Why Cabinet Refacing Is Never the Right Call

Every month, a homeowner walks into our Saint Charles showroom carrying a quote from a refacing company. Glossy pictures, "save thousands vs. replacement," finance offer plastered across the top. They ask whether they should take the deal.

Our honest answer, after delivering 400+ kitchens across Saint Louis: refacing is never the right call. Not once. Here is why.

What refacing actually buys you

New door fronts glued onto:

• Your 20-year-old cabinet boxes
• Your 20-year-old drawers
• Your 20-year-old drawer slides
• Your 20-year-old hinges

The guts of your kitchen, the parts that actually fail, stay exactly the same. You paid for doors. Everything underneath is still the old kitchen, now wearing a costume.

And you get no warranty on any of it

A refaced kitchen has no warranty on the box, no warranty on the drawer slides, no warranty on the hinges. Those are the parts that break. When the drawer bottom falls out in year 5 or the hinge rips out of particle board in year 7, you are paying out of pocket to fix or replace, or you are living with it.

Every new cabinet we ship carries a manufacturer warranty on the doors, drawers, hinges, and construction. You call us, we send a replacement part. No "but that was the refacer's responsibility" runaround.

New cabinets from us start as low as $5,500

We quote full-kitchen cabinet packages starting around $5,500 for small or straightforward layouts. That is the entire cabinet order, plywood boxes, dovetail drawers, soft close everywhere, hand delivered in Saint Louis.

Compare that to most refacing quotes (which run $8,000 to $17,500 for the same kitchen, for just new doors on your old boxes), and the answer stops being close.

What refacing actually is

Refacing is when a company glues new door and drawer fronts on your existing cabinet boxes and covers the exposed sides with matching veneer sheets. The guts of your kitchen (the boxes, the shelves, the drawer slides, the layout) stay exactly the same.

They sell it as "like new cabinets for half the price." What you actually get is your old cabinets wearing a Halloween costume.

What stays the same after refacing

Before you sign anything, understand what a refacing job does not touch:

• Your cabinet box. The particle board, MDF, or old plywood carcass stays. If it was sagging before, it sags after. If the shelves were pinned at the original height, that is where they stay.
• Your drawer slides. If they squeal or fall off the track, they still do.
• Your drawer boxes. Stapled plywood sides with a stapled bottom panel? Same.
• The layout. Bad dead corner? Wasted 6 inches next to the range? Your refacer cannot fix it.
• The height. Cabinets only go 42 inches tall on an 8-foot wall? That is what you keep.

You paid for doors. The kitchen underneath them is still the old kitchen.

The real cost comparison

We priced a 12x14 Chesterfield kitchen three ways. Same layout, same finish direction, same homeowner.

Option	Cost	What you get
Reface (national chain quote)	$17,500	New doors and veneer, original boxes, no warranty on the boxes
Reface (local painter + new doors)	$9,800	New doors, painted old boxes, no warranty
Replace with STL Cabinetry (entry)	from $5,500	Plywood box, soft close, dovetail drawers, full warranty
Replace with STL Cabinetry (typical Chesterfield kitchen)	$12,500	All new cabinets, plywood box, soft close, full warranty

The cheapest national reface quote is almost double what our entry-level new kitchen starts at, and you get none of the warranty, none of the new drawer boxes, none of the soft close hardware. The math is not close.

Why refacing fails faster than you think

A few things we see inside refaced kitchens 5 to 8 years after the job:

1. Veneer peeling at high-wear corners. The veneer that covers the exposed box sides is a thin paper-and-glue sheet. Steam from a dishwasher or heat from a range loosens it. By year 5 the corners are curling.
2. Painted bases chipping. If the refacer painted the box, dish towels, pot handles, and toe kicks chip the paint within 2-3 years.
3. Original drawer slides failing. They were 20 years old when you refaced. Now they are 25. They were never replaced.
4. Cabinet boxes sagging. Old particle board under the weight of heavy dishes keeps sagging. New doors do nothing to stop it.
5. The color fading faster than expected. Refacing paints are a different formula than factory-applied finishes. UV exposure in a bright kitchen can fade a painted reface job noticeably in 4-6 years.

By year 8 you are looking at another kitchen project. On new cabinets from us, year 8 is when the finish still looks showroom.

The layout problem nobody talks about

Walk into a 1985 kitchen and you will see:

• A tiny corner cabinet with a broken lazy Susan
• A dead 6-inch filler next to the range because the old refrigerator was narrower
• A sink base with no drawers because 1985 did not think you needed them
• A spice cabinet 7 feet off the ground nobody can reach

Refacing keeps all of that. New cabinets let you redesign. For the same budget, you get:

• A proper corner pullout or lazy Susan that actually works
• Drawer bases instead of door bases under your counters (way more useful)
• Full-height cabinets that use all 96 inches of wall
• A trash pullout where the dead filler used to be
• Soft-close drawers stocked with organizers that fit 2026 plates

That is not a style upgrade. That is a functional kitchen upgrade you physically cannot get by painting doors.

But I've seen refacing cost less on paper

So have we. That is the whole pitch. On paper, refacing quotes look lower than our new cabinet quote. Then you ask the refacer two questions:

1. What's the warranty on the boxes? Answer: there isn't one.
2. How much will a replacement drawer slide or hinge cost me in year 6? Answer: out of pocket.

Our entry-level full kitchens start around $5,500 and include full new construction, warranty, hand delivery in Saint Louis, preassembled in our shop. We have done a lot of Saint Louis kitchens cheaper than a full refacing quote. When you compare on real total cost over 20 years, not year-one sticker price, new cabinets win every single time.

What we sell

Every kitchen that leaves our Saint Charles shop is:

• Wood doors and drawer fronts, not MDF or veneer
• Plywood box, not particle board
• Dovetail drawer boxes, not stapled plywood
• Soft-close hinges and undermount soft-close drawer slides standard
• Preassembled in our Saint Louis shop, not flat-packed
• Hand delivered by our team, not dumped on a freight truck

Priced at $450-$900 per linear foot depending on door style, size, and accessories. Shaker White is our budget bestseller; Bevel finishes and specialty stains carry a premium. The same quality from a custom shop runs $1,500-$2,500 per linear foot. The same quality from Home Depot does not exist.

A Chesterfield kitchen with new STL cabinets, new quartz counters at our dealer cost, and new LVP flooring at our dealer cost typically lands between $14,000 and $28,000 installed. Cheaper than almost any reface quote you will get for the same space.

Ready to price replacement

Start your free quote →. Takes 10 minutes. Full price back in 24 hours. No sales calls, no showroom visits required.

If you want to bring in your current kitchen's measurements for a real side-by-side, we are at 1618 Country Club Plaza Drive in Saint Charles. Drop in, no appointment needed.

Or call us at (314) 441-5620 and we will talk it through.

Frequently asked

Q: My refacing quote is $8,000. Your new cabinets are cheaper than that? Our entry-level full kitchens start around $5,500. Even our typical kitchen ($10-14K) is often priced at or below what national refacing chains quote. You get new boxes, new drawers, new tracks, new hinges, and a full warranty instead of new doors on 20-year-old hardware with no warranty.

Q: What if I just paint my cabinets myself? Painting is fine if your boxes and doors are in good shape. If they are MDF or particle board, paint will not save them. The best-case result is a 3-year facelift before you are back where you started.

Q: Can you just replace the doors and keep my boxes? Technically yes. We will sell you door fronts only if you insist. But we will also tell you that if your boxes are more than 15 years old, you are better off replacing the whole thing. Labor to mix and match doors to old boxes takes more time than installing new cabinets.

Q: How long does a full cabinet replacement take? From order to delivery: 2-4 weeks. Install for a typical Saint Louis kitchen: 7-14 business days. You are without a functional kitchen for 2-3 weeks, same as a reface.

Q: Do you install, or do I need a contractor? We sell cabinets. Install is separate. We can recommend trusted Saint Louis contractors we have worked with for years. Many of them buy their cabinets from us at our dealer price and pass that through to you.