If you’ve stood in your kitchen lately and thought, These cabinets have to go, pause for a second. You may not actually need new cabinets. You might just need new fronts on the ones you have.
That’s the heart of the refacing-versus-installation question, and it’s one of the more expensive decisions you’ll make in any kitchen update. Get it right and you save thousands. Get it wrong and you either overspend on a full replacement you didn’t need, or you slap pretty new doors onto cabinet boxes that were quietly falling apart underneath.
Here’s the honest breakdown, with Canadian numbers, so you can figure out which one actually fits your kitchen.
What each one actually means
Cabinet refacing keeps the structural boxes attached to your walls and replaces only what you see, new doors, new drawer fronts, a thin veneer or laminate over the exposed sides, plus new hinges and hardware. Bones stay, skin changes.
Cabinet installation (full replacement) means tearing everything out and starting over. New boxes, new doors, the works. You can also rethink your layout, add an island, or jump from stock to fully custom.
There’s also refinishing, sanding and repainting the doors you already have. Cheapest, but the shortest-lived. We’re focused on the bigger two here.
What it costs in Canada
By 2026, as reported by RenoQuotes Canada, the cost of professionally re-facing an average-sized Canadian kitchen will run from approximately $2500.00 to $8500.00 CAD including installation.
The GTA area, especially Toronto, will probably fall closer to the higher end of that price-range, with a GTA contractor estimating the cost of re-facing a 10 × 10 kitchen to be anywhere from $5,000.00 to $15,000.00 based upon material selection and door-style.
Replacing all the cabinets in your kitchen at once will obviously increase your overall cost. The GTA pricing for replacing cabinets broke down into the following categories:
Stock Cabinets (IKEA, Home Depot etc) = $150.00 – $400.00 CAD / Linear Foot Installed
Semi-Custom Cabinets = $400.00 – $700.00 CAD / Linear Foot Installed
Fully Custom Cabinets = $700.00 – $950.00 CAD / Linear Foot Installed
Boutique Mill-Work Shops in the GTA will occasionally charge upwards of $1500.00 per linear foot.
Smaller kitchens with custom cabinets would normally be priced around $10,000.00 to $17,000.00; Medium sized kitchens $17,000.00 to $25,000.00; Large kitchens are often estimated between $25,000.00 and $35,000.00 or more for the custom cabinets alone. This does not include countertops, appliances or other trade work associated with your kitchen renovation.
For a quick estimate; Reface usually costs between 30% and 50% of a full cabinet replacement. For example if you were looking at having a kitchen renovated for $25,000.00 you could likely get a comparable re-face for between $8000.00 and $12,000.00.
How long it really takes
Re-facings are relatively quick; Most jobs take between 3 to 5 days to complete since there is little to no tear-down, little to no need for dry-wall repairs and there is rarely any wait time for electrical/plumbing relocation. Many customers continue to use their kitchen throughout the process.
A full Install is a completely different story. The actual install time is short-lived but design, purchasing and lead-time for semi-custom and fully custom installations stretch out the entire duration of the project over multiple weeks for semi-custom and months for fully custom. If you are changing the countertops to match the rest of your kitchen renovations which many homeowners choose to do, add yet another additional week or so for templating and fabrication of your new countertop.
How long each type will last
Professionally Re-faced cabinets will commonly last between 10 to 20 years with high quality 3D Laminate or Solid Wood Doors. Less Quality Work or Poor DIY efforts may only last 5 to 10 years before Veneer begins peeling away from the substrate due to excessive exposure to Heat/Moisture.
New Cabinets:
Stock: 15 to 20 Years
Semi-Custom & Custom: 20 to 25+ Years Sometimes even up-to 30 Years With Proper Care.
Does refacing actually help resale?
Yes, and often more than a full remodel does, proportionally.
The Appraisal Institute of Canada, widely cited in Canadian renovation sources, including HomeStars, estimates that kitchen renovations return 75% to 100% of the cost in resale value. But where you land in that range depends on how heavy your touch is.
A useful benchmark from RenoQuotes: your kitchen renovation budget should generally land at 10-15% of your home’s market value. Go higher and you’re over-renovating your neighbourhood, which compresses your return.
When refacing is the right call
Reface when most of these are true: your cabinet boxes are structurally solid, you like your layout, you mainly want a cosmetic refresh, you’d rather not live through a month of demolition, and budget matters. Refacing also keeps your existing boxes out of the landfill, which is a meaningful environmental win if that matters to you.
When you actually need new cabinets
Don’t reface if:
- The boxes have water damage. The particleboard absorbs moisture and stays swollen. Refacing failing boxes means doing the work twice.
- The structure is crumbling. Press the inside walls. Anything soft, flaky, or sagging means the bones are gone.
- You hate the layout. Refacing keeps your cabinets exactly where they are. If your real problem is “not enough storage” or “the fridge is wrong”, new fronts won’t fix that.
- You’re doing major work anyway. If walls are coming down or plumbing’s moving, the marginal cost of new cabinets shrinks fast.
A quick self-check before you call anyone
Walk your kitchen with this list:
- Open every door, do they hang square and close fully?
- Empty a couple of cabinets and press the inside walls. Spongy or flaking = damaged.
- Check under the sink carefully — that’s where 80% of water damage hides.
- Smell. Musty odours mean moisture is sitting somewhere out of sight.
- Tap the cabinet sides — solid plywood sounds dense; failing particleboard sounds papery.
Two or more red flags? Get a professional eyes-on before deciding.
Quick reference
|
Refacing |
New install |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Total cost (CAD) |
$2,500–$8,500 |
$10,000–$35,000+ |
|
Active project time |
3–5 days |
Several weeks total |
|
Lifespan |
10–20 years |
15–30 years |
|
Layout change |
No |
Yes |
|
Typical GTA ROI |
70–85% |
60–75% |
The bottom line
It all boils down to three simple questions; How are my boxes performing? Am I happy with how the layout is set up? How many years do I plan on living here?
Refaced solid box, fairly good layout, sell within five years, reface. Refaced failing box, poor layout, planning on being there for a while longer, replace.
Clarity Kitchens does cabinet refacing as well as full kitchen cabinet installations if you live in the Whitby area or any other part of the GTA and would like an honest view of whether either option will fit your new kitchen.
References:
https://renoquotes.com/en/blog/kitchen-cabinet-refacing-cost-in-canada-in-2026-complete-price-guide
https://www.homestars.com/kitchen/price-guides/kitchen-cost
