Kitchen cabinet doors take daily use and accumulate damage over time — chips from opened tins, scratches from cleaning, wear around handles and edges. Before committing to a new kitchen or even new doors, professional repair is worth considering.

Types of Kitchen Cabinet Damage

Chips on door faces — the most common damage, typically caused by impact from items in the kitchen. Most common on high-gloss doors where the lacquer can chip, and on painted MDF doors.
Swollen or delaminating edges — moisture around sinks and dishwashers can cause MDF substrate to swell, lifting the surface layer at edges.
Scratches — surface scratches on gloss, matt lacquer and painted doors. Wood-effect vinyl-wrapped doors can delaminate at scratched areas.
Handle wear — the area around handles accumulates wear and colour loss over time.

Option 1: Repair Individual Doors

Individual chip and scratch repairs on kitchen cabinet doors are possible and cost-effective for isolated damage. A chip on one or two doors can be repaired on-site for £70–£150 per door.

This is the right option where the kitchen is generally in good condition and only one or two doors have damage.

Option 2: Full Kitchen Respray

If multiple doors are showing wear, discolouration or accumulated damage — or if you want to change the colour of your kitchen — a full kitchen respray is a popular alternative to replacement.

All doors are removed, sanded, primed and resprayed in your chosen colour. The result is a kitchen that looks new at a fraction of the cost of replacement.

Kitchen respray costs typically run to £1,000–£3,000 for a full kitchen, compared to £5,000–£20,000 or more for kitchen replacement.

Option 3: Replacement

Full kitchen replacement is warranted where the carcasses are damaged beyond repair, where the layout needs to change, or where the kitchen is simply at the end of its useful life. For surface damage on otherwise sound doors and carcasses, repair or respray is almost always the better value option.

How to Decide

One or two chips on otherwise good doors: repair
Multiple doors showing wear or discolouration, or you want a colour change: respray
Structural damage to carcasses, or a full layout change needed: replacement

Get a free kitchen repair or respray assessment →