Wood Veneer

• Refacing your cabinets with wood veneer is significantly less expensive than purchasing new cabinets--and you can do-it-yourself in a weekend. If your doors are flat, you can reface them, but if they are raised panel or have any architectural features, you'll need to either sand and re-stain the ones you have or purchase new doors.
  
  Some companies sell peel-and-stick veneer strips already sized to fit sections of standard cabinets. Apply strong pressure to the veneer to keep it from lifting up over time.
  
  Regular veneer is applied to the cabinets with wood glue and finishing nails. Stain the veneer on the cabinets and on the doors to match.
  
  

Metal

• Stainless steel, antiqued aluminum, copper and brass are among the choices you have if you prefer the cool look of metal on your cabinets. You can buy metal-covered doors from specialty cabinet companies to fit your cabinets; reface the remaining parts with matching metal sheets. If you have flat doors, cover them yourself with do-it-yourself metal sheeting. For a custom look, keep your raised panel doors, cover the flat sections with metal sheeting and paint or stain the rest.
  
  

Refinishing

• One of the most cost-effective ways to reface your cabinets is to remove the doors, sand all of the wood and restain the cabinets in a fresh new color. You can also paint over stained cabinets, but you'll have to sand everything first so the paint will adhere to the surface. The only way to stain over painted cabinets is if you completely remove all of the paint by sanding the cabinets and doors down to the bare wood.
  
  

Acrylics

• A simple way to reface your raised panel cabinet doors is to replace the panels with a colorful sheet of acrylic. Remove the doors and the center panel, cut a piece of acrylic to fit and attach it with a bead of clear craft glue around the perimeter. You can have the acrylic precut to size for you at a home store to make this refacing job even easier.