes in
Every door and drawer opening in the kitchen measured to the sixteenth of an inch before any order ships. Width, height, and the existing-door reveal on every opening. The measurements ship as a shop drawing to the door supplier; the supplier cuts every door and drawer face to spec; the kit arrives at our shop and every piece matches an opening in the kitchen. No re-measurement after delivery, no field-trim of replacement doors, no waiting for a re-order on a misfit door.
Veneer applied to a sanded, dust-free, contact-glued surface
Veneer is only as good as the surface it is glued to. We sand every visible box face flat (220 grit, then 320 grit), vacuum the dust, wipe with denatured alcohol to remove the last residue, apply contact cement to both the box face and the back of the veneer, let the cement flash off, and roll the veneer down with a J-roller from the center out. No air bubbles, no lifting at the corners at year two.
Doors and veneer ordered from the same supplier in the same finish
The veneer for the boxes and the replacement doors and drawer faces ship from the same supplier in the same finish in the same order. The finish on the boxes matches the finish on the doors exactly because they are tinted in the same batch. Refacing kits that source the veneer separately from the doors always show a finish-difference at the edge of every door — a tell-tale sign of a half-job. We do not source separately.
European concealed soft-close hinges, three-way adjustable
New hinges on every door — Blum BLUMOTION, Salice SilentSystem, or Grass Tiomos. Three-way adjustability for door alignment after install (height, depth, side-to-side) so the door reveal on the top and bottom is the same across the entire kitchen. Built-in soft-close damping on every hinge. Quiet operation, no slam, doors stay in alignment for a decade.
Pulls drilled on a single sight-line with a backer block
Every pull drilled with a Kreg or Rockler drill jig clamped to every door and drawer front, indexed off the same edge across the kitchen. Backer block behind every door before the bit punches through to keep the back face clean. Pulls end up on a single horizontal sight-line you can sight down with the eye closed halfway. The detail no one sees and the one that separates a clean refacing from a sloppy one.
Insured, background-checked, one-year project warranty
Handis carries general liability and workers' compensation; every technician has cleared a background screening before the first job. The one-year project warranty covers our scope — veneer adhesion, door hang, hinge adjustment, hardware install, and toe-kick finish. If veneer lifts at a corner, a door reveals shifts out of square, a hinge soft-close fails, a pull works loose, or the toe-kick separates from the cabinet base within the year, we come back and fix it at no extra charge.
Estimate
Tell us the cabinet count (door fronts plus drawer fronts), the existing box condition (good, water-damaged under the sink, end panel replacement needed), the door style and finish you have in mind (shaker, slab, raised-panel, beadboard; paint-grade or stain-grade; specific color or stain), and the pull pitch. We send a clear estimate with the measurement step, the door order, the veneer, and the hardware named line by line.
Customer Reviews
Cabinet refacing reviews from real Handis customers.
Full cabinet refacing on our 1998 oak kitchen — 38 doors and 22 drawer fronts. Handis ordered shaker-style replacement doors and drawer faces in soft white, applied new veneer skins on every visible box face, swapped to Blum BLUMOTION soft-close hinges, jig-drilled new brushed-brass pulls. Nine working days end-to-end. The veneer is flat, the doors hang square, the kitchen looks brand new.
Partial refacing on the lower cabinets only — 14 doors, 8 drawer fronts. Replacement doors in slab style, white thermofoil finish. The veneer on the visible end panels matches the door finish exactly. Six working days. Came in at the quoted number, no surprise charges.
Honey-maple 1992 kitchen refaced to a stain-grade walnut shaker. 32 doors, 18 drawer fronts. The walnut veneer on the visible boxes is dead-on to the walnut shaker doors. The Salice soft-close hinges are silent. The brushed-brass pulls are on a perfect sight-line. The kitchen reads like custom cabinetry.
The estimator caught the soft bottom in our sink-cabinet box during the measurement visit — water-damage from a slow drip we had not noticed. Quoted the substrate repair separately, fixed it as part of the refacing, no surprises. The kitchen looks new and the sink cabinet is solid.
Just the upper cabinets — 18 doors. Replacement doors in shaker style, paint-grade poplar, white finish. New veneer skins on the visible ends. Blum BLUMOTION hinges. Five working days. The uppers look like they came from a custom shop and the lowers (we kept them stained) still tie in nicely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis cabinet refacing.