New features excite potential buyers more than a beautiful kitchen — and few factors deter them faster than a dull, dreary one. To ensure a fast sale, many homeowners go to great expense replacing kitchen cabinets before listing a house. Unfortunately, the cost doesn’t always translate into higher home value.
So when is cabinet replacement worth the money? And what if a $30,000 renovation isn’t in your budget? Sometimes remodeling is money well spent, especially if you’re considering staying in your home for a while. Whatever your plans are, you have many options, and you may be surprised to see how easy and inexpensive it can be to give cabinets a facelift.
Replace old hardware
If your cabinets are in decent condition and aren’t too dated, you can freshen up their appearance and give new life to a tired kitchen simply by replacing the hinges and pulls. Hardware styles vary greatly, and no matter what look you want, you can find something appropriate. Unless you choose very high-end special-order hardware, you can outfit a typical set of kitchen cabinets with new handles and hinges for less than $300.
Before installing new hardware, remove the old hardware and thoroughly scrub the cabinets with a solution of one part dish soap to two parts warm water, a citrus-base wood cleaner or a specialized cleaning product such as Briwax or Formby’s Build-Up Remover (see SOURCES ONLINE). Use a sponge or a green scrubbing pad — never steel wool, which can scratch the cabinets’ finish.
Replace doors and drawer fronts
Doors and drawer fronts are biggest visual elements of cabinets. If the cabinet cases are in decent condition but the doors and drawer fronts are damaged or worn out, you can replace them — and give the cabinets a whole new look — with custom-built doors and fronts or manufactured models.
Because they’re ready to install, manufactured doors and drawer fronts require a smaller time investment, but they cost more than making your own. For example, a basic raised-panel red oak cabinet door typically costs $20 to $65, depending on its size, and an oak drawer front costs about $15 (although I’ve seen them on sale for as little as $3). Multiply that cost by the total number of doors and drawer fronts you’ll need for your kitchen; then compare that figure with a price of $1.75 to $3 for a board foot of rough red oak and you’ll see that it’s cheaper to do the milling yourself — if you’re willing to spend the time.
Building doors and drawer fronts is not a terribly tricky project. In fact, with a few specialty tools such as a set of cope-and-stick router bits, you can master the necessary skills in a few days.
Of course, you may encounter a few technical hurdles during installation. For example, if your cabinets have three-sided drawer boxes (the drawer front serves as the front wall of the drawer box) instead of four-sided boxes, you’ll need to modify them to mount the new fronts. Nevertheless, with patience and close attention to detail, you should be able to meet any installation challenges that arise.
Reface cabinets
If your cabinets are structurally sound and meet your storage needs, they may be candidates for refacing, a job that involves replacing the doors and drawer fronts and covering the exposed face frames with a matching veneer. You can buy bulk veneer for recovering the face frames and either construct or purchase new doors and drawer fronts separately, or you can select a ready-to-install kit from one of many online retailers. These companies typically offer more choices than you’ll find in a home improvement store, and though the project can be tricky, most companies’ Web sites walk you through the measuring and installation process.
Costs for a typical DIY refacing job vary greatly depending on the material you choose and whether you use a kit or buy the materials separately. A 2x8 roll of adhesive-backed oak veneer typically costs about $50, and a 250-ft. roll of edge banding costs about $50. Add up all the doors, drawer fronts and veneer and you’ll spend about $1,000 for an average project. If you opt for a complete kit, expect to at least double that cost, especially if you choose an exotic wood species or opt for extras such as glass-panel doors. Although this may seem like a lot of money, you’d probably spend $4,000 or more for a comparable professional installation.
Replace cabinets
If you want a completely new look or need to improve a kitchen’s storage and functionality, replacing the cabinets is probably the best — though most expensive — option. Cabinets typically account for 60 percent to 70 percent of a kitchen’s cost and come in three varieties: custom, semicustom and stock.
Custom cabinetry is built to precise specifications and measurements on-site, in a shop (yours or a cabinetmaker’s) or at a custom manufacturing facility. Because this approach offers the most options in materials and design, it is the most expensive (perhaps $15,000 or more) and has the longest delivery time. But if you’re willing to spend the money, it affords you all of the features and amenities you desire.
Semicustom cabinets are manufactured to buyers’ specifications, but the sizes are based on predetermined increments. If the dimensions of your kitchen are odd or the floor plan has been changed with remodeling, you may have to use spacers to mask empty wall space. But the overall cost is less (about $7,000 to $10,000 for a typical installation).
Stock cabinets are the least expensive replacement option. They come in specific sizes and a variety of levels of quality, styles and types of wood. Manufacturers continue to offer more amenities: Adjustable shelves are standard, and features such as lazy susans, pullout drawers, pantries, waste receptacles and even wine racks are widely available. Prices can vary greatly depending on what you want: A typical kitchen outfitted with ready-to-install unstained red oak cabinets costs slightly less than $2,000; choosing cherry or maple cabinets will likely double that cost.
Make your choice
Considering that your investment options range from a few hundred dollars to more than $10,000, the big question is which approach is right for you. “Don’t expect to necessarily recoup your investment,” says Mary Berger, a mortgage specialist for PHH Home Loans. “New cabinets will certainly make your house sell faster, but in today’s market, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to recover a $15,000 outlay, especially if it drives the value of the house past comparable selling prices in your neighborhood.”
If the cabinets are so dated and out- of-shape that they might lower the home’s selling price, you may have to replace them. But if they are serviceable, you may be better off with a less expensive option that imparts a new look yet leaves you enough of a budget to create your dream kitchen in your next home.