Refinish or Replace Your Cabinets?
The most expensive decision in a kitchen project, usually made without ever seeing both numbers side by side.
This is the most expensive decision in a kitchen project, and it usually gets made on a showroom visit rather than on the numbers. Here are both numbers.
What each one costs
| Refinishing | Replacing | |
|---|---|---|
| Average 30-door kitchen | $6,750 – $9,000 | $15,000 – $40,000+ |
| Per door | $225 – $300 | Not priced per door |
| How long | 4 – 6 working days | Several weeks, often longer with lead times |
| Kitchen usable meanwhile | Mostly yes | No |
| Changes the layout | No | Yes, if you want it to |
| Counters come off | No | Usually yes, which adds cost |
The gap is not small. Refinishing an average kitchen costs roughly what the cheapest replacement would, and less than a quarter of what a mid-range one runs once counters and installation are in.
When replacing is genuinely the right call
Refinishing is a finish. It cannot fix structure, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a job you will regret. Replace if the boxes are water-damaged or sagging, if the doors are delaminating particle board rather than solid timber, if the layout does not work and you want to move things, or if you want a different door style entirely. In those cases refinishing puts a good finish on a bad cabinet.
When refinishing wins easily
Solid wood doors, sound boxes, a layout you are happy with, and a finish that has simply dated. This is most Orange County kitchens built from the 1980s through the 2000s — the timber in them is generally better than what goes into mid-range replacement cabinets today. If you like where everything is and you just cannot look at the colour any more, you are refinishing. See how the job runs.
The option in the middle
If the goal is white rather than a different wood tone, painting lands at $150 to $200 per door — about $4,500 to $6,000 for the same 30-door kitchen, cheaper than refinishing and far cheaper than replacing. The difference between the two is worth two minutes before you decide.
A reasonable way to decide
Open a door and look at the hinge side of the box. If it is solid and square and the shelves are not sagging, the carcass is fine and you are choosing a finish, not a kitchen. If it is swollen, soft, or held together with a bracket somebody added later, that is your answer.
Send a photo of the kitchen and one of the inside of a cabinet, and we will tell you which conversation you are actually having — including when it is the one that does not involve us. Call (949) 320-3095. Estimates are free, and refinishing carries a two-year workmanship warranty.
Want the number for your job?
Send a photo and the rough size and we will give you a real range, usually the same day. Free, and no one turns up unless you ask them to.