5 Benefits of Refacing Cabinets With Veneer
July 20, 2023
Veneer is a popular choice and is frequently used in cabinet refacing. It's a great product for making your cabinets look fancy and expensive without spending much money. Veneer is a versatile material that offers many benefits, but before we go into those, let's talk about what veneer is and how it is used.
What Is Veneer?
Before we examine veneer, let's address the elephant in the room. When people hear "veneer," they often assume it is "fake wood" or a "cheap" substitute. The negative connotations of veneer began after World War II when good wood was hard to come by and costly. Whether made from real wood or a synthetic alternative, veneer was a more affordable choice. Unfortunately, the adhesives used then were inferior, resulting in poor-quality performance and finish.
In the 1970s, an influx of low-quality veneer products further compounded the bad vibes associated with it.
Modern veneer, however, regardless of what it's made of, has come a long way. The products are better, and the installation methods have improved.
Now let's look at what veneer is and some of its benefits.
Veneer is a paper-thin facing applied to a strong core surface, such as furniture-grade medium-density fiberboard (MDF) or substrate material. It acts as an aesthetic but also seals and stabilizes the surface it covers. It can be made of wood or from synthetic materials made to look like wood, such as thin layers of laminate or melamine.
Some synthetic veneer laminates can be as good as real wood veneers as long as the quality of the product is good.
Architectural Digest exposes the truth about wood veneers, and makes it clear there is no reason to avoid using veneer instead of solid wood.
Wood expands and contracts with temperature. Veneer can help stabilize it. No matter how well the climate is controlled, fluctuation will always affect any wood in your home. Without veneer, your solid wood cabinets risk getting warped or splitting. This is one of the reasons veneer can be a good choice.
Veneer or solid wood isn't the only choice. Some people like refinishing their cabinets, which involves painting and staining the surfaces. This is the easiest and most affordable way to do it, but is it ideal?
Refinishing doesn't reinforce the wood like veneer. Furthermore, refinishing may not be the best choice in the long run. Inferior paints and stains can chip and peel over time, putting you in the position of spending additional money to redo the job. This makes high-quality veneer a better long-term solution.
Wood veneer is typically made with more expensive hardwood and placed over less-expensive wood to make cabinets look high-end without spending much money. No one will likely notice unless they closely inspect it, and even then, a high-quality veneer is visually appealing and can enhance and reinforce your cabinetry.
The biggest concern about veneer is its durability. Does it hold up like solid wood? Over time, it can peel and warp, especially when used on cabinets in hot and humid places like the kitchen. But solid wood might not fare well under these same conditions as well. It all goes back to the quality of the veneer and especially the adhesive used.
Quality Matters
Many cabinet refacing companies get their materials from a third party and have no control over the quality or production of their veneers, meaning they often provide inferior products. These companies continue to give veneers a bad reputation and encourage the idea that it is somehow inferior.
A manufacturer-direct
cabinet refacing company like Cabinet Reface Direct can guarantee its products and services because they monitor the production process from start to finish. They select the materials, manufacture them, and do the installation. This allows them to remove the middleman, which means they can pass savings on to their customers.
5 Benefits of Refacing Your Cabinets With Veneer
Veneer, as we mentioned, is an important part of the cabinet refacing process. With refacing, you have new cabinets without replacing the core cabinet boxes. Only the doors, drawers, and hardware components are replaced. During refacing, a veneer is applied to the exposed parts of your cabinet boxes to make a cohesive and consistent appearance that matches the look and design of the new cabinet components added during the refacing process. Here are five benefits of using veneer.
- Flexible and Structurally Sound
Veneers are flexible enough to adhere to and cover the cabinet fronts without expanding with constantly changing temperatures. Since it's cut into thin slices of wood, they are easily glued to an engineered wood substrate to help make them more structurally sound while giving an updated appearance.
- Affordable and Elegant
Because wood veneers use minimal raw materials in their construction, you save money while achieving the more expensive and modern appearance you want.
You also get the quality you expect from wood without the additional cost. This is especially true if you use a lower-cost synthetic material that replicates the look of wood rather than real wood. Either way, the application of a low-cost veneer can elevate the appearance of cabinets (especially if the cabinets are made of cheaper wood) by adding a hardwood veneer over them.
For example, say you have cabinets made of cheap wood, but they are functional and don't need to be replaced. You want the appearance of more expensive cherrywood cabinets. The cost to install full cherrywood cabinets in a 10x10 kitchen can run you in the thousands, while installing cherrywood veneers in the same area can be done for hundreds (excluding labor).
Visually, the same end result is achieved. You get the elegant, warm, and modern look of cherrywood cabinets without the cost. This is where veneers really shine and is one of the biggest reasons to consider them for your cabinets.
- Cabinets That Last for Decades
Wood veneer isn't typically subjected to the same aging effects as solid wood, such as splitting or warping, so it helps extend the life of your cabinets, often by many years. When high-quality veneers are combined with a string adhesive, the veneers can reinforce the integrity of the substrate they cover.
- Fast and Convenient
Veneers are easier to install and less time-consuming when refacing cabinets, making the whole process quick and easy. This allows you to continue your daily life without disruption. In fact, you can even still use your kitchen cabinets during refacing, and the whole installation usually takes no more than three days.
- Environmentally Friendly Refacing
Refacing is a sustainable alternative to remodeling because you keep the core of your current cabinets in place. And choosing a wood veneer for your refacing project is far more energy-efficient, does less environmental damage, and makes it a great choice for helping to preserve our ecosystem.
Veneer Cabinet Refacing With Cabinet Reface Direct
The great thing about Cabinet Reface Direct refacing services is that we guarantee that the materials we use are the best. You get affordable refacing and professional installation you can rely on. There's no need to worry about inferior products. We guarantee our products and work because we're confident in the quality and professional installation we deliver to our customers.
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