Grace Woodwork
Cabinet Refacing: New Doors, Same Boxes
Refacing keeps the cabinet boxes you already have and gives them new doors, new drawer fronts and a new face. It usually costs less than a new kitchen, and the work in your house takes days rather than weeks.
When the boxes are good and the doors are the problem
A lot of East Texas kitchens have cabinet boxes that will outlast the house and doors that went out of style decades ago: raised-panel oak, cathedral arches, worn thermofoil. Refacing fixes what you see without paying to replace what you do not.
On a refacing job we build new doors and drawer fronts in the Kilgore shop to the size of each opening. The face frames and the visible end panels are covered so they match the new doors, the hinges and pulls are replaced, and the old fronts go away. The cabinet boxes, the plumbing, the countertops and the layout all stay as they are.
That is what separates refacing from cabinet painting, which keeps the old doors and changes their color, and from new custom cabinets, which replaces everything. If you want to compare all three in detail, read what cabinet refacing is.
What changes and what stays
New
Doors, drawer fronts, the facing on the frames and exposed sides, hinges and pulls.
Kept
Cabinet boxes, shelves, countertops, sink and appliances, and the layout of the room.
Optional
New drawer boxes or soft-close slides, a few added cabinets, crown molding, a new pantry door to match.
Not possible
Moving cabinets or changing the layout. That is a new-cabinet job.
Door styles and finishes
Shaker doors, with a flat center panel inside a square frame, suit both older and newer houses. Slab doors give a cleaner, modern look. Doors can be painted any color, or built in a wood that takes stain so the grain shows.
The facing on the frames has to match the doors. On a painted job that is simple; on a stained job the species and the stain are matched so the frames and doors read as one piece of furniture.
Facing materials vary between companies. Wood veneer, plastic laminate and rigid thermofoil are all sold for refacing; published guides describe wood veneer as more durable than laminate, and thermofoil as prone to blistering near heat. Ask us what goes on your frames before you agree to anything, and we will tell you.
A refacing job, start to finish
- Look and measureWe check that the boxes are sound and measure every opening.
- Choose the lookDoor style, wood or paint, color and hardware, all written into the quote.
- Shop workDoors and drawer fronts are built and finished in Kilgore while your kitchen keeps working.
- InstallOld doors off, frames faced, new doors hung and adjusted, hardware on.
Common questions
What is cabinet refacing?
Refacing replaces the parts of the cabinets you see: doors, drawer fronts and hardware, with the face frames and exposed sides covered in new wood veneer or another facing so everything matches. The boxes, the layout and usually the countertops stay put.
Who does cabinet refacing near me?
Grace Woodwork refaces cabinets from our shop in Kilgore, for Longview, Tyler, Henderson, Marshall and the other East Texas towns we work in. Because we build doors and drawer fronts in our own shop, the new fronts are made to fit your openings.
Is refacing cheaper than replacing cabinets?
Usually, because the boxes are reused and there is no tear-out. Published national guides put refacing in the thousands and full replacement higher; our guide to cabinet refacing lists those ranges with their sources. We quote each kitchen after measuring.
How long does cabinet refacing take?
The doors and fronts are built in the shop first, so the time in your kitchen is short. Published guides put the in-home part at a few days. You get a realistic schedule when we quote.
Can every cabinet be refaced?
Only cabinets with sound boxes. If the bottoms or sides have swollen from a leak, or the boxes are coming apart, new cabinets make more sense, and we will say so.
Send a photo and we will tell you what it needs.
A phone picture is plenty. You will hear what the piece needs, what it will cost and roughly how long it will take before anything starts.
- HoursMonday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
- The shopKilgore, Texas, working across East Texas
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