Refacing Kitchen Cabinets

Tom Hoffman

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I have had an inquirey from a lady who works with my wife about Refacing the face frames of her kitchen cabinets with self adhesive vaneer.

Have any of you had any experience with this sort of thing. She tells me that she is going to buy all new doors and drawer fronts and also full roll out trays to make things more easily accessible.

I am in the middle of building my own whole kitchen from scratch. I can't believe that what she wants will really save her any money. She wants Cherry stained maple for the doors and drawer fronts.

She tells me that she wants to do this as her walls and room are not plumb and square. Obviously some one in the past delt with it and got her present cabinets in place and they must look OK.

I don't know if I want to get involved or not. If I can't do a good job for her, I guess it really comes down to the vaneer and the difficulty of doing a good job and what other cabinets she want custom built to fill in space that has none now.

Any info on the vaneer installation and the roll out tray installation into existing cabinets would be helpful.:)
 
Tom, I've not done any refacing work, but I'm posting just to bump your question up the list to see if anyone has any suggestions. ;)
 
I refaced a 1960's plywood kitchen back in 05. I reaswed oak and planed to 1/4" thick to cover the face frame. Large areas got 1/4" veneer ply. PL premium construction adhesive and 18 ga brads. PL has great holding power.The plywood drawers, sawed off the overhanging lip even with the sides,top, bottom, added new oak front right over the old drawer front. New crown, valance, window trim. Built new doors, hidden hinges. Same countertop, owner had a tile back splash installed. I used my 1/4 sheet sander to clean up he inside of the drawers.
A few pics.
Kitchen reface - before 44k.jpg Before pic

kitchen before pantry 13k.jpg Before pic

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Byran, what type hinges did you use for the doors? Adding the 1/4 to the styles made it too thick for standard euro hinges correct? Did you just break the tab off of a European hinge?
 
Byran, what type hinges did you use for the doors? Adding the 1/4 to the styles made it too thick for standard euro hinges correct? Did you just break the tab off of a European hinge?
I had to fabricate a custom size mounting block to add to the inside of the old plywood cupboards to mount the Blum hinges. Don't remember if it was 1/2 or full overlay 105 deg . that I used. Made for a very modern look over screw on hinges. :thumb:
 
Bryan, That is a beautiful job.

After looking at how thin the vaneer that you purchase, I thought about re sawing myself. I also found a place to help me figure out how much to charge, so I think I am good to go now. Thanks for the tip about PL Premium adhesive.

Just looked at some of your other project pics on webshots. You are a good craftsman.

Here are mine. I lean heavily to boats and a little furniture.

http://community.webshots.com/user/slvrgost

Have a good day...
 
Bryan, A thought occoured to me. When bringing the new face vaneer to the corner of the cabinet, using 1/4" ply for the side of the cabinet, does the resulting extra 1/4" of the face make it look odd? Because that one edge will be 1/4" wider than any other on that cabinet.

I am refering to the sides of the cabinets above the kitchen sink that are exposed.
 
Bryan, A thought occoured to me. When bringing the new face vaneer to the corner of the cabinet, using 1/4" ply for the side of the cabinet, does the resulting extra 1/4" of the face make it look odd? Because that one edge will be 1/4" wider than any other on that cabinet.

I am refering to the sides of the cabinets above the kitchen sink that are exposed.
No.
Add the 1/4" veneer ply sides 1st, to all side panels, then add the oak 1/4" face to cover the exposed 1/4" ply. When putting on the face frame oak, I leave some oak overhanging the 1/4" side panels, maybe an 1/8".
 
I refaced some nearly thirty years ago, using oak door skin material - about 1/8" thick. I used an "L" shaped corner molding to hide the joints. The cabinets still looked great about five yers after that, when we sold the house.
 
15+ yrs ago I refaced a lot of kitchens. Seemed like the thing to do back then. I used sheets of veneer with 3m backing, new doors, new drawer fronts. In my opinion the 3m veneer is the way to go. Once its stuck properly it will never come loose, and you don't have to worry about seeing an edge. Very easy to cut with a laminate slicer or utility knive. Once installed it can be trimmed flush with a file or a sanding block. Most of the cabinets we refaced were built very well and solid. If design changes are not an issue then refacing makes good sense. If needed better drawer boxes can be made with updated slides. I would have no reservations about doing it again if my kitchen had good boxes.

Mike
 
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