#How to Reface and Refinish Kitchen Cabinets

Reface Sides, Drawers and Doors with Veneer and Stain

Start by removing the cabinet doors, drawers and all hardware. Flat-front doors and drawers are easily refaced, but if yours have raised panels, routed profiles or other architectural detailing, you can opt to buy new unfinished doors and drawers and stain them along with your cabinets.

Sand the side and front surfaces of the old cabinets. It s not necessary to sand off all the old finish, just rough it up so the new wood veneer will adhere properly.

Practice your veneering technique on less-visible areas first, such as on a side panel. Apply a thin film of wood glue to the cabinet surface and use a nail gun with 5/8-inch brads to fix the veneer panel in place. Adjust the nailer to sink the brad heads just below the veneer surface. Nail from top to bottom to avoid creating a bubble in the middle of the panel (Image 1).

When all side panels are in place, use a block plane to trim the veneer edges flush with the old cabinet faces.

Apply veneer to the cabinet fronts. Veneer all of the horizontal areas and rails first, then use a sharp razor knife to cut in the pieces for the vertical stiles. When complete, trim all intersecting edges and corners flush with the sides.

Next, reface the cabinet doors, following the same procedure. You can save time on this step by using matching wood veneer tape on the door edges; veneer tape is easily applied using a hot clothes iron to activate the pre-glued backing.

Fill all brad holes with wood putty colored to match your intended stain color. Let it dry and sand lightly to remove excess (Image 2). Use a sanding block to evenly distribute pressure and avoid gouges and indentations.