Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - Cabinet refacing question

Hi all. I have a cabinet refacing question that I haven't been able to find an answer to in all of my searching online. So I'm hoping people here can help. :)

My wife and I recently bought a new house. It has a small-ish kitchen with a nice countertop, but the cabinets are not so nice. We don't have a lot of money left over after the purchase, but would really like to do something with those cabinets. I was thinking I'd try refacing them myself.

The cabinets are from the 80s; the previous owners painted them blue. We hate the color, and the door style is not our favorite either. But as far as the structure of the cabinets, they are in good condition. So my question is: can I reface directly over the painted cabinets, or do I have to strip the paint first? I'm concerned about applying veneer to a painted surface, as well as gluing the thin veneered plywood to the sides to the cabinets, wood-to-painted-wood.

Thanks!

Carl

I also have a 1981 townhouse kitchen. The kitchen layout is good and the cabinets are sound (soild oak frames) - not painted, but a dark oak veneer on chipped "partical board" doors.

I will be cleaning and painting the interiors and applying unfinished natural cheery veneer to the face frames and cabinet ends. I wiil buy new solid unfinished cherry doors made to my openings and will finish with poly (no stain) for a lighter color without the wild grain. Some will have glazing. You can get a wide variety of different woods with different edging profiles, face patterns and openings for glazing.

I bought a number of different scrap samples of cheery and other wood and tried different stains (or no stains) and different finished until I found something that seemed right. It was not costly, but took time

I understand a good sanding to remove the old finish will be good enough if the proper adhesive is used. There is no way I could do much with the old oak color and grain texture.

I should be able to minimize the kitchen mess by finishing the doors out of the kitchen at my convenience. I will be buying the doors with hinges attached, so I should only have to drill the finished frames.

If the cabinets turn out good, I will go for granite or something upscale. If just OK, then I will just go for laminate tops.

Just a different approach for a common problem or project.

Dick

Wow, sounds like a good project. I think I'm probably going to go with pre-finished doors and veneers from the internet. I want to have the look of wood, and have no experience finishing wood or veneer. I guess if the cost is prohibitive I can learn how to finish wood. :)

1. If the cabinet layout suits your needs.......
2. If the cabinets are well constructed and solid(plywood boxes)
then refacing/new doors is a good option. If none of the above, don't waste the money. If you DIY, it can be fairly inexpensive. If you hire a refacer, it can cost about 2/3 the cost of new cabinets.

If we can afford the materials, preferably pre-finished, I think I can do it (famous last words....). I'll order some extra veneer to practice on some scrap before doing the real thing. I don't want to have to hire refacers.

In answer to my original question, I called a few online refacing places and they said paint was fine to reface over, so that's a relief.