Blog

  • Home >
  • Blog >
  • Refinishing vs Refacing Kitchen Cabinets - What’s Right for Me?

Refinishing vs Refacing Kitchen Cabinets - What’s Right for Me?

 Refinishing vs Refacing Kitchen Cabinets - What’s Right for Me?

It’s time for a new look in your kitchen, but you don’t want a long, expensive, messy remodel. So, what’s the best path forward?

More than ever before, homeowners today are focusing on their kitchen’s style and quality. Maybe it’s because your kitchen is such a central hub, often on display in an open concept home, rather than just being a workspace in the back. There’s huge opportunity to showcase your personality too, letting it shine through every color, material choice, and texture, whether you love crisp modern styling or a more retro flair.

All of this has led to a resurgence of interest in refinishing, repainting, and refacing existing cabinetry, working with what you have rather than tearing it all out and starting from scratch. This isn’t just a more economical choice, but it also minimizes waste, saves you time, and preserves what may be beautiful existing cabinets that just need a new look.

As a Bay Area painting company, MB Jessee Painting has been working in and on San Francisco kitchens for over 25 years, along with our other full suite of interior and exterior painting services. Our best advice? Do your homework (reading blogs like this one is a great start!), and take the time to find a qualified cabinet painter. Very few painters know how to paint cabinets correctly, and fewer still truly specialize in the process.

What Is Cabinet Refinishing?

Cabinet refinishing is the process of removing an older finish, then cleaning, prepping, and applying a new finish to existing cabinets.

Under the umbrella term of “refinishing,” you really can nest both staining and painting. Either way, the surfaces are completely transformed to your taste. Just to reiterate, the success of this process hinges on the right surface preparation, environment, equipment, and products.

What Is Cabinet Refacing?

A step between cabinet refinishing and remodeling, cabinet refacing involves replacing your cabinet doors and drawer faces, then painting or staining the cabinet boxes to match.

This can be a good alternative if you have extremely outdated doors or drawers, and you’d much rather start fresh than paint the existing ones.

How Does Cabinet Refinishing Work?

 Refinishing vs Refacing Kitchen Cabinets - What’s Right for Me?

1. Careful preparation

Your cabinet painter will perform extensive prep in your kitchen to protect surrounding surfaces and spaces. They’ll also remove all your cabinet doors, drawer faces, and hardware. This leaves only the cabinet boxes to be painted in your kitchen - all the other surfaces can be prepped, primed, and painted off-site.

2. Cabinet painting

This includes a deep clean, surface repairs, sanding, priming, and painting. Each of these steps is performed in multiple stages, with a professional technician spraying the cabinets for an even, smooth, factory-grade finish. Ideally this is done in a dedicated, enclosed space, reducing the risk of airborne particles or dust contaminating the finish quality.

3. Cabinet reassembly

The components are then brought back to your kitchen and reassembled before a final touch-up, as needed. Our services also include optional hardware updates, including soft close hinges, new pulls, etc. Not every painter offers this extra value, but it’s something we like to include as a way to additionally update your cabinets, if you’d like.

4. Final walkthrough

As a last step, your painter should perform a final job walk with you, answering any additional questions you might have, and ensuring that every aspect of the work meets your standards (and theirs).

How Much Does Cabinet Painting Cost?

 Refinishing vs Refacing Kitchen Cabinets - What’s Right for Me?

It might sound cliche, but you really do get what you pay for.

You can find painters who will do the work cheaply, but the finish quality and longevity will reflect the workmanship. Especially in such a high-wear area of your home, we recommend investing in professional cabinet painting services from a proven painter that has strong reviews and guarantees their work.

Specific costs depend on the size of the kitchen and number of cabinets being painted, but on “average” you can expect to pay between $5,000 and $10,000. Still an investment, but certainly a savings over a remodel that can easily cost 5-10 times that.

What’s Right for Me?

A full kitchen remodel might be best if…

  • Your kitchen’s current size and layout just doesn’t work for you

  • Your cabinets are in bad condition, and you need other components too like new counters, backsplash, and floors

  • Your kitchen is currently not up to code, maybe because you’re remodeling an older home

  • You need specific, structural changes

Cabinet refacing might be best if…

  • Your cabinet doors and/or drawer faces are in bad condition

  • Your doors and drawer faces are made from cheaper materials that just aren’t worth painting, or can’t be painted

  • The structural style of your doors and drawer faces don’t work for you, regardless of their color or finish quality

Cabinet painting might be best if…

  • Your cabinets are in good condition overall, but just not the color or style you'd like

  • Your cabinets are good quality, and worth investing in

  • Your kitchen’s overall layout and design meets your needs

  • You’re craving a new look, but don’t want or need full remodel

If you have more questions about cabinet painting or refinishing, reach out to us at MB Jessee Painting! It would be our pleasure to chat with you and help you make the right choice for your kitchen.

 Cabinet Painting
 Cabinet Painting
 Cabinet Painting
 Cabinet Painting
 Cabinet Painting
 Cabinet Painting

Request an Estimate

Serving the San Francisco Bay Area

Files must be an image (.jpg or .png). Limit 2 images.

Why People Hire Us

Fully Licensed and Insured

Fully Licensed and Insured

Clear Communication

Clear Communication

Peace of Mind

Peace of Mind

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

One-Stop Shop for Painting and Carpentry

One-Stop Shop for Painting and Carpentry

Experienced Oversight and Job Leadership

Experienced Oversight and Job Leadership

Our Credentials

Best of Oakland 2018 BBB American Society of Interior Designers ASID Leadsafe Certified Firm EPA NARI Member Nolan Summit Services Inc

Customer Reviews

“Richard and crew have been great, for sure. As much as I look forward to having the job done and my house back in order, I really enjoyed having them around. You should feel really good about how they represent your company.”

— Jessica Dodson

“Matt, We are very happy with how all of the painting worked out. We were extremely impressed with the quality of the work in the bathroom. I liked working with Victor, he and Marvin were extremely conscientious about doing a great job, not just the minimum. I know the front door took a lot longer than you'd expected. But they did it PERFECTLY. We never thought it could turn out like that! Thanks again for the great work. We'll be calling you again in the future!”

— Craig
Alameda, CA

“High quality work from a pleasant and qualified staff. Thank you!”

— Paul Markovich

“MB Jessee just finished our exterior and we couldn't be happier with our experience. The foreman (Pedro) and lead painter (Ricardo) were incredible to work with: they communicated scheduling clearly, Ricardo was a joy to be around every day, the showed up early every day, were incredibly tidy and did great paint work. The final walk through experience was incredible. Pedro pointed out items I missed demonstrating a clear desire to complete another quality project. I highly recommend them. As others have noted they definitely aren't the cheapest but you quickly realize that you're getting what you pay for. The 3 year guarantee is also a nice touch since there are likely touch up items that will show up after the job is done.”

— Joshua Jansen

“The people at M.B. Jessee are great – from the painters to the office staff to Matt. Talk about leadership from the top.”

— Kevin Ames, Mark Becker Homes

“The kitchen looks NEW! You guys are amazing.”

“MB Jessee painters are stellar! As a designer I've worked with numerous companies over the years, and MB Jessee is a top-notch firm. From the first phone call to the final clean up, every person is courteous, professional, and hard working. The owner, Matt, is a charitable leader who has instilled his team with integrity and honesty providing the customer with a first class experience at a fair price with a paint job that is guaranteed to last. I highly recommend MB Jessee. Thank you Matt and your STAR crew-Daniel, Rigoberto, Vicente, Edy, Pedro, and Mario, for a job well executed! Cynthia Brian, ASID, Starstyle® Productions, llc”

— Cynthia Brian
Morgan, CA

“Many thanks to Rigoberto and Damon and the extraordinary team who transformed my castle in the skies.They are magicians. I appreciate their work very much.”

— Kathleen A
San Francisco

“The painters at MB Jesse are top notch! Cesar's team was super friendly and helpful. They were very polite and accommodating. Their expertise in everything painting related was evident in their attention to detail and efficiency painting tricky spaces. The apartment looks brand new!”

— Adam Swisher

“The entire MB Jessee team is courteous, efficient and professional. From scheduling and estimating to the crew managers and crew, they all did an excellent job on a small (but complicated) two room project in my house. I'm already thinking about getting them scheduled for the next project in the spring.”

— Cari Cheney

“I just wanted to thank you all for doing such a phenomenal job on our recent house painting. We are very happy with the outcome and can't say enough good things about the crew. Everyone working on the project was outstanding and made it a great experience. Thanks to everyone.”

— Daylan
Piedmont

“Everyone I dealt with was nice, helpful, and very professional. The price was reasonable! (I didn't feel like I was getting the "San Francisco price." The attention to detail and work quality was excellent. They did what they said they would do in the exact timeframe they said they would do. Highly recommend!”

— Tim Tyson