Refinish, reface or replace? Choosing for a newer Waunakee kitchen
Most Waunakee kitchens date from the 1980s on and still work fine. How to choose between new paint, new doors or new cabinets, from a painter based in the village.
Owners of a newer Waunakee kitchen tend to ask the same question before they call anyone: paint the cabinets, put new doors on them, or tear them out? About 77% of the village's homes are owner occupied and only about 20% predate 1980, so the boxes in a typical kitchen here are often sound even when the color has dated.
We're a painting company based in Waunakee, and refinishing is the one of those three jobs we do. This page lays out how the three differ, when paint is the honest answer, and why the island or a second color is often the best place to start. Our cabinet refinishing page covers the service itself.
Three ways to update cabinets: refinish, reface, replace
Refinishing keeps your cabinets and changes their finish. The doors and drawer fronts come off to be cleaned, sanded, primed and sprayed, the frames are done in place, and everything goes back on with the hinges adjusted. That's our work.
Refacing belongs to a different trade, and it isn't a service we offer. This Old House describes an installer covering the face frames and exposed sides of the existing boxes with veneer, usually with new doors to match, and Consumer Reports describes the same swap of doors and drawers plus a new skin on the boxes. It can change the door style, which paint can't.
Replacing means new boxes, and it's the only one of the three that can move a sink, add storage or rework the layout. With about 45% of Waunakee homes built in 2000 or later and another 36% from 1980 to 1999, plenty of kitchens here are young enough that their boxes don't need it.
When refinishing is the right call, and when it isn't
Paint is the right call when the cabinets are structurally fine and the trouble is how they look: a stain color you're tired of, a clear coat worn through around the pulls, a builder finish that was never your taste. You keep the door shape you have, in a new color.
It's the wrong call in three situations. Wikipedia's kitchen cabinet article notes that particleboard swells irreversibly once water reaches its core, so a soaked, puffed-up sink base needs replacing rather than paint. If you dislike the door style itself, new doors are what change it. And if the layout doesn't work, only new cabinets fix that.
George checks the boxes, doors and hinges on the estimate visit and says plainly which side of that line a kitchen falls on. Our post on refinishing versus refacing compares the first two closely.
Starting with the island
If you're unsure about painting a whole kitchen, the island is the contained version of the decision. It stands apart from the wall cabinets, it's a single piece of cabinetry, and a new color on it reads as a choice rather than a mismatch.
Pull the island color from something already in the room, such as the floor, a rug or one tile in the backsplash, and make it clearly lighter or darker than the cabinets around it. Deep greens, blues and charcoal are common picks beside a stained or white perimeter. Our post on kitchen island paint colors has pairings to start from. An island alone is quoted the same way as a whole kitchen, per cabinet, so the number stays small while you find out how you like painted cabinets.
Two-tone kitchens: uppers and lowers, island and perimeter
The other contained step is a two-color plan. The split that suits most rooms puts the deeper color on the base cabinets and the lighter one overhead, so the kitchen feels grounded without heavy wall cabinets. The island-and-perimeter version works the same way, with the island carrying the stronger color.
Either way, the color change should land where the kitchen already changes: at the countertop line, or at the edge of the island. Settle the small parts early too, since end panels, toe kicks, filler strips and crown each need an assigned color. Both colors usually share one sheen so the pair reads as a single design. Our post on two-tone kitchen cabinets shows more combinations.
What stays put during refinishing
Refinishing leaves the costly, disruptive parts of a kitchen alone. Counters, backsplash, appliances, the sink and its plumbing all stay where they are, and so does the floor under the boxes. This cherry kitchen refinished in light gray kept its counters, backsplash and appliances; only the painted surfaces changed.
For a family living in the house, that means no demolition, no plumber and no wait for new boxes to arrive. It does mean a kitchen with its doors off for part of the job, so empty the cabinets beforehand and keep a coffee maker and a few plates somewhere handy. Most kitchens take one to two weeks from start to finish. Since nothing is torn out, there's no dumpster in the driveway and no demolition dust, only the sanding and spraying that refinishing itself involves.
A painter based in Waunakee: estimates and visits
GK Painting is based in Waunakee, so an estimate visit here is a short trip for George. It starts with a phone call; if he needs to see the kitchen, he comes out, looks over the boxes and doors, and talks through colors with you. Carley manages the schedule and sets the start date. A rough count of doors and drawers, plus a photo or two of the kitchen, helps him plan the visit before he arrives.
Cabinet refinishing is priced per cabinet with paint included, and we use premium paint from Sherwin-Williams and Behr unless you'd prefer another brand. The written quote is the price, no extra charge if the job takes longer than expected. Visits and work days fall between 8am and 5pm, Monday through Friday. Ask for a free estimate, or read about GK Painting in Waunakee.
Common questions
How is refinishing different from refacing?
Refinishing paints the cabinets you have, doors included, while refacing covers the boxes in new veneer and usually adds new doors. We refinish. Refacing is done by other trades, and it's the route to take if you want a different door style.
When should cabinets be replaced instead?
When the boxes are damaged, most often by water under the sink, or when you want a different layout or more storage. Paint and new doors both keep the existing boxes exactly where they are.
Could we paint just the island and leave the rest?
Yes. The island is its own piece of cabinetry, so it can take a new color while the perimeter keeps its stain or paint. It's quoted per cabinet like any other cabinet work.
Will a two-tone kitchen look dated in a few years?
Not if the split follows the kitchen's structure, such as darker bases under lighter uppers or a contrasting island. Those layouts look planned rather than trendy, and because it's paint, either color can change later.
Where is GK Painting based?
In Waunakee. George does the work and Carley runs the schedule from here, and we cover Madison and the surrounding Dane County communities, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
More in Waunakee
Cabinet refinishing nearby
Helpful guides
Sources
- American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, U.S. Census Bureau, via Census Reporter
- Cabinet Refacing: Everything You Need to Know, This Old House
- Upgrade Your Kitchen for Less, Consumer Reports
- Kitchen cabinet, Wikipedia