The heart of your home
should not be a job site.
It is where homework gets done and where everyone ends up at a party, no matter how nice the living room is. It is the room you actually live in. Which is exactly why gutting it for six weeks costs more than the invoice says.
Most kitchens that feel dated are structurally sound underneath. The boxes are solid, the layout works, the plumbing is where it should be. What you are looking at is thirty year old doors. Replace those and the surfaces around them and you get the kitchen you wanted, without losing the one you have.
Days without a kitchen, not weeks.
A full remodel is the right answer surprisingly rarely.
If the layout is wrong, or the boxes are water damaged, or you want to move a sink, tear it out. We will tell you that, and we will tell you before you have paid us anything. But if the real complaint is that it looks tired, a full remodel is a lot of money and six weeks of takeaway to fix a problem the doors were causing. Six weeks is a season of dinners, a holiday, a school term. That is the part nobody puts in the quote.
What stays
- ✓The cabinet boxes, if they are sound
- ✓Your layout, plumbing and electrical
- ✓The floor, unless you want it changed
- ✓Most of your budget
What changes
- ✓Doors and drawer fronts, new
- ✓Cabinet frames refaced to match
- ✓Soft-close hinges and slides throughout
- ✓Handles, knobs and any trim
- ✓Countertops, if you want them done
Paint it, reface it, or replace it.
All three are legitimate. They cost very different amounts and last very different lengths of time.
| Painting | Refacing | Full replacement | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen out of use | Days | Days | Weeks |
| New doors and drawer fronts | No | Yes | Yes |
| Soft-close hardware | No | Yes | Yes |
| Change the layout | No | No | Yes |
| Holds up to daily use | Chips at the edges | Yes | Yes |
| Relative cost | Lowest | Middle | Highest |
The doors are the same doors.
Refacing changes the doors, the drawer fronts and the finish. Those are the parts you see and touch, and they are the same components that go into a custom kitchen. The difference is that they are fitted to boxes you already own rather than boxes you pay to replace.
Cabinetry by our team. These are full custom installations, shown here for door style, finish and hardware rather than as examples of a reface.
Four steps, and you keep using the kitchen for most of them.
Measure and choose
We measure every opening, check the boxes are sound, and you pick door style, finish and hardware. If the boxes are not sound we tell you here, not later.
Doors get made
Your doors and drawer fronts are built to your sizes. Nothing is touched in your kitchen while that happens.
Install
Old doors off, frames refaced, new doors and hardware on. This is the part where the kitchen is disrupted, and it is measured in days.
Walk it with us
We go through every door and drawer with you, adjust anything that needs it, and do not leave a punch list behind.
We would rather tell you now than waste your Saturday.
Refacing lands well below a full replacement and above a paint job, and where you sit inside that depends on how many doors and drawers there are, the door style and finish you choose, and whether the countertops get done at the same time. We measure first and then give you a number. The estimate is free and the number in it is the number.
- ✓Written scope, no surprise add ons
- ✓Countertops priced separately, so you choose
- ✓We will tell you if you should be replacing instead
Tell us about your kitchen.
Photos help more than measurements at this stage. We will come and measure properly.