If you decide to reface your kitchen, you can ask a professional contractor for help or you can perform the repair by your own. In principle, you have two main different options now. Either you want to renew the existing color or your want to change it totally. In the first case you need to remove the finish and renew the color while in the other case you must remove all residues of the color and apply the primer, the new color and the finish. A high quality finish is absolutely required since the kitchen furniture is exposed in many different ways. When you apply a new color, you can either use traditional brushes or a pneumatic system. The pneumatic system guarantees an equally distributed, shiny and glossy result. If you use brushes, you need to remove some of the surface irregularities by fine sand paper. But by working carefully with a brush you can obtain the same incredible result.

After you have repainted your cabinets, you can reassemble the kitchen furniture. If you want, you can change the knobs and holdings for the doors and drawers. You can find a huge collection of handlers and knobs at your local do-it-yourself shop. The only thing you need to bear in mind is that everything you buy has to fit to your home style. The knobs and door handles are usually not very expensive and can be easily installed. Although this repair is less time consuming than a complete refurbishment of your kitchen, you need to plan at least an entire weekend for a complete cabinets refacing. You have to remember that you need to reface many drawers and doors. In addition, some of the steps require some more time, especially drying of the primer and the color applied.

Before you start repainting your kitchen cabinets, you need to make some preparations. The first and the most important step is connected with your old finish. You need to remove the old color and finish from your panels. Therefore you need to know whether your cabinet is finished with a lacquer or a stain. Depending on your design ideas, you need to decide which finish exactly you want to use. The second important decision you need to make is to choose the new color of your kitchen. You should choose a color that fits your personal style. If you want, you can exchange the handles in the kitchen as well. In this case, you should try to find new handles that require no new holes and modifications or only a few. Kitchen cabinet refacing is less time consuming than the replacement of the entire kitchen furniture but it still needs a lot of time. You have to make a complete list of things you need for the refacing. Especially for the painting you need to consider buying brushes in different sizes. Besides, for a successful cabinet refacing, you will need also primer and finish.

One day before you start working, you can start with the preparation. You should check whether you have all the tools and equipment you need. You can start emptying the cabinets and put paper on the flooring. If you want to paint them outside, you should listen carefully to the weather forecast. Everything should be prepared including some sandwiches and enough water for drinking during the repair. The work might go easier if some friends or family members help you. If you run out of time, try to be patient and continue on another day instead of making more and more mistakes. Always remember your goal – a new and good looking kitchen for you and your family.

Since the shopping list is going to be quiet long, it should be divided into several parts. Of course, you need to choose and buy a new color, a primer and a finish. You should take into consideration that the primer depends on the cabinet material and the previous color. For a lacquer color you might need a different primer than for an oil-based color. Your local do-it-yourself shop will help you to make the right choice. The second important part of your checklist should be used for the required tools. Do you have all tools for the removal and re-installation of your kitchen furniture? This includes different screw drivers, hammer, pliers and a drilling machine. Since you are going to paint, you need brushes in different sizes and solvent for cleaning them. Different grades of sand paper probably also will be needed. During the process of painting you should wear a mouthpiece for your own safety.

The last big part of your shopping lists should include the general needed items for the repair. You might need screws in different sizes, nails or glue. If you want to change your cabinet handles, you need to calculate how many of them you need, what size and style. For protecting your floors you might need extra paper or special covering sheets as well. You should also consider buying sandwiches and some drinks, especially if you invited some of your friends and neighbors to help you. Usually, a complete kitchen refacing requires at least two days. On the first day, you need to remove all residues from the doors and apply the primer, while the second day is for painting and finishing the cabinet doors. You should consider that each of these steps requires a certain drying time for the chemicals. Therefore it is better to plan a longer time for your repair.

But refacing is a hard and time consuming job for someone who is not familiar with the entire procedure. If you want to reface your kitchen but you do not want to perform it by yourself, you should contact one of the local cabinet refacing contractors. You can find their addresses on special online directories or in your local yellow pages. Before you make your final decision about any of the contractors, you should get some references or reviews of their work. The internet is a very good source for reviews and opinions of other web users. But you should be also careful about online opinions because there were cases of faked articles and reviews in both good and bad way. After you have chosen your personal contractor, you should call or e-mail him your request.

A good and reliable business partner will ask you about the sizes of your kitchen, the number of doors, the used finish and other important information relative to the repair. Usually, the contractors make appointments since they need to see the place they are going to repair. In this case, you should discuss all necessary details including the time frame, the date and the prize. If you agreed about all the details, you contractor should provide you a short check list for the day. In most cases, he will prepare the doors at his workshop. Depending on your contract, he will either remove all the doors or you are going to do it yourself. As a rule, the removal and installation of the doors should be done by your contractor. The only thing you need to do is to wait until you can enjoy your new beautiful kitchen.

But if you want to refurnish your kitchen, you have to decide which of the old devices you can still use. In most cases you will try to keep most of the devices because they are still working properly. In this case you should consider a cabinet refacing instead of refurnishing your entire kitchen. It is much cheaper and easier to perform. Besides, you don’t have to replace all your furniture, you can just refresh the most used parts. Although it is easier to perform, cabinet refacing needs some planning in order to be done successfully. Before you start, you need to make exact measurements of all pieces that you want to replace or to refurnish. A complete new design can be only applied by exchanging the complete panels. If you keep the old panels, the basic design of your kitchen will still remain the same.

If you need to replace some pieces, it is absolutely necessary to measure the size of all items exactly. In most cases, you should find the size of your cabinets also on the bill or the manual of your kitchen. In some cases, the manufacturers offer new doors and kitchen designs for refacing. You should check this opportunity – it will save you some time and make the repairs easier.

Before you start working, you need to make sure that you have everything ready. You should check all the needed tools. If you keep your old panels, you need to mark each of them uniquely. You should start working in one place and continue until you finish the whole kitchen. You should try to divide your work into several steps that you need to complete step by step. If you want to change the handles of your drawers, you should try to find handles that need the same holes. Otherwise your drawers will have some additional holes you don’t need. In his case you should use some covering techniques to minimize the visible damage.

The sanding of the cabinets is a time-consuming and important job. You need to make sure that all remains from the old colors are removed completely. This is easier for big flat surfaces but harder to achieve for all kinds of ornaments. If you fail in this step, the result of the re-painting will not be satisfying because the color will not stick perfectly on the wooden surface.

Before you start coloring your cabinets, you need to apply the primer. The primer saves the underlying wood and is responsible for a better sticking of the color. Especially for kitchen furniture, a primer is absolutely necessary. According to the instructions of the primer, you may need to apply it several times. There are different types of primers depending on the underlying material and the color that you want to use. In general, for an oil based color, an oil based primer is recommended. If you are not sure, you should contact your local do-it-yourself store. The primer should be applied only in rooms with good ventilation or in the open garage. Before you apply the color, the primer needs to dry.

After the primer, you should paint your cabinet with the new colors. Depending on the color and the type of wood, you may need to paint your cabinets several times. It is important not to apply too much color at once. Although the results when using a brush are very nice, you can obtain better results using a pneumatic sprayer.

For the best result you can remove some surface irregularities with a very fine sand paper before you apply the next coat. It is better to paint several times thin films and use the sand paper than making a big film at once. After the last coat you need to apply a finish. The finish has several functions. It protects the surface, the color, and the wood from environmental issues and makes your cabinets shinier. Afterwards, you can enjoy the result of your cabinet refacing – your new good-looking, shiny kitchen.