Should You Repair or Replace Damaged Cabinets?
The stationary furniture around your home often requires some extra TLC, despite being designed to last a lifetime. Cabinets, in particular, serve many purposes in a home including maximizing storage and enhancing appearance. Choosing the right brand and style of stationary furniture can therefore be a challenge, even more so when you’re faced with the choice of replacing or refacing your cabinets. While refacing your cabinets may at first seem like the cost-effective solution to your cabinetry complaints, this project is often labor-intensive—leaving you with a messy and costly home improvement that adds little value to your home.
To ensure you’re making the best decision for your home, time, and budget, here’s some additional information to help you confidently determine whether or not replacing your cabinets is in your best interest.
What’s the Average Lifespan of Indoor Cabinets?
The answer to this trivia question is shocking—try up to 50 years for high-quality cabinets! Because they will most likely outlive the other furniture pieces in your home, when choosing new cabinets, it’s more beneficial to invest in a timeless style and top-tier carpentry that works for your aesthetic preferences and your unique lifestyle needs. Keep this in mind when the decision comes to replace or refinish your cabinets. While refinishing your rundown cabinets is a great short-term investment, replacing your cabinets—especially if they are seriously damaged—is a long-term investment that is way more likely to increase the resale value of your home.
Serious Damages Need to be Addressed
Like any damaged aspect of your home, cabinets that have seen better days can negatively impact your home’s appearance and functionality. Not only can significant signs of cabinet damage take away from the aesthetic appeal of a room, but they can also become a safety hazard if left unaddressed.
Here are some of the top signs of cabinet damage:
1. Water Stains or Water Damage
Water damaged cabinets are a horror show waiting to happen. While all-wood cabinets—especially kitchen cabinets—are at higher risk of water damage, any cabinet material can suffer from water damage after an extended amount of exposure. If your cabinets look swollen, are soft to the touch, or showing dark patches of discoloration, they may have water damage. Other common signs of water damage include:
- Paint bubbling (interior and exterior)
- External laminate peeling
- Mold and mildew growth
- Warped wood
- Blackened wood
2. Stubborn Grease Stains
Kitchen or not, cabinets are subjected to dirt and grime year after year. Transferred from exterior elements and fingers, grease and oils can significantly discolor your cabinets. While you can attempt to clean your cabinets periodically to avoid this grimy buildup, over time this responsibility will become more and more difficult to manage. And, after a while, the stubborn buildup will remain a permanent cabinet feature. Painting over this grease in an attempt to improve the appearance of your cabinets will also be a difficult feat, as it disrupts the paint’s ability to properly and evenly adhere to the cabinet surface.
3. Poor Functionality
Once upon a time, your cabinets closed seamlessly. If things have since changed, or you’ve never seen your cabinets closed without a large gap, a replacement may be in your future. Cabinet functionality is important to successful home management, and it’s something that can’t be resolved with a simple coat of fresh paint.
Do Your Cabinets Work for Your Lifestyle?
Your home should be designed to suit your unique needs, ceiling to floor. If your cabinets are not functioning properly or are sporting a design that is not living up to your standards, then you may want to fully replace rather than repair your cabinets. Poor cabinet design can include anything from poor accessibility to lack of storage space to inconvenient layout—basically, anything that hinders your ability to successfully navigate your home and utilize your cabinets to their fullest potential. In short, whether or not your cabinets are aesthetically pleasing, if your cabinets are not functional or serving their best purpose, you may want to invest in a remodel.
Custom Cabinets: The High-Quality Upgrade
Have you decided to invest in new cabinets? Consider the benefits of purchasing a high-end, customizable product. Not only are they designed to last up to 50 years, but custom cabinets are also designed with your exact needs in mind—ensuring you benefit from an upgrade that is guaranteed to leave you fully satisfied.
For Florida residents, the custom cabinet design and installation expert to turn to is AlliKristé. We focus on providing unique cabinetry solutions to homeowners throughout the region, delivering the very best custom-design cabinetry that ranges in price, color, shape, and style. To learn more about our custom cabinets for your home, contact AlliKristé today!