Cabinet Refacing vs. Replacement in Lawrenceville, GA: How to Choose
Refacing can cut a kitchen budget roughly in half — but only when the boxes underneath are worth keeping. Here is the inspection we run before we recommend it.
The most useful question we get asked in the showroom is not "what does a new kitchen cost." It is "do I actually need a new kitchen." A lot of the time in Gwinnett County, the honest answer is no — you need new doors, new hardware, and a paint decision.
The kitchen in the photo is a Lawrenceville ranch built in the late nineties. The layout worked. The boxes were solid. What made the room feel dated was a set of honey oak raised-panel doors and brass knobs. Refacing gave the homeowners a gray shaker kitchen for roughly half of what a full tear-out would have cost.
What refacing actually includes
There is a version of refacing that is basically a sticker job, and there is a version that is real carpentry. We only do the second one. A proper reface includes:
- All new doors and drawer fronts, built in our shop to your chosen style and finish.
- New matching veneer or laminate skin applied to every visible face frame and exposed cabinet end.
- New soft-close hinges and drawer glides, because the old ones are almost always the part that feels cheap.
- New crown molding, light rail, and toe kick as needed.
- Optional new drawer boxes, which we recommend whenever the existing ones are stapled particleboard.
What refacing does not include is a layout change. If you want the sink moved, an island added, or a wall opened, you are into a full kitchen remodel and refacing stops making financial sense.
The five-minute inspection that decides it
Before we quote a reface we check five things. You can check them yourself this afternoon.
- Box material. Open a door and look at the cut edge of the cabinet side. Layered plies means plywood — good. A uniform brown chipboard texture means particleboard, which is fine if dry but will not survive another twenty years under a sink.
- Water damage. Press the cabinet floor under the sink with your thumb. Any sponginess, swelling, or delamination and that box is done. One bad sink base does not kill a reface; we can rebuild the single cabinet.
- Face frame condition. The frame carries the new doors. Look for splits at hinge screw holes, especially on doors that get slammed. Small splits are repairable, crumbling frames are not.
- Squareness. Open two adjacent doors and look at the gap between them top to bottom. If the gap tapers badly, the run has racked and new doors will never look right without shimming the boxes.
- Layout satisfaction. Be honest. If you have complained about the location of the dishwasher for ten years, refacing locks that complaint in for another ten.
Cost and timeline, side by side
| | Refacing | Full replacement |
|---|---|---|
| Relative cost | Roughly half | Baseline |
| Shop time | 3–4 weeks | 6–9 weeks |
| Days on site | 2–3 | 2–4 plus demo |
| Kitchen usable during work | Mostly yes | No |
| Can change layout | No | Yes |
| Can change cabinet heights | Limited | Yes |
| Adds interior storage upgrades | Yes (roll-outs, inserts) | Yes |
The "kitchen usable during work" row is the one homeowners underrate. A reface means you lose your doors for a couple of days and keep your sink, your stove, and your countertops. A full remodel means three to five weeks of eating off a folding table in the dining room.
The middle path: partial replacement
Not every kitchen is all-or-nothing. On the Lawrenceville job above we refaced the perimeter and built one brand-new tall pantry cabinet to replace a broom closet the homeowners never used. That is a common and very cost-effective combination: keep the sound runs, replace the one cabinet that never worked, and let the new door style tie everything together.
Other partial upgrades worth pricing alongside a reface:
- Roll-out trays inside existing base cabinets, which change daily usability more than any other single upgrade.
- A drawer-based lower run replacing doors and fixed shelves, if the boxes allow it.
- Cabinet-depth panels on the ends of an island to make builder-grade boxes read as furniture.
- New countertops, which frankly do more visual work than the doors do.
Painting versus refacing
Spray-painting existing doors is the cheapest option of all, and it is a genuinely good choice on solid wood doors with a profile you already like. It is a poor choice on thermofoil doors, which peel, and on oak, where the open grain telegraphs through paint unless it is grain-filled first. If you love your door style and just hate the color, get doors sprayed. If the door style itself is what dates the room, reface.
How we quote it in Lawrenceville and Gwinnett County
Refacing quotes are counted per door, per drawer front, and per linear foot of exposed frame, so the number depends on cabinet count rather than kitchen square footage. A galley with 18 doors costs a lot less than an open-plan kitchen with 34 doors and three exposed islands ends, even if the rooms are the same size. We measure in your home, take photos of the box interiors, and give you both numbers — reface and replace — so you can decide with real figures instead of a rule of thumb.
Frequently asked questions
How much does cabinet refacing cost compared to new cabinets?
Refacing typically runs about half the cost of new custom cabinetry for the same kitchen, because you keep the boxes, the layout, and usually the countertops. The savings shrink as cabinet count rises, so we quote both options side by side before you decide.
How long does cabinet refacing take?
About three to four weeks in our shop building your doors and fronts, then two to three days on site. Your kitchen stays usable throughout because the sink, appliances, and countertops are never removed.
Can you reface particleboard cabinets?
Sometimes. Dry, structurally sound particleboard boxes will hold new doors fine. Boxes that are swollen, spongy under the sink, or splitting at the hinge screws should be replaced instead, and we will tell you honestly which category yours fall into during the in-home measure.
Can I change my cabinet layout while refacing?
No. Refacing keeps the existing boxes exactly where they are. If you want the sink moved, an island added, or a wall opened up, that is a full kitchen remodel. We can combine the two by refacing the sound runs and building one or two brand-new cabinets where the layout needs to change.
Ready to plan your project?
Home Design Cabinetry designs, builds, and installs custom cabinetry and countertops from our Lawrenceville, GA shop, serving Suwanee, Lawrenceville, Suwanee, Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, and metro Atlanta. Every project starts with a free in-home consultation, a 3D design, and a fixed itemized quote — no pressure and no surprise change orders.
Book a free in-home estimate or browse our project gallery to see recent installs.
