Cabinet Refacing in Irvine, CA

What Refacing Is, and What It Is Not

Refacing keeps your existing cabinet boxes and replaces everything you see. New doors. New drawer fronts. New veneer or laminate skin over the exposed box faces and end panels. New hinges, slides and hardware.

What it does not do is change your layout, change your cabinet sizes, or fix a box that is falling apart. If the kitchen is laid out wrong, refacing gives you a better-looking version of the wrong kitchen. That is the honest limitation.

When Refacing Is the Right Call

Reface when:

• The boxes are structurally sound, square, and not water-damaged
• The layout works for how you cook
• The cabinet sizes and configuration suit you
• You want a different look, not a different kitchen
• You want it done in about a week rather than about six

Replace instead when:

• Boxes are swollen particleboard, especially under the sink
• You want a different layout, an island, or different cabinet sizes
• You want frameless full-access construction, which cannot be created by refacing a face frame box
• You are already opening walls, moving plumbing, or doing a full remodel anyway

We tell people to replace roughly as often as we tell them to reface. A refacing job over bad boxes fails, and it fails on our name.

What Refacing Costs

Refacing is priced per kitchen after a measure, and it sits well below new cabinetry because you keep the single most expensive component in the room: the boxes. New cabinetry is priced by the linear foot and it is the largest line item on a full remodel, so leaving sound boxes in place removes most of the spend and most of the schedule at once.

Call (949) 749-0771 and we will count doors and drawers, look at the boxes, and write you a free itemized figure.

Refacing sits well below new cabinetry because you are not buying boxes, not paying for demolition and haul-off, and not paying to reinstall counters. Pricing depends on door count, drawer count, door style, material and how much exposed end panel and veneer work the kitchen carries.

We price per kitchen after a measure, itemized by doors, drawer fronts, veneer, hardware and labor, so you can see exactly what a nicer door style costs before you commit.

Door Styles and Materials

Painted doors. MDF is the correct substrate under a painted finish because it will not telegraph wood grain through the paint. That is why nearly every quality painted door on the market is MDF rather than solid wood, and it is not a downgrade.

Stained doors. Maple, oak, birch, cherry, ash and alder. Maple takes stain evenly. Oak shows its grain and has come back into favor. Cherry darkens noticeably over the first few years, which we mention before you choose it rather than after.

Laminate and thermofoil. The most economical route, and legitimately durable on a low-traffic kitchen.

Veneer. The box faces and exposed ends get a veneer or laminate skin matched to the new doors. Getting the grain direction and color right on that skin is what separates a refacing job that looks new from one that looks refaced.

Hardware Is Half the Upgrade

The hinges and slides in a 1980s Irvine kitchen are usually the worst part of using it. Refacing is the natural moment to fix that.

New concealed soft-close hinges eliminate slamming and let doors be adjusted precisely for consistent reveals. Full-extension soft-close drawer slides mean the back of the drawer actually comes out to you, which on a 24 inch deep base cabinet is a substantial daily difference.

While the doors are off, this is also the cheapest moment to add interior storage: a lazy susan in a dead corner, a blind corner pull-out to reach the space behind it, or a pull-up mixer shelf that springs to counter height out of a base cabinet.

How the Job Runs

1. In-home measure. We open every door, check every box, and check the sink base especially.
2. Style and finish selection. Door style, color or stain, hardware.
3. Itemized estimate.
4. Order. Doors and drawer fronts are made to your measurements.
5. Day one. Old doors, drawer fronts and hardware removed. Boxes prepped and cleaned.
6. Day one to two. Veneer or laminate applied to face frames and exposed ends.
7. Day two to four. New doors and drawer fronts hung, hinges and slides installed, everything adjusted.
8. Final. Hardware set, doors aligned, kitchen cleaned.

Most kitchens are three to five days on site. You keep your sink, your appliances and your counters throughout, which is the practical reason people choose refacing.

Irvine Kitchens That Reface Well

Irvine holds 119,215 housing units across 65.92 square miles, master-planned from the late 1950s by William Pereira and Raymond Watson and developed by the Irvine Company after incorporation in December 1971.

The 1970s and 1980s villages, Woodbridge, Northwood, University Park, Walnut and El Camino Real, were built with solid plywood-box cabinetry in many cases, which refaces beautifully. Later stock in Portola Springs and Quail Hill often has good boxes with dated door styles, which is the ideal refacing candidate. The kitchens we usually steer toward replacement instead are the ones with swollen particleboard sink bases, which is the single most common disqualifier.

We work in ZIP codes 92602, 92603, 92604, 92606, 92612, 92614, 92618 and 92620, and in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita.

Services Related to Cabinet Refacing

• Custom cabinet installation, if replacement is the better answer
• Kitchen countertop replacement, commonly done at the same time
• Kitchen backsplash installation
• Condo and townhome kitchen remodels
• Back to Irvine kitchen remodeling