Is it hard to take off the "face" of old kitchen cabinets to change the look?

I believe you are describing cabinets that are made of particle board and wrapped in adhesive vinyl sheeting that is printed to look like wood. If that is the case, sanding them will leave you with a ragged mess, and painting them will not give you very good results. Oil based paints will react with the vinyl, and water based paints will peel. However, you can buy this kind of self-adhesive vinyl facing if you don't mind the cutting and fitting. If these are the cabinets I'm thinking of, the doors are made out of melamine plastic, and those you can paint, with certain paints that are designed to be applied over plastics. Rust-Oleum makes paints for plastic patio furniture that might do the trick. A full face-lift - one that uses real wood veneer and new, wood cabinet doors, is the best way to refinish cabinets, short of buying new ones (which can be obscenely expensive), but it sounds like you don't want to invest this much. That will still cost several hundred dollars, depending on ...  more