Kitchen Cabinets: To Paint or Replace?

Kitchen cabinets have a lot of expectations to meet. They need to be sturdy and large enough to hold dishes, utensils, pots and pans, and other kitchen supplies. They need to be able to withstand sauce splatters, water spills, dings, and scratches from heavy kitchen traffic, and hands dirty from cooking messes.

And they need to be beautiful. Easy enough, right?

Not so much. Finding kitchen cabinets that fulfill all these requirements and are relatively affordable can be very difficult. A 2017 study found that most people budget and spend between $25k and $50k on their kitchen renovations. When you consider how quickly kitchen design styles shift, you may be spending a great deal of money on something that goes out of style next year.

Kitchen Cabinet Updating: Keep or Get New?

So when it’s time to update your kitchen, whether for functional or aesthetic purposes, you have to decide: Will you refinish or replace your kitchen cabinets?

Refinishing Kitchen Cabinets

If you have budget concerns, you should refinish the cabinets already in your kitchen if the current design is functional. If you don’t want to change the set-up of your cabinets, refinishing them can give a dated dark color or stain a fresh new, bright look without costing you a fortune or putting you and your family through a full-scale renovation.

Updating hardware can also help make old cabinets look new again.

High-quality wood cabinets are also solid candidates for refinishing. “Replacing your cabinets is a huge cost that is not completely necessary if the cabinets are less than ten years old and made from a high-quality wood like cherry, maple, ash, hickory, or oak,” Amy Ballard, professional interior designer says. Refinishing these hardy cabinets, instead of replacing them, can both conserve wood and money.

Opting to refinish, rather than replace, kitchen cabinets is more cost-effective, too; Ballard says it can save you up to $5k. Of course, if your cabinets aren’t wood, refinishing may not be an option. Lacquer cabinets are more contemporary and look a little more high-end, but they’re not candidates for refinishing or even repainting, often.

Replacing Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen cabinets with significant damage must be replaced or repaired. Full stop. Covering up warping, water damage, mold, or other issues that impact the quality of the material is only a temporary solution. “Warping, ‘cabinet soft spots,’ and mold are all considered excessive damage and warrant immediate repair,” Ballard says.

And, of course, you should replace your kitchen cabinets if the layout of the space doesn’t work for you. If your biggest complaint with your kitchen is that the cabinets all seem to be in the wrong spots (or there aren’t enough of them), and not that they’re out-of-date or your least favorite color, the only solution is to replace them with a more thoughtful layout.

If you have structural or layout problems with your cabinets, it can be a good investment to go ahead and update them. This can be a great selling point and add to your bottom line when you decide to see your home.

But no matter which option you choose, you can count on CertaPro Painters to help you get your project accomplished. We’re here to help you plan out the project with zero stress and a beautiful end result.

When you are ready to start a kitchen cabinet painting project call CertaPro Painters of Corona at 951-739-7441 or schedule an appointment online today.