New cabinets only cost a bit over a refacing. But they allow you to tweak the guts inside, and the overall layout. That results in a substantial improvement that doesn’t happen with just putting on new makeup.

Interesting. Thank you

I depends on what changes you are trying to accomplish. We had new kitchen cabinets built by a local custom cabinet maker because we were changing the layout, wanted all drawers for the lowers, soft-close and full-extension glides, etc. It didn't make sense to keep and reface any of the cabinets. But in 3 bathrooms and a laundry/mud room, we refaced because no layout changes were needed. The same cabinet maker did that work and was able to install soft close, full-extension guides by reworking things a bit.

My sister refaced her whole kitchen. The same cabinet builder did that work also. Not including the painters, she paid about 13K to have her cabinets refaced, new doors made, and a few of the lower cabinets replaced with drawers, soft-close, full-extension, etc. The cabinet maker was able to work under the existing counters without damaging anything. She made no layout changes and all appliances stayed in their spots. For her, it was more cost effective to do that rather then build all new. To compare, I think the same custom cabinet builder quoted her about 28K if she had wanted to build new. Again, that doesn't include the painters. She made other changes such as lighting, painting the whole downstairs, removing a wall, etc, so overall she spent much more than 13K. I'm just telling you what the cabinet builder charged for the refacing. We are in Texas. Costs vary greatly depending on where you live; and personally I think he under-charged her because I saw him working to convert some cabinets to drawers and that was a LOT of work to get them just perfect. He did a great job, he's a perfectionist, but I think he underestimated how much time that part of the project would take. Just my opinion of course.