Cabinet Refacing vs Refinishing in Toronto (2026)
Refacing gives your kitchen new doors and drawer fronts. Refinishing keeps your wood doors and strips them back so the grain shows. Which one fits depends on what your doors are made of.
What each word means
Refacing gives you new doors and drawer fronts. A door maker builds and sprays them to our measurements. Your cabinet boxes stay where they are, and we spray them on site in 2K polyurethane to match the new doors.
Refinishing keeps your doors. We strip the old finish down to bare wood and sand it smooth. Then we stain it to the tone you choose and seal it under clear 2K, so the grain still shows. It is for solid wood only.
When an ad says "refinishing" but means painting
Sanding and spraying a new colour is painting, not refinishing.
Many Toronto ads use "refinishing" for sanding the doors and spraying a new colour over them. We call that cabinet painting. Painting does not strip the old finish. We degrease, sand, prime and spray.
If you want your doors in a new colour, painting is the service you are looking for. It costs the least of the three. Most painting jobs cost $3,500 to $9,500.
Which kitchens suit refinishing
Refinishing needs solid wood that is in good shape under the old finish.
Refinishing suits a kitchen with solid wood doors that you still like. Stripping and staining brings the wood back and lets you change its tone.
We look at the wood closely before we agree to refinish it. We turn the job down when:
- the veneer is too thin to sand safely
- the doors are particle board or another base that will not take stain
- the wood under the old finish is damaged or poor
- the cabinets have structural problems
When that happens we usually suggest refacing with new wood doors instead.
Which kitchens suit refacing
Refacing fits when the doors are the problem and the boxes are sound.
Refacing suits a kitchen where the doors are the problem. The style has dated, the thermofoil is lifting, or the doors are chipped. The cabinet boxes behind them need to be sound.
You choose the new door style and material. Regular MDF is the most chosen, because it costs least. Unfinished solid wood comes next. Waterproof MDF is the choice near water, such as the sink.
What happens in your home
Both services finish your cabinet boxes in place, because the boxes stay on the wall. Before any spraying starts, we seal the kitchen off from the rest of your home. Zipper walls and plastic cover the doorways, and HEPA filters and fans handle the dust and fumes.
With refacing, the work on site is short. We clean, sand and spray the boxes in 2K over two or three days, while you stay somewhere else. The new doors arrive already finished.
With refinishing, the work in your home takes much longer. The old finish has to come off the boxes with a chemical stripper, often in more than one pass. Then the wood is sanded, stained and sealed.
Either way, the finish on the boxes gets at least 24 hours to cure before we hand the kitchen back. After that, you can load the cabinets and cook the same day.
Cost, time and warranty
Refacing has a set price band. Refinishing is priced against painting.
Refacing costs $8,000 to $15,000 for most kitchens. The job takes four to five weeks, and you are without your kitchen for about five days of it. Doors in waterproof MDF carry a 15-year warranty. Doors in regular MDF or solid wood carry 5 years.
Refinishing costs 50 to 100 percent more than painting the same kitchen. Stripping cabinet boxes in your home is slow, careful work, and that is where the cost comes from. It carries a 5-year warranty. Most people who ask about refinishing choose painting once they see both prices.
If refacing sounds like your kitchen
Refacing is the right choice when the doors are worn or dated and the cabinet boxes behind them are sound. You keep your layout, your countertops and your appliances. Only the parts you see change. Before you compare quotes, read what kitchen cabinet refacing in Toronto includes. It shows what we replace, what we keep, and how the boxes are sprayed. Some companies cover the boxes with a thin glued sheet instead, which is a different job at a lower price.
Questions
Common questions
- Which of the three costs the least?
- Painting. Most cabinet painting jobs cost $3,500 to $9,500. Refinishing costs 50 to 100 percent more than painting the same kitchen. Refacing costs $8,000 to $15,000 for most kitchens.
- Can you refinish thermofoil or laminate doors?
- No. Refinishing is for solid wood only. If your doors are thermofoil or laminate, refacing gives you new doors instead.
- Can I change the colour of my wood doors without stripping them?
- Yes. That is cabinet painting. We degrease, sand, prime and spray a new colour over the wood. The grain will not show through, so pick this only if you want a colour rather than wood.
- Do I need to leave the house during refacing?
- Yes, for two or three days in the installation week. We spray the cabinet boxes on site in 2K, which is a solvent-based finish. For the rest of the job your kitchen works as normal.
Not sure which one your kitchen needs?
Send wide photos of every wall of cabinets. We will tell you which service fits and send a written price within 24 hours.
Every quote in writing, before any deposit
Refaced. Repainted. Refinished.