The Refresh Process
We get a lot of questions on how the Refresh process works. Here’s a quick overview.
1. The Kitchen Design Consultation and Estimate
Our consultations involve a no-pressure, 30-60 minute meeting in your home or in a Kitchen Refresh Design Studio. Here, the designer will better understand your kitchen remodel budget and what you are looking to accomplish with your kitchen cabinets and the overall space. From that, recommendations will be made and additional questions you may have will be answered. The goal is to finalize your cabinet color choices, hardware style and finish selections, and other aspects of your transformation such as countertop, backsplash and flooring.
Although in-home consultations are an option, an in-studio consultation is recommended as it will deliver great kitchen inspiration as it will have a full selection of our sample door colors, samples of every hardware style, and an example of cabinets that were completed with the Refresh process. In most circumstances, the consultation is also when you’ll receive an estimate for your kitchen.
This is also a good time to discuss crown moulding, additions or changes, garbage or other cabinet pullouts, cabinet and island additions or other modifications, and bathrooms, bar areas, and entertainment rooms or other areas you’d like to include.
Oftentimes, a client OK’s their estimate right at the consultation phase and their project goes into the queue process with their payment.
2. Measuring
Once a client has OK’d the estimate and paid their invoice, measuring is completed on all the kitchen cabinets, including the doors, drawer fronts, paneled ends and other items that will be needed in the Refresh project. The “cut list” of these items is then submitted to the Kitchen Refresh production facility where your project will go into the queue for completion.
3. Production of New Doors, Drawers, etc.
At the production facility, every door, drawer front, paneled end, crown moulding, etc. is custom produced specifically for your kitchen cabinets in the Thermofoil color you’ve selected. Pictured here is a door in White Ash, one of our most popular Thermofoil colors. Once production is completed, the items are shipped to the Kitchen Refresh location where the order originated. From production to delivery, the process is usually only about 3-6 weeks.
The Thermofoil we use on all of our doors, drawer fronts, paneled ends and other components is a highly durable, easy-to-clean, pre-colored surface finish applied to the engineered wood doors we produce.
4. Cabinet Box Painting
Once the doors, drawer fronts and other items for your project are onsite at your local Kitchen Refresh facility, your project will be scheduled. The first step in the project is removing all the doors and drawer fronts from your kitchen cabinets and prepping, priming and painting the cabinet boxes with a high quality finish. We work with a popular national paint supplier that uses a color coordination technology, and all of our paint codes are in their system for getting the correct paint to complement your Thermofoil door color selection.
About half of our clients choose to do the door removal and painting themselves while the other half have the Kitchen Refresh franchisee coordinate this to be completed by their staff or subcontractors they work with. Because your existing cabinet boxes are retained, all contents can stay in place (only items from drawers need to be removed), and all appliances stay in place, too. The cabinet box refinishing process usually takes just 1 or 2 days and another day or two for curing.
5. Door and Drawer Installation
After the paint has cured on the cabinet boxes, then the doors and drawer fronts are installed on your kitchen cabinets, as well as crown moulding and paneled ends, Lazy Susans, garbage and cabinet drawer pullouts and other upgrades you’ve selected for your project, and the pull hardware, too. This process usually takes just one day - and your project is complete and ready for you to enjoy!
Be sure to check out our Frequently Asked Questions section, too!
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