Refacing kitchen cabinets without any veneer?

loft_lover

Hi there!
This is my first post here and I'm amazed with all of the experts and advice here. We have several DIY projects ongoing, but don't quite know what to do with our kitchen cabinets and probably will get a professional involved.

We live in a loft downtown that is brick and timber style. However, our kitchen has creamy white raised panel style doors. They are nice quality cabinets and we have great appliances and granite counters, but the cabinet style doesn't really fit the neighborhood or the modern loft interior. We would love high quality solid cherry slab or shaker style cabinets.

Given the risks involved with taking out the granite safely and the expense of all new cabinets, we are thinking refacing might be a good option. However, I really don't like the idea of using a very thin veneer or veneer tape on the boxes. Is it possible to reface kitchen cabinets without veneer and instead use some sort of 1/4 inch solid wood on the box fronts?

Thanks in advance!

Just Bill

New doors are available in almost any style you could imagine. If the cabinets frames are wood, they could be stripped and stained or done with a different finish. But painted wood frames are usually poplar. Veneer is real wood, just thin wood that can be finished like real wood. Another refacing material is high pressure laminate(formica), but you soulnd like you want to get away from plastic. And this is not a novice DIY job.