Refacing is a way to refresh the look of your cabinets instead of replacing them. This, of course, will save you money. Even if you only have basic carpentry skills, you can do a nice job on refacing your own cabinets.

To reface your cabinet you can buy a kit. The kit contains doors, drawer fronts and wood veneer covering for the sides. You can also replace hinges and other parts of your cabinets.

Planning Your Cabinet Repair

Repair, replace or adjust hinge screws. If the door to your cabinet has swing problems, you many need to repair or even replace the hinge mounting screws.

1. First try tightening the screws.
2. If that doesn’t work, take the screws out and fill part of the holes with little slivers of wood. Then, put the screws back in. After that, you can replace the screws with longer ones. This will only work some of the time, because of the size of the new screws.
3. If nothing else works, move the hinges to another place on the cabinet where the wood is stronger.

Repair damaged cabinets. Cut a new piece of wood from the same species and fasten it to the cabinet. Use glue, screws or dowels. Sand it to match the original, or retouch it so that it blends with the cabinet.

Pick high quality cabinets.

• Drawers should slide smoothly and close quietly. The best kind of drawers are double glide, epoxy coated.
• The wood should be smooth and should not have scratches.
• Drawers should be made of ¼” to ½” inch plywood or wood. Don’t choose cabinets if the drawers have stapled.
• Shelves should be at least ¼” thick
• Avoid melamine. It is made of wood chips and glue and is poor quality.