Fresh doors and drawer faces hung on existing boxes sit between painting and replacement in cost and in result. A single ruined door can instead be built to match and finished like the rest.
That middle route matters here because the boxes in most houses are sound while the doors are the part that has been abused. A kitchen where the frames are square and dry but four fronts are wrecked is usually a repair job, not a replacement, and the rest of the room gets the standard kitchen cabinet painting treatment.
One Bad Door Does Not Mean A New Kitchen
The doors that fail before cabinet painting is worth doing are predictable. A slow leak under the sink swells a bottom rail. Steam alongside the dishwasher delaminates a thermofoil face. Somewhere along the run a centre panel has cracked, or a child has hung off a door until the stile split.
Those get replaced individually, matched to the existing profile as closely as the profile allows, and then brought into the same cabinet painting colour and sheen as everything else so the eye does not catch them. Split-level and bungalow kitchens complicate this because their doors were often built on site in non-standard sizes, which is discussed on the sidesplit, backsplit and bungalow cabinet painting page.
Refacing Replaces What You See And Keeps What You Do Not
A full reface brings fresh doors, fresh drawer faces and a new veneer or laminate skin across every exposed box edge, with the carcasses, the layout and the counters staying where cabinet painting would leave them. The kitchen ends up looking new without the demolition, the plumbing work or the three weeks without a room.
It costs roughly $3,000 to $10,000, set by door count and door material, against $15,000 to $40,000 and up for full replacement cabinetry. Per linear foot, melamine doors sit lowest, then thermofoil, then acrylic, with solid wood highest. Refacing typically saves thirty to fifty percent against tearing the kitchen out.
Sound Doors Make Cabinet Painting The Cheaper Answer
Where the existing doors are solid oak, maple or birch with tight joints, refacing throws away better material than it installs. A 1980s oak raised panel door is heavier and better made than most mid-range replacements sold now, and cabinet painting keeps it for $2,500 to $4,500 on a standard kitchen rather than $3,000 to $10,000.
The cabinet painting decision comes down to condition rather than age. Doors that are structurally fine but ugly are a cabinet painting job. Doors that are warped, delaminated, water-swollen or cracked through are a replacement job, and a kitchen with a handful of each gets both on one quote.
The Three Paths Compared Without A Sales Pitch
Cabinet painting costs least and keeps the doors already hanging, so the door style does not change. Refacing costs more, changes the door style and keeps the boxes. Replacement costs the most, changes everything and is the only route that changes the layout of the room.
Anyone who tells you one of these is always right is not looking at your kitchen. We price whichever applies and will say plainly when a particular set of cabinets is past the stage where cabinet painting is a sensible spend.
Matching A New Door To An Old Finish
Matching a replacement door into an existing painted kitchen is straightforward, because the new door goes through the same cabinet painting as the rest. Matching into stained wood is much harder, since the old stain has aged and the new wood has not, and that usually pushes a kitchen toward paint.
New doors turn up raw or factory-primed, then run through the same sequence as everything else: fill, sand, prime, spray, cure. That is why refacing and cabinet painting are frequently quoted on the same page rather than as separate trades.
Building Rules Come Before The Work Order
Most buildings want notice before cabinet painting starts, a booked service elevator, insurance paperwork on file and work confined to weekday daytime hours. Some restrict the loading area to a window of a few hours. None of it is hard, but every piece has to be settled ahead of the start date instead of discovered on the day.
Every job we take on is fully insured, and that paperwork goes to the property manager ahead of time when a building asks for it. Parking gets sorted the same way, because a rack of doors cannot be carried four blocks.
Ask For All Three Numbers In Writing
The visit prices the cabinet painting route and the door replacement route on the same page so they can be compared directly, and it costs nothing. Call +1 (289) 206-6921, tell us which doors have failed, or start at the main services overview if you are early in the decision.
Cabinet Refacing and Door Replacement Questions
When does refacing make more sense than painting?
When doors are warped, delaminated, water-swollen or cracked through. Sound solid wood doors are usually better kept and painted, and a kitchen with some of each gets both priced on one page.
Can one damaged door be replaced?
Yes. A new door is matched to the existing profile as closely as possible, then finished in the same colour and sheen as the rest so the eye does not catch it.
How does replacement compare on cost?
Full replacement cabinetry opens near $15,000 and climbs past $40,000. Refacing keeps the boxes and often saves thirty to fifty percent against a tear-out. Painting costs least if the doors are sound.