What Full Cabinet Refacing Includes
Full cabinet refacing replaces everything you see and keeps everything you don't. We remove your old doors and drawer fronts and take them away. Then we cover the visible parts of your cabinet frames — the stiles, rails, and any exposed side panels — with new veneer or laminate in the finish you chose. Finally we hang brand-new doors and drawer fronts, fit new hinges and hardware, and adjust every door so the gaps are even and everything closes the way it should. When we leave, your cabinets look new because every visible surface is new.
What stays: the cabinet boxes screwed to your walls, your countertops, your backsplash, your plumbing, your appliances, and your kitchen layout. Nothing gets demolished. There is no dumpster in the driveway and no week of eating takeout because the kitchen is torn apart. That is the whole point of refacing — the parts of a cabinet that wear out are the doors and the finish, while the boxes behind them are usually perfectly fine for decades.
Why Refacing Fits Alexandria Homes
Walk through Alexandria's neighborhoods and you see the same story over and over: solid homes with kitchens from another era. Old Town rowhouses with cabinets that have been painted three times since the 1980s. Del Ray bungalows with original wood cabinets that are structurally great but finished in a stain nobody would pick today. Fairfax County colonials and ramblers full of golden oak kitchens from the 1990s — the boxes are heavy, well-built, and square, but the orange-toned doors date the whole room.
These are refacing's ideal customers. The bones are good. The layout works. What needs to change is the look — and that is exactly what refacing changes. Ripping out cabinets that are built better than most of what's sold today just to get a new door style never made sense, and around here, plenty of homeowners already know it.
The Door Styles You Can Choose
Refacing is not one look — it is whatever look you want. The most popular choice we install is the Shaker door: a flat center panel with a simple square frame around it. It works in old rowhouses and new condos alike, which is why it has stayed popular for years. If your taste runs modern, a slab door — one flat, clean panel with no frame — gives you that smooth contemporary look. Raised-panel doors, with their shaped center panel, suit traditional kitchens and the colonial-style homes common in Fairfax County.
Then there is the finish. Painted finishes — white, gray, navy, sage green, black — are the most requested today, and for good reason: paint hides nothing about the door style and gives you a crisp, clean surface. Stained wood finishes show the grain: warm browns, honey tones, dark espresso. We bring samples to the free visit so you can see each option in your own kitchen light, next to your own counters and floors. Colors look different under your lighting than they do in a showroom, and this decision deserves your actual kitchen.
What Happens to the Frames
New doors on old frames would look wrong — the frames would still show the old color and wear. So a real reface covers them. We apply new veneer (real wood) or laminate to every visible frame surface: the vertical stiles and horizontal rails around each opening, the exposed side panels at the ends of cabinet runs, and any filler strips. The veneer is cut to fit, applied with adhesive, trimmed flush, and finished to match your new doors. Open the cabinet and the inside is still the original box — which is fine, because nobody sees the inside except you, and it is usually in fine shape.
This frame work is the skilled part of refacing and the part that separates a professional job from a shortcut. It takes time and patience to wrap every frame cleanly with tight seams and no bubbles. It is also why refacing is not a weekend DIY project for most people — the doors are the easy part; making the frames disappear into the new look is the craft.
How It Works: Our Process
Step 1 — Free visit. You call or send the form. We schedule a visit, look at your cabinets up close, and check that the boxes are solid enough to reface. We bring door samples and finish options.
Step 2 — Design choices. You pick the door style, finish, and hardware. We measure every door and drawer front precisely — new doors are made to fit your exact openings.
Step 3 — Written estimate. Itemized pricing for the full reface: doors, drawer fronts, veneer, hardware, and labor. Every project is different — contact us for a free written estimate.
Step 4 — Install days. We remove the old doors, veneer the frames, hang the new doors, and fit the hardware. Most kitchens take three to five working days. Your kitchen stays usable — we work section by section.
Step 5 — Walkthrough. We go over every door and drawer with you, adjust anything that needs it, and clean up completely.
What Refacing Cannot Do
Honest talk: refacing is not a remodel. It will not fix cabinet boxes that are rotted, warped, or falling apart — if the boxes are shot, they need replacing, and we will tell you that during the visit. It will not change your kitchen's layout, move the sink, or add cabinets where none exist. And it will not fix a kitchen you hate for reasons beyond the cabinets — bad lighting, a cramped layout, worn floors. Refacing is the right answer when the cabinets are the problem and everything else works. When something else is the problem, we say so.
The Kitchen Stays Usable
One of the biggest reasons homeowners choose refacing over replacement is how livable the project is. There is no demolition day. We take doors off in sections, so most of your kitchen keeps working while we work on the rest. Dust is minimal — no saws cutting cabinet boxes apart, no drywall work. You can cook dinner the same week we are refacing. For busy households, that alone is worth it.
Caring for Your Refaced Cabinets
Once the work is done, care is simple. Wipe doors and drawer fronts with a damp cloth and mild soap — no harsh chemicals, no abrasive pads. Clean up cooking splatter when you notice it rather than letting grease build up around the handles. The finishes we use are made for kitchen life, but like any fine finish, they last longest with gentle, regular cleaning. We will leave you with simple care instructions before we go.
Call (301) 679-9193 or send the form below for your free on-site estimate. If you are deciding between refacing and replacing, read our refacing vs. replacing guide first — it lays out the decision honestly.