More akin to science fiction than scientific reality, several people have received face transplants in recent years. Now relegated to only the most horrifying accidents, like most medical miracles, as techniques are perfected, this type of operation will eventually become much more common. Once that happens, it’s only a matter of time until the procedure becomes available as elective surgery for those who are dissatisfied with their existing faces, or perhaps just want a new look. After all, who wants to spend their entire life with the same old face? Wouldn’t it be nice to face each other again for your 25th high school reunion? And then again for 30?

Fortunately, great strides have also been made in face transplants for your kitchen (and other) cabinets. As materials and techniques have been perfected, the kitchen can now be remodeled inexpensively and optionally, and when done correctly, it can be indistinguishable from a new kitchen, beautifying all those unsightly spots that have embarrassed you for years.

In the not too distant past, a few brave practitioners risked their reputations using early remodeling techniques. You can choose from a catalog of about three different styles and colors for the siding, and most of them were brittle laminate doors with no trim. To make matters worse, the material was adhered to the face of the cabinets with contact cement, a terribly toxic and highly flammable adhesive that had a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years. Not very tempting!

So, scientists at Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M) went to work, creating a new adhesive that’s nontoxic, nonflammable, odorless, and gets stronger as it ages. There is nothing better than that! So someone (not sure exactly who) developed a material called Rigid-Thermofoil, also known as RTF. This wonderful new product is a vinyl-like material that is fused to furniture grade composition board. Using computer controlled heat and pressure to create the finished product, it’s flexible, much stronger than the old laminates of yesteryear, and can be formed into doors of many different shapes, allowing manufacturers to create hundreds of exciting looks. But they did not stop there. New photographic techniques were developed to duplicate the beauty of real wood. This year, they even released an RTF product that looks like stainless steel, creating a very attractive contemporary look for their cabinets.

In 1951 Raymond Lowey, the famous industrial designer (and one of my personal heroes) wrote a book titled Never leave good enough alone. Manufacturers who make veneer wood doors have apparently only recently discovered this book because they decided to introduce replacement doors in new shapes and species of wood. You’re no longer relegated to just oak, maple, and cherry. Now you can tile with eco-friendly bamboo, walnut, mahogany, and sapele, to name just a few. Then the 3M guys got together with the manufacturers making veneer and it was a match made in heaven.

So if some unforeseen disaster has caused all your cabinets to fail, now is a good time to look into repair. As the procedure has become more popular, the cost associated with the process has dropped considerably, as have people who undergo a refacing after it has also become more routine.

Modern science has made giant strides in reshaping people and kitchens. To quote the Wicked Witch of the West, as her face deteriorated, “What a world, what a world!” (Unfortunately, her face, along with the rest of her, melted to the point that a transplant would not be recommended.) But she could have had a beautiful kitchen.