We just finished a project encompassing the full kitchen cabinet refacing in the Newport Coast area. The existing cabinets had Thermofoil doors and drawer fronts, which are essentially MDF cabinet doors with a plastic laminate material. While changing the doors, drawers, and panels was fairly easy, changing the special Z-shaped doors and the frames build around the appliances presented greater challenges.

The home owners decided to go with refacing for two main reasons: the existing cabinets were still in good condition but the Thermofoil doors were starting to fall apart in certain areas. Cabinet refacing provided the perfect solution for this situation, allowing them to recreate the look of a brand new kitchen at just around $10,000. The kitchen cabinetry included an island, a separate wall with built in dual stove, and the main line of cabinets with a cooktop and the neat Z-shaped doors. We essentially changed out all the doors, drawer fronts, side panels that also used Thermofoil material, and the frames around the appliances with natural Cherry material finished with matching color lacquer. Matching lacquer was used because behind the island there is a decorative structural element in the existing color that was to be left untouched – therefore the color of the new materials we incorporated had to seamlessly match with this portion of the cabinetry. The existing edge tape around the front-facing portions of the cabinet boxes also had to be replaced because they were starting to become yellow – instead of replacing them with the same type of material we replaced them using Formica, which is much more durable and lasts much longer than the typical edge tape. To finish everything off, we installed new crown moulding in matching finish over the upper cabinets, completing the transformation of the kitchen.

Most of the work in making this project a reality took place at our shop in Huntington Beach, where we prepared all the materials for installation. When everything was ready, we came to the home and spent three full days working on-site. It’s important to note here that unlike a typical kitchen remodel, with refacing the customers only had people working in their home for 3 days and their kitchen was untouched until the actual day of installation. The inconvenience was hence drastically limited. Click here to read this customer’s review on Yelp! By Alex Jochai Stonebelt Cabinets