If you’re searching for a low-budget way to update a dingy-looking kitchen, you should strongly consider refinishing your cabinets. After all, it costs much less to refinish cabinet doors than it costs to replace them.

And despite the lower price tag, refinishing cabinets can breathe new life into your kitchen. You’ll retain the natural beauty of the original hardwood, but you’ll swap out your cabinets’ time-worn appearance for a just-like-new finish.

At N-Hance®, we know how transformative cabinet refinishing can be and how much money it can save homeowners. We also know how much of a difference it can make to the appearance of your kitchen. But if you’re getting ready to refinish your cabinet doors, you’ll need to make some key decisions first…

What to Decide Before Refinishing Cabinets

1. DIY vs. Pro Refinishing

Many homeowners choose to refinish cabinets by themselves, so they don’t need to spend money on a professional refinisher. While this can lower the budget of your project, it comes with a number of trade-offs.

First, there’s the time you’ll need to spend on the project. It can take 25+ hours to refinish cabinets in a mid-sized kitchen. If you have other commitments, the project could stretch on for multiple weeks. Throughout that time, your kitchen will be virtually unusable.

Then there’s the matter of workmanship. When you refinish cabinets by yourself, you can end up with telltale signs of poor craftsmanship. These include pinhole bubbles, uneven coloration, drip marks, eggshell cracks, or even permanent damage caused by improper sanding.

Professional refinishing may cost a little more money, but it’s often worth the time savings. Moreover, by hiring a professional refinishing service, you’re guaranteed expert craftsmanship.

2. Solvent-Based vs. Water-Based Finishes

When you’re updating the finish on kitchen cabinet doors, you’ll need to choose a type of finish.

In the past, most homeowners chose a solvent based finish, like a traditional varnish or lacquer. Unfortunately, solvent-based finishes produce toxic fumes that are harmful to people and the environment. What’s more, they produce unpleasant odors as they cure, which can linger for weeks.

In recent years, water-based finishes have risen in popularity. At N-Hance, for instance, we exclusively use water-based polyurethane finishes. These finishes produce minimal fumes and odors, making them much safer than solvent-based varnishes and lacquers.

3. Style of Finish

Another big decision when refinishing kitchen cabinets is the style of finish.

Some people prefer a matte finish with minimal luster, which allows the wood’s natural beauty to speak for itself. Others prefer to accent their cabinets with a clear, high-gloss finish. Most homeowners choose a style somewhere in the middle, like semi-matte, semi-gloss, or satin.

At N-Hance, we offer a full range of finish styles for cabinet doors. We can also provide samples of how our finish coats appear on different types of wood. This way, you can get a better sense of how your kitchen will look after refinishing.

4. Refinish Process

Until recently, there was one basic process used to refinish cabinets. This process, which is still used by most professional refinishers, has a number of drawbacks. Most notably, it requires removing the original layer of finish via sanding.

If done improperly, this can damage hardwood and reduce the lifespan of cabinets. It also results in lingering wood dust, which is messy and a respiratory health hazard.

Traditional refinishing requires multiple days of cure time. During that time, your family needs to cope with unpleasant odors and chemical fumes. And if you accidentally touch your cabinets, you could spoil the new finish.

At N-Hance, we use a much more modern system to refinish cabinets. Our process eliminates the need for sanding, which means zero wood dust. And thanks to our Lightspeed® instant-cure system, you don’t need to wait for your cabinets to cure.

5. Anti-Microbial Finishes

The average kitchen is crawling with microbes like e. coli and salmonella. Many of these microbes are found on the faces of cabinets and drawers.

To combat these dangerous bacteria, a handful of cabinet refinishers now offer anti-microbial finish coatings. At N-Hance, we’ve developed our Lightspeed Plus™ finish for this exact purpose.

A Lightspeed Plus™ finish produces the same eye-catching results as our regular refinishing service. At the same time, it can prevent microbes from colonizing cabinet surfaces, which can reduce your risk of foodborne illness.

Get a FREE estimate for refinishing kitchen cabinet doors by calling N-Hance at (855) 642-6230!