Cabinet refacing in Lynn, MA is how Custom Cabinets Lynn gives you new doors, new drawer fronts and a new skin on every box you can see. Your layout stays exactly where it is, and we price the job off your door count and the length of your runs. Refacing a kitchen here runs $5,000 to $13,000 installed, or $150 to $450 a linear foot. New boxes for the same kitchen run $10,000 to $26,500. We open your sink base before we quote either one, because a new skin over a box that has already swollen lifts inside a year. Our cabinet price guide carries both sets of figures with the source under each one.
Two things decide whether refacing is the right spend on your kitchen. Neither of them is the doors you are looking at. The first is whether your boxes are sound. The second is whether you want the layout to move.
Refacing keeps every cabinet exactly where it sits today. A run that annoys you now will annoy you in the same place afterwards. If you want the sink moved, an island added or the uppers taken to the ceiling, you are buying new boxes. That is the cheapest question to settle and the most expensive one to get wrong.
The box question takes about four minutes with a blade. We push it into the floor of your sink base at the back corner, where the trap drips, and into the end panel beside your dishwasher. A particleboard box that has taken on water does not dry back out. We replace that box at $400 to $1,400 and reface the sound ones around it, priced as two lines you can read apart.
Which route suits your kitchen
Rigid thermofoil, the cheapest change available
Thermofoil doors and fronts run $80 to $125 a linear foot, which makes them the cheapest real change your kitchen can have. Thermofoil is a vinyl film pressed onto a board with heat, so every door comes out the same and the price stays low. It is also the one door material that peels away near heat. We will fit it for you, and we will tell you first that the doors beside your range and above your dishwasher are where it lets go.
Wood veneer over a core that does not move
We fit wood veneer doors and fronts more often than anything else, at $100 to $250 a linear foot. A thin layer of real wood sits over a stable core. That matters in a Lynn house, where the indoor air dries right out in February and turns damp by August. You get a wood kitchen without the seasonal movement a solid wood door brings with it.
Solid hardwood, the only version you can sand again
We build solid hardwood doors and fronts at $200 to $500 a linear foot. It is the only refacing route you can strip and refinish again in fifteen years. The center panel has to float in its frame rather than sit glued in, because a glued panel in a heated house splits down the middle in February. Our made-to-order doors come from a shop in Lawrence on a 1 to 2 week lead, against 4 to 12 weeks for a full custom kitchen.
Doors and fronts only, with the boxes left alone
New doors and drawer fronts on their own cost $180 to $330 a door fitted, or $2,200 to $6,600 across an average kitchen. No box comes out of the room. That is the right route when your boxes are sound and the faces are simply dated, and it finishes in two or three days rather than a week. We cover it on its own page at door and drawer front replacement, because plenty of kitchens need that and nothing else.
How your week runs
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We open the sink base and the dishwasher panel
We do that before quoting, not after, because the state of your boxes moves the price by thousands. Four minutes with a blade tells us whether you are refacing nine boxes or five and replacing four.
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We count your doors and measure the run
We price refacing off your door and drawer count and the feet of base and wall cabinet along the wall. That is why two quotes for the same kitchen can look nothing alike. You get the per-foot figure as well as the total, because per-foot stays readable when a kitchen is an odd shape.
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We take your doors off and measure every opening
We number every door and hinge as it comes down, then measure each opening on its own. In a 1946 kitchen almost nothing repeats a size. Your new fronts get drilled to the hinge pattern already in the boxes wherever that hardware is sound, which keeps the job to days.
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We skin your face frames and end panels
We degrease and rough up the surface first, then lay veneer or laminate over the frames and any end panel that shows. Where the run meets the wall, we cut the panel to follow the wall rather than pushing a wedge of filler into the gap. A tapered filler strip is what you would look at from the doorway for twenty years.
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We hang, adjust and leave you the spares
We hang your doors, adjust every hinge, and set the gaps for the damp end of the year rather than the dry one. You keep the spare hinges, the touch-up and the door count in writing. A door that drops in year three is then a five-minute fix rather than a call-out.
What separates a real refacing quote from a cosmetic one
Why Lynn homeowners call us to reface
Nobody wants to pay for a new-looking kitchen and get a skin that lifts in a year. So we start under your sink, not at your doors. Most kitchens here were built around 1946 and have been repainted or refaced at least once since. We find the boxes that have swollen, replace them at $400 to $1,400 each, and reface the sound ones around them at $150 to $450 a foot. You see both numbers on one page, and you know which cabinets got which.
Lead-safe rules set the method on most kitchens here
Your kitchen was probably built before 1978, so the old paint on it may contain lead. Once we disturb more than 6 square feet of it, the work falls under the state lead-safe rules, 454 CMR 22.00. Roughing up the face frames on a run of original cabinets gets there in the first ten minutes. So we seal the room, work wet and vacuum with a HEPA filter, at $350 to $1,200. That belongs on your quote as a line you can see.
Refacing needs no permit, and a quote should not charge for one
Refacing leaves your plumbing, gas, wiring and walls alone, so the state treats it as an ordinary repair and nothing gets filed. Moving your sink or adding a circuit for a new range does need a permit. That is one of the real cost gaps between refacing and starting over.
The hardware decides whether the doors still shut in year five
Blum soft-close hinges adjust in three directions, and our hardware supplier in North Reading is about twelve miles from your kitchen, so parts land in a couple of days. Adding soft-close while the doors are already off costs $30 to $80 a door. Done later as its own visit, it costs several times that. If your boxes carry an old hinge with no adjustment in it, we say so at the quote, because converting a run means drilling every cabinet rather than swapping a part.
What the finish has to hit
| Refacing a standard kitchen | $5,000 to $13,000 |
|---|---|
| Refacing priced by the foot | $150 to $450 per linear foot |
| Doors and drawer fronts only | $180 to $330 per door |
| Soft-close retrofit during a reface | $30 to $80 per door |
| Replacing one failed box | $400 to $1,400 |
| Shelf load test, ANSI/KCMA A161.1 | 15 lb per square foot |
Refacing a Lynn kitchen runs $5,000 to $13,000 installed, or $150 to $450 per linear foot. Swapping doors and drawer fronts alone runs $180 to $330 per door. What moves the number is the door material, how many boxes are actually still sound, and whether the kitchen predates 1978.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Refacing a standard kitchen: new doors, drawer fronts and veneered boxesThe whole visible surface changes and the layout does not. Priced on the door count and the run length rather than on the square footage of the room. | $5,000 – $13,000 | installed |
| Refacing priced by the footMeasure the run of base and wall cabinets along the wall, not the floor. This is the number to compare quotes on, because it strips out how big the kitchen happens to be. | $150 – $450 | per linear foot |
| Rigid thermofoil or laminate doors and frontsThe cheapest way to change the look. It is a vinyl film heat-pressed onto a substrate, and it is the one door type that will not survive a steam vent or a wall oven at close quarters. | $80 – $125 | per linear foot |
| Wood veneer doors and frontsReal wood face over an engineered core. Stable through a New England heating season because the core does not move the way a solid panel does. | $100 – $250 | per linear foot |
| Solid hardwood doors and frontsFive-piece doors with a floating panel. The top of the refacing range and the only version that can be sanded and refinished again in fifteen years. | $200 – $500 | per linear foot |
| Doors and drawer fronts only, boxes left aloneWhere the boxes are sound and only the faces are dated. Includes the door, the hinge boring and the hanging. Drawer fronts price the same way. | $180 – $330 | per door, installed |
| Doors and drawer fronts only, whole kitchenThe same job counted across an average kitchen rather than per door. The cheapest real change you can make to a kitchen that is structurally fine. | $2,200 – $6,600 | installed |
| Labor alone on a door and front swap, doors suppliedFor anyone pricing the doors separately. Hanging and adjusting is most of this line, because a door that is hung but not adjusted reads as a bad job within a month. | $140 – $230 | per door |
| Soft-close hinge and undermount runner retrofit during a refaceDone while the doors are already off, which is the only time it is cheap. Hinges and runners carry their own load and cycle ratings, so this gets specified rather than picked off a shelf. | $30 – $80 | per door or drawer |
| Replacing a failed sink base or dishwasher end panel during a refaceThe row that separates a real refacing quote from a cosmetic one. A swollen particleboard sink base will lift new veneer inside a year, so it gets replaced rather than skinned. | $400 – $1,400 | per box |
| Lead-safe containment and cleanup on a pre-1978 kitchenSealing the room, HEPA vacuuming and a wet cleanup rather than a broom. On a kitchen built before 1978 this is a rule about the work, not an upgrade, and it is on the quote or it is being skipped. | $350 – $1,200 | per job |
Want yours measured properly?
We come out, measure the opening at three heights and check how far off square your walls sit, then put a written number on it before anything is ordered.
Questions we get asked
How much does cabinet refacing cost in Lynn?
$5,000 to $13,000 for a standard kitchen, or $150 to $450 per linear foot. Doors and drawer fronts on their own run $2,200 to $6,600. Your door material moves the number most. Thermofoil sits at $80 to $125 a foot and solid hardwood at $200 to $500.
How long does refacing a kitchen take?
Three to five working days on site once your doors arrive. Made-to-order doors and fronts take 1 to 2 weeks, against 4 to 12 weeks for a full custom kitchen. That supply gap is most of why refacing feels fast.
Can you reface cabinets with particleboard boxes?
Usually yes, and the test is condition rather than material. We probe the floor of your sink base and the panel beside your dishwasher first. A swollen base costs $400 to $1,400 to replace, and refacing over it wastes the $150 to $450 a foot you spent.
Is refacing worth it, or should I buy new cabinets?
Reface while the boxes are sound and the layout is staying put. New custom cabinets run $10,000 to $26,500 for a 10x10 kitchen, and a semi-custom line such as KraftMaid sits at $3,000 to $11,000. Refacing at $5,000 to $13,000 only beats those if your boxes have years left in them.
Will refacing stop my doors sticking?
Yes, in most kitchens, because your doors are new and we set the gaps when we hang them. Where the boxes themselves have moved with the floor, rehanging and re-squaring the run is $220 to $700. That happens whether you reface or not.
Who refaces kitchen cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn refaces kitchens across Lynn and the North Shore, at $5,000 to $13,000 for a standard run. We open your sink base and count your doors before quoting, so your number is built on your boxes rather than on a square-foot average.
Refacing is the fastest big change you can make to a kitchen. It is also the wrong spend on roughly one kitchen in four. We would rather tell you that while the blade is still in your sink base than skin a run of boxes with two years left in them.
If you are weighing this against new cabinets, refacing against replacing is the short version of that decision. Where your doors are dated in color rather than in style, cabinet painting gets you there for $2,000 to $6,500, and everything we handle lists the rest.