Reasons to Redo Doors

• While modern cabinets are attractive, replacing them can cost thousands of dollars more than just updating the cabinet doors. Additionally, many older cabinets have an advantage in that they are more solidly built than newer, preconstructed modular versions. In addition, you can repaint the existing doors and resurface the cabinets or completely replace the doors and resurface the cabinets to match.
  
  

Materials

• When you are looking to refinish your cabinets and replace the doors, you typically have several choices of finish: a plastic laminate, wood veneer or rigid thermo foil (RTF). Many laminates come in a wood-grain appearance, while the other types offer a variety of colors and styles.
  An RTF finish is synthetic like laminate but more malleable, which makes it a popular choice, though laminates are available in more finishes. And even though both finishes can be made to resemble wood grain from a distance, they both look artificial up close. This is why veneer remains the most popular option in finishes, even though it is more expensive.
  
  

Cabinets

• To reface cabinets, remove the old drawer fronts from the cabinet frames and nail or glue the new finish on to the frames. If nails are used fill in the holes, and trim the seams and edges neatly to make them less noticeable.
  
  

Cabinet Doors

• Often, updating your cabinets is as simple as sanding them, staining or painting them and installing updated hardware. If you want cabinets made of a different wood or have dated decorative elements such as scroll work, you may wish to completely replace the door. You can often purchase unfinished cabinet doors from a cabinetmaker or big box hardware store and finish them yourself. Or you can make one yourself by measuring the cabinet, cutting a wooden door to fit the cabinet, shaping the door stile edges with a router, cutting the rails and assembling and gluing all the pieces.