Cabinet Refacing vs Replacing: Seattle Kitchen Costs
Quick answer: Reface when the cabinet boxes are sound and only the look is dated — typically $9,000–$18,000 and 1–2 weeks in a Seattle or Tacoma kitchen. Replace when you want a different layout, more drawers or deeper cabinets — typically $18,000–$45,000 installed, inside a kitchen remodel of $40,000–$100,000 that runs 4–8 weeks. Refacing changes how the kitchen looks; only replacement changes how it works.
Scope, price and inclusions for either path are on our kitchen remodeling service page.
What refacing actually replaces
Refacing removes the doors, drawer fronts, hinges and pulls, and covers every visible surface of the remaining box — face frames, exposed end panels, and the toe kick — with new veneer or panel material matched to the new doors. The boxes stay screwed to the wall. Counters, sink, backsplash and appliances stay where they are. What you get back is a kitchen that looks new from three feet away and is identical from the inside.
That constraint is the whole decision. Cabinet layout in a 1960s Ballard bungalow or a 1990s Puyallup split-level was drawn around the appliances and plumbing of the day. If that layout still works for how you cook, refacing is the cheapest honest way to fix the finish. If it does not, refacing locks it in for another twenty years.
Cabinet refacing vs replacing: cost and scope compared
| Factor | Refacing | Replacing |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | $9,000–$18,000 | $18,000–$45,000 installed |
| Time on site | 1–2 weeks | Inside a 4–8 week kitchen remodel |
| Kitchen usable | Mostly — sink and counters stay | No — plan for a temporary kitchen |
| Layout changes | None — boxes and sizes are fixed | Any — runs, drawers, depths, island |
| Countertops | Usually stay in place | Replaced, and templated after install |
| Requires sound boxes | Yes — this is the gating test | No — the boxes leave |
| Best for | Good layout, dated finish | Bad layout, damaged or failing boxes |
The five-minute box inspection
Before anyone quotes refacing, the boxes get checked. Open the sink base and look at the bottom panel: if the particleboard is swollen, soft or peeling, the box has been wet and refacing is off the table for that run. Pull a drawer fully out and look for racking. Put a level on a face frame and check the cabinet is still square. Push on a shelf — a sag under ordinary dishes means thin, tired material.
Puget Sound adds one more check. Kitchens on exterior walls in older Seattle and Tacoma homes see condensation behind the run, and a slow supply-line drip goes unnoticed for months in a cool, unventilated cabinet. Any of that shows up as a musty smell before it shows up as damage, and it is the reason we open every base cabinet during the free assessment instead of quoting from photos.
When replacement is the cheaper answer
Refacing stops being the value option the moment it triggers the work it was supposed to avoid. If the counters are coming off, if the sink is moving, if you want a drawer bank where a door cabinet stands, or if two runs need to change length to fit a range you already bought, you are paying refacing money on top of box work. At that point new cabinetry costs less per year of use than refacing plus regret.
The same logic applies when the kitchen is one piece of a larger project. Full cost bands and what moves them are in our Seattle and Tacoma kitchen remodel cost guide, and the finishes we are specifying this year are in the 2026 kitchen trends piece.
What the quote should say either way
Both paths get the same treatment from us: a fixed written scope, a fixed price, and the exclusions spelled out before anyone signs. For refacing that means door count, material, whether interiors and end panels are included, and what happens if a box fails inspection mid-job. For replacement it means box construction, drawer hardware, filler and scribe work, disposal, and the countertop template date. A quote that hides those is not cheaper, just less specific — which is the subject of why remodeling quotes differ so much.
How we handle cabinets in Seattle and Tacoma
We quote refacing and replacement side by side for the same kitchen so you can see the two numbers, not one number and a suggestion. Boxes are inspected in person, the scope is fixed in writing, and if the boxes will not take a reface we say so before you pay for a design around them.
See the full scope on our kitchen remodeling and whole-home remodeling pages, or send us your kitchen details for a free estimate across King and Pierce counties.
Quick answers: Cabinet Refacing vs Replacing: Seattle Kitchen Costs
- What is the difference between cabinet refacing and replacing?
- Refacing keeps the existing cabinet boxes fixed to the wall and swaps everything you see — doors, drawer fronts, hinges, hardware, and a veneer or panel over the exposed faces and end panels. Replacing removes the boxes entirely and installs new cabinetry, which lets you change sizes, add drawer banks and rework the layout. Refacing changes the look; replacing changes the kitchen.
- How much does cabinet refacing cost in Seattle?
- In the Seattle–Tacoma area, refacing an average kitchen typically runs $9,000–$18,000, driven mainly by door count, door material and whether the end panels and interiors get finished too. It reads as a large number until you compare it to new cabinetry at $18,000–$45,000 installed for the same footprint.
- Is refacing cabinets cheaper than replacing them?
- Almost always, and usually by roughly half for the same kitchen footprint. The savings come from keeping the boxes, which avoids demolition, disposal, wall and floor patching where old cabinets were scribed in, and the countertop replacement that a box change usually forces. If the counters have to come off anyway, that gap narrows fast.
- How long does cabinet refacing take?
- Refacing is typically 1–2 weeks on site for a standard Seattle kitchen, and the kitchen stays largely usable because the sink, counters and appliances never leave. New cabinetry lands inside a kitchen remodel of 4–8 weeks, because templating and installing counters, then plumbing and electrical trim, all queue behind the boxes.
- When is refacing a bad idea?
- When the boxes are the problem. Swollen particleboard under the sink, delaminating bottoms, racked or out-of-square carcasses, sagging shelves, or water damage from a slow supply leak all mean you would be bonding new doors to a failing structure. Refacing a bad box buys you a good-looking kitchen that fails on the same schedule the boxes were already on.
- Can you change the layout when refacing cabinets?
- No. Refacing is fixed to the existing box positions and sizes, so the sink stays where it is, the runs stay the length they are, and a 24-inch cabinet stays 24 inches. You can convert some door cabinets to roll-out shelves inside, but moving a wall, widening an opening or adding a drawer bank means new cabinetry.
- Do you have to replace countertops when refacing?
- Usually not, which is a large part of the savings. Because the boxes and their footprint do not move, existing counters stay in place and undisturbed. If you want new counters anyway, they can be templated over the refaced boxes — but at that point compare the combined cost against replacement, because you are already paying for the most expensive part of a box change.
- How long do refaced cabinets last?
- As long as the boxes underneath. New doors and drawer fronts on a sound plywood carcass behave like new cabinetry for daily use, and the hinges and slides are new. The lifespan you inherit is the box's, which is why the inspection before the quote matters more than the door style you pick.
- Does refacing add value to a Seattle home?
- A dated kitchen reads as dated to a buyer regardless of whether the boxes are sound, so a refresh that removes the dated finish helps how the home shows. What refacing cannot do is fix a layout a buyer walks in and dislikes. In a home where the kitchen is closed off or cramped, the layout is the objection, and only new cabinetry can answer it.
- Do you serve Bellevue, Issaquah and Tacoma for cabinet work?
- Yes. We work across Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Issaquah and the surrounding Puget Sound in King and Pierce counties. Every kitchen starts with a free in-home assessment where we open the sink base, check the boxes for square and moisture, and quote refacing and replacement side by side on a fixed written scope.
Get a fixed price for your Seattle or Tacoma project
Four fields, about 30 seconds. We reply within 2 business hours, Monday–Friday 8am–5pm PT, and we work across King and Pierce counties — Seattle, Bellevue, Issaquah, Renton, Kent, Tacoma and the towns between them. Bathroom remodels here run $20,000–$50,000 over 4–8 weeks and tub-to-shower conversions $8,000–$30,000 over 1–3 weeks; your written estimate prices your actual room, with the exclusions spelled out.