Refacing & refinishing
Cabinet refacing in Marion: new kitchen, same good boxes
If your cabinet boxes are square and solid - and in most Marion kitchens they are - you don't need a new kitchen. You need new doors, drawer fronts, hinges, and finish, built custom and installed in days. That's refacing, and it typically costs 40-60% of replacement.
Mid-project: new doors and fronts on the left, the original 1990s oak still waiting on the right.
How it works
Refacing, step by step
The measure & the honest check
Every door, drawer, and box gets measured, and the boxes get inspected. If they're not worth refacing - water damage, failing joints, a layout that fights you - we say so and quote what actually fits, even when that answer is smaller than this page.
Doors built in the shop
New doors and drawer fronts in your chosen style and finish - painted shaker, stained flat panel, inset if the house calls for it - plus matching veneer for every visible box face and end panel. Built while your kitchen keeps working.
Days on site, not weeks
Old doors off, box faces skinned, new hinges and slides set, doors hung and adjusted until the reveals are even. Three to five days for most kitchens, no demolition, sink and stove usable every evening.
Refinishing
When the doors are fine and the finish isn't
Solid doors wearing a tired finish - sun-faded stain, chipped paint, twenty years of hand oils around the pulls - can be refinished instead: stripped or sanded, repaired, resprayed in a durable conversion coating, and rehung with fresh hardware. It's the cheapest honest facelift a kitchen can get, and cabinet painting done with spray equipment and real prep bears no resemblance to a weekend brush job.
Repairs
Cabinet repair, without the sales pitch
Sagging shelves, a drawer that fell off its slides, a hinge torn out of particleboard, one door that never hung right - small cabinet problems don't need a remodel consultation. We fix them for a service-call price, and if a repair is all the kitchen needs, that's the whole quote.
Reface or replace?
The honest decision table
| Your situation | The right call | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Boxes square and solid, style dated | Reface | All the visual change at 40-60% of the cost, done in days |
| Doors good, finish worn | Refinish | Cheapest option; keeps the wood you already paid for |
| Boxes water-damaged or failing | Replace | New faces on failing boxes is money buried in bad wood |
| The layout itself is the problem | Replace / remodel | Refacing keeps the layout by definition - see custom kitchens |
Refacing questions
What Marion homeowners ask about refacing
What does cabinet refacing cost in Marion, Ohio?
Most Marion-area kitchens reface for $4,000-$12,000 depending on door count, door style, and finish - typically 40-60% of what replacing the same kitchen would cost. You get a written number after a measure, priced per your actual doors and drawers, not a per-foot formula.
Is refacing worth it, or should I just replace?
Refacing is worth it when the boxes are sound: square, solidly attached to the wall, shelves not sagging. It is the wrong call when boxes are water-damaged, the layout itself is the problem, or you want interior upgrades like new drawer banks everywhere. An honest measure tells you which case you have - and we will say so either way.
What is the difference between refacing and refinishing?
Refinishing keeps your existing doors and changes the finish - sanding, painting or staining, new topcoat. Refacing replaces the doors and drawer fronts entirely and re-skins the box faces to match. Refinishing is cheaper and keeps the door style; refacing gets you new doors, new hinges, and any style you want on your existing boxes.
How long does refacing a kitchen take?
Once your doors are built - usually three to five weeks in the shop - the work in your house takes three to five days for most kitchens. The kitchen stays usable the whole time; there is no demolition.
Can you reface with real wood, or is it all laminate?
Real wood. Doors and drawer fronts are built from solid wood and plywood panels in the shop, and box faces are skinned with matching wood veneer - not the peel-and-stick thermofoil that gave refacing a bad name in the 90s.
Find out which one your kitchen is
The measure answers the reface-or-replace question honestly, and the number comes in writing either way.
Request an estimate
Describe the kitchen - especially the boxes.
How old, what material, any water history, and what you'd change about the look. That's enough for a first read on whether refacing fits. Rather talk it through? (740) 736-3805.
- The number comes in writing before anything is scheduled - materials and labor together
- Measured from your actual walls, floors, and ceilings - not a catalog's standard boxes
- One Marion-area point of contact from the first measure to the last hinge adjustment