Galaxy Horizon Refacing Panel Cabinets

Refacing keeps the carcasses and replaces what you see. The sheets on this page cover the parts of an old box that are not doors: exposed sides, the back of an island or peninsula, a boxed-in end. They are sold as sheets rather than as coded parts because they are cut on site to whatever the existing cabinets turn out to be.

With paint, the finish is a coating, and a coating can be renewed. With this stain the surface you are buying is the wood itself, coloured and sealed, and Fabuwood does not make spray cans for its stained finishes. Repairs are done with a touch-up kit — a fill stick, a marker and a scraper — which is designed for chips and scratches, not for recolouring a whole face. So the sheet you fix to the box is the finish that box will have for years. Choose it from a real door sample ($35.00) held against the room, not from a screen.

The other half of a reface is doors and drawer fronts, and here we need to be direct. The live Horizon list carries sheets, skins, panels and fillers, but no loose doors or loose drawer fronts. The door side of a reface in this finish is therefore not an off-the-shelf purchase from these pages. Ask us before planning around it; the answer decides whether this is a reface or a new kitchen.

Phasing is the most common way people try to make refacing affordable: the island this year, the perimeter next spring. With paint that is a reasonable plan. With a stain it runs into the two sentences Fabuwood prints about its stained finishes — that colour variation between parts is normal, and that parts ordered later may not match cabinets already installed.

In a phased reface, every sheet in phase two is by definition a part ordered later, and it will sit in the same room as phase one, often in the same sightline. The difference may be small. It may also be the first thing you notice every time you walk in, because you know where the join is.

If the budget really does require two phases, make the boundary a place where a difference would not read as a mismatch:

• Between an island and the perimeter, with floor between them. Two freestanding pieces a few feet apart are compared far less than two faces that touch.
• Between rooms. A pantry, a bar or a mudroom done later is seen on its own.
• Between finishes. Fabuwood itself shows this stain in two-tone kitchens with Galaxy Frost white, and alongside the darker Galaxy Cobblestone stain. If phase two is going to be a different colour anyway, no one will compare runs.

What does not work is splitting one continuous run, or both faces of one peninsula, across two orders.

Two widths, two lengths and three thicknesses. For a reface, the width is the number that matters first: 24 inches covers the side of a standard-depth base or tall box with a little to trim; 30 inches covers a deeper side or yields two narrow pieces.

The listings give a thickness for the X variants and nothing else: not what makes a sheet 3 inches thick, not what it is meant to solve. If your boxes have a face frame that stands proud of the side, or you want a chunky end, ask us what these parts are before you order one. We will not describe their construction from a title.

On a stain, plan the cuts so that faces which meet come from the same sheet. Two sides of one peninsula end, or an island back and the end beside it, cut from one sheet share the same finishing run and read as one surface. Which way the grain runs on a 30 × 96 sheet is not stated on the listing either, so confirm it before you draw a cut plan that depends on it.

As a rough guide to counts: a 24 × 96 sheet yields the two exposed sides of a pair of base cabinets with room to trim, or one tall side. A 30 × 96 sheet can be ripped into a base side and a strip for a face-frame return. An island back is usually a question of length first, and that is where the 120-inch sheets earn their price, because a back clad in one length has no joint across it. Where a joint is unavoidable, put it behind a stool or at a post, not in the middle of the run.

A reface changes the outside of a box. Everything below stays as it was, and on a finish with visible wood it is worth knowing in advance which of these will show.

• The interiors. New Allure cabinets have a natural wood veneer interior. An old box may be white melamine or bare particleboard inside, and that is what you see every time a door opens next to a new grey-taupe face.
• The inside edges of the face-frame openings. Refacing veneer usually covers the front of the frame; the edges you see around each drawer and door opening need their own treatment.
• The underside of wall cabinets. It is visible from a seated position and from the far side of an island. A ¼-inch panel (GH PAN-1/4, $263.25) is on the decorative list for surfaces like this.
• The toe kick. It is sold by the 8-foot length (GH TK8, $55.90) and is usually the part people remember last.
• The hinges and slides. Old hardware stays unless you replace it. New Galaxy boxes come with Blum soft-close hinges and dovetail drawers on full-extension runners; a refaced box keeps whatever it had.

The honest test of whether refacing is worth it is in is refacing kitchen cabinets worth the money. For boxes that are already failing, how long cabinets last explains what to look for before spending anything on their outsides.

It makes sense where the boxes are sound, the layout works and the job is mainly door-less faces: an island back, a peninsula end, a built-in that has to read as part of the kitchen. It also suits a remodeler who needs a few site-built pieces to sit beside new Horizon cabinets, because a sheet from the same order is the closest match available.

It makes less sense when the whole kitchen is the goal. Without loose doors on the list, a full reface in this finish depends on an answer we have to get for you, and new boxes are not far away in price: a 30-inch base, GH B30, is $555.75 pre-assembled with its door, drawer and hardware, and the 10x10 kitchen package in this finish is displayed at $4,400.00. Price both before deciding.