Kitchens by Riland

Kitchen Cabinet refacing is the act of veneering or replacing parts of the kitchen cabinets that are always visible. As such, the cases, or cabinet boxes if you like will remain put, but will get a new finish by veneering. Other parts like cabinet doors and drawer fronts will be replaced completely. Here is how to reface kitchen cabinets.

- Remove all hardware and doors of your old cabinets so that you will be working with the major structural elements. Be careful when removing the screws so that you won’t damage anything when removing the hinges

- For you to install veneers perfectly, you will need to expose bare wood so that the glue will have an optimum surface for sealing. As such, you should sand the sides and face frame of the structure until you reach bare wood. Begin with a coarse grit sand paper say of around 100 grit and finish up with that of 200 grit.

- Clean the surface off any debris or dust so that glue can seal perfectly and the veneer sits as flat as possible. You can use a shop vac or tack cloth to clean.

- Next on how to reface kitchen cabinets should be to accurately measure and cut veneers for the cabinet sides and face frame. Be very careful to ensure the measurements are as accurate as possible, lest you waste your veneer material and end up with a shortage

- Thoroughly apply and spread contact cement on the sealing surfaces of the main cabinet structure and on the veneer back so that you can give a perfect bond between two materials.

- Carefully install all of the cut veneers onto the cabinet structure. You can use a roller to make certain the veneer sits properly and has good contact with the cabinet sides and face frame.

- Next course of action on how to reface kitchen cabinets should be to thoroughly inspect your cabinets for any glue drips, cracks or misaligned veneers and correct them

- Hang your new cabinet doors and then proceed to install them after all veneering work is completed. Ensure you do not scuff the new doors or drop them when installing the hinges.

- The last step on how to reface kitchen cabinets involves cleaning and polishing the cabinets. This is the time to wipe off any smudges or fingerprints from the new cabinets.