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Refacing kitchen cabinets?

2 years ago

Hi all,


tl/dr: Is it possible to match new white cabinet doors and drawer fronts to existing white kitchen trim?


I’ve remodeled three kitchens, including one i posted about on the extremely helpful gardenweb forum (looks like my reveal thread is lost to time—it was around 2015 and the title was kind of like something old, something new because I incorporated an existing built-in hoosier style cabinet.


Anyway, we are now in a 7 year old builder’s spec house and the kitchen is showing some wear. We don’t intend to stay in this house long term, so it isn’t worth the money or effort to do a full remodel.


The kitchen cabinets are white and the doors under the sink have some chips and places where they got swollen due to the builder grade dishwasher venting steam. A couple of other doors have chips in low use areas.


I am not willing to put in the work to completely repaint these myself. Been there, done that. i am concerned that a professional repaint job won’t hold up for more than a few years and we probably have 4-10 left in this house.


Anyone ever have any luck matching doors and drawer fronts exactly so that all of the existing trim still matches? (The cabinet frames don’t show, but we have a refrigerator enclosure, wall ovens, and an island so there’s a lot of trim.) I don't want to try to hunt down the original manufacturer since their finish didn’t hold up to begin with. Also, anyone ever successfully convert lower cabinets to drawers when refacing?


Bonus question, I hate the 36 inch kenmore gas rangetop this house came with. It doesn’t have a decent low burner, it’s terrible to clean, and I miss my induction.


About the only 36 inch induction rangetop seems to be viking, which wouldn't be my first choice brand and it is around $6000. My only other option here would require replacing the countertop and fixing the cabinet underneath to cover where the rangetop controls are, right? (Well, or replacing the rangetop and drawers underneath with a range. Also expensive, I would lose storage, and the range doors would conflict with the dishwasher.) Am I missing an option?


Thank you for any thoughts on these questions!

Comments (2)

  • 2 years ago

    If you can bring a piece of trim to SW or BM, they can do a color match to the existing trim I’m assuming that the cabinet boxes are the same color as the trim). You can then have the doors sprayed by a professional cabinet refinisher (or if your handy - you can buy a decent sprayer and use a good product to finish the doors (Milesi/Renner are two that are highly recommended over on a Facebook group re: painting cabinets (may also be for refinishing furniture also).


    The group over on Facebook is pretty helpful providing advice to homeowners. I’ve seen some very nice kitchens that were transformed by replacing doors (for example, updating the style of the doors/drawer fronts + replacing partial overlay doors/drawer fronts with full overlay).


    FYI - a true professional refinisher will be able to provide a finish that will last much longer than a few years.


    Re: converting bottom cabinets with doors + shelves into drawers can be done - I have a friend who did this to the cabinets that flanked the sides of her range. Interestingly, the doors were each 22” wide - and she was able to reuse the doors as the drawer fronts. I am 99% positive that she also used the interior shelves for the bottom of the new drawers (her bottom cabinets had two adjustable 3/4” plywood shelves + both the top and bottom shelves were the same depth - I think it’s probably unusual to have both of those in your existing bottom cabinets).


    You can still convert the cabinet box from doors with shelving to drawers without having adjustable shelves that are the same depth - it just saved her a step when making the new drawers (although, many drawers don’t have 3/4” bottom panels). I know that she had her husband use one of Ana White’s older YouTube videos where she used the adjustable shelves in a base cabinet to make roll out trays (shelves) for one of her base cabinets.


    Ana White added the roll out trays to make her base cabinet more functional - however, converting the base cabinet to actual drawers made the cabinet more functional (no need to open the door + pull out the trays - instead of simply pulling out a drawer.


    I was considering replacing my doors/drawer fronts for my upcoming renovation after a couple contractors (and a kitchen designer) commented about how well built my existing cabinets are. When I explained that I wanted to replace many of my door base cabinets with drawer bases instead, he explained how he had recently converted some base cabinets by having a carpenter build drawer boxes that worked with the fixed shelves in his clients’ current door base cabinets (the drawers used under mounted slides instead of side mounted drawer extensions (or could be installed with side mount slides by adding a trim piece on the sides).


  • 2 years ago

    Oooh, oooh, Bonus question over here 👋 Pick me! There is also the Fulgor Milano induction rangetop that @Design Girl put in her beautiful kitchen. She loves it, but notes that it sits about 3” proud of her cabinetry, so keep that in mind if your aisles are tight.

    There is also the Bertazzoni, which may have well earned its one star rating here.


    And my new obsession, the AGA Mercury about which I know precious little, but which I might buy anyway. It’s so beautiful, and it’s an AGA. They claim a zero clearance installation. From what I can see it’s a classic 5 burner with no bridge burners. And, you know, va va voom 🫦

    There’s also the Gaggenau Vario Flex Induction system, but I’m not sure it counts as a rangetop. I prefer the look of their standard induction cooktop, but maybe I’m just responding the the Sprockets-style euro grey. I’m Greek. The German stuff sort of leaves me flat. I visit the website and keep trying to increase the brightness.