How To Update Cathedral Style Cabinet Doors

I knew I had to DIY outdated cabinets to shaker cheap just information technology had to look loftier-end. I had stared at these outdated cathedral cabinets for five years, knowing I wasn't about to rip out solid forest cabinets and pay tens of thousands of dollars to take them replaced. They weren't so bad in the very early 2000s when the house was built but over the years they've turned orangish. In the earlier pictures, they look more on the chocolate-brown side just in reality, they were carrot-orange.

We'll accost that backsplash and the floor in a afterwards postal service, for now, back to the cabinets. I went circular-and-round thinking near sanding, revarnishing darker, painting and all the same, none of these options took care of the dated cathedral-style doors. I had my heart assault clean lines and fresh white for my kitchen and a bandaid on it was just going to exist some expense and, non to mention, a lot of hard work and I still wasn't going to have the classic kitchen that I had envisioned for and then long.

The cathedral manner of the cabinets wouldn't allow me to just put stiles and rails over the face of the existing door as some of the curves in the design went very wide. I needed a thin, paint-ready type of lumber to encompass the door with. Something that looked similar wood since the existing cabinets are solid hardwood.

One Sabbatum afternoon I went to Lowe's with Jon (who was working on some other project) and I wandered over to the lumber department and there, but waiting for me to discover was EXACTLY what we needed to pull off the loftier-terminate cabinets I wanted at the rock-bottom price I was willing to pay.

The clouds parted! A golden axle of low-cal shone down upon… 5mm poplar plywood! A 4′ 10 eight′ sail for $15.98. I could get the whole kitchen, uppers and lowers, done for two or three sheets. That'southward less than $50.00! Now we're talking! It's overnice and smoothen with just a bit of wood grain, gear up for primer and paint.

At present I'd just need some lumber for the stiles and runway. I wanted them more substantial and not too thin. Enter ½" MDF, that's Medium Density Fiberboard. There information technology was, ½" x 4′ x eight′ sheet for $21.57. Surely information technology wouldn't take more i sail. Hither comes Jon, he found me! I presented the programme to him and showed him the lumber and he said, "Yes! Can do!" My favorite piffling words!

So, nosotros're upwards to just under $lxx.00 and only lack a few incidentals; sanding pads, pivot nails, caulk, primer, brush, roller, and pigment plus new drawer pulls. Thankfully the local Lowe's will cut lumber to any specifications free of charge!

Supplies

4′ x 8′ poplar plywood
4′ x viii′ MDF
Sandpaper
Pin nails
Caulk
Wood putty

Zinsser BullsEye 123 Primer
Pigment Benjamin Moore Advance Satin Simply White
Wooster Constructed Brush
Mohair Roller
Hardware – knobs, and drawer pulls

Total Cost to DIY Outdated Cabinets to Shaker Cheap

Nosotros refaced 29 doors, 10 loving cup pulls, 29 knobs, and a 12″ pull. Primed and painted inside and out. The total cost to update our cabinets from the orangish cathedral style to white shaker style:

Lumber	$69.51
Sandpaper	$ 4.49
Pin nails	$ 5.99
Caulk	$ 3.09
Woods putty	$ 5.58
Primer	$25.86
Pigment	$52.00
Brush	$ four.85
Mohair roller	$ vi.52
Knobs & pulls	$58.75
TOTAL	$236.64

There was a BIG unforeseen expense that more than than doubled our total cost for updating the cabinets. Never utilise a table saw when you are tired. Poor Jon got his thumb in the way of the tabular array saw blade. I raced him down to the emergency clinic where the md came in, looked at his injury, left, came dorsum in looked some more than, left again and finally came back a third time prepare to sew what was left of his thumb dorsum together.

I'll get out it at that and spare you the pictures. Accept my word for information technology, information technology was bad and the doctor did an astonishing job. So that little trip added $465.00 to our total bill for the kitchen cabinet refacing, not including two visits to the mitt specialist.

Instructions for Installation

Draw a diagram of the cabinet placement in your kitchen and assign each door a number.
Remove all the doors and hinges and marking each door and hinge with its corresponding number co-ordinate to your diagram. I marked mine inside the swivel recess. The hinges were marked with the door number and an A or B for top or bottom swivel.
Lightly sand whatsoever edges that won't be covered with the new facing materials.
Cut the plywood to the specific measurement of your door. Our local Lowe's volition cutting information technology so check your local store to meet if they offer this service.
Attach the plywood to the surface of the existing cabinet door with pivot nails.
Cutting the stiles and runway from MDF. I used ½" MDF and cut it approximately two ¼" width. This width may vary according to the size of the door. I ran the rails between the stiles. For our standard door size, ii ¼" was esthetically pleasing. For the narrower doors, ane ¾" was a amend fit.
Using pin nails, attach the stiles (vertical pieces) and rails (horizontal pieces) to the new face up of the chiffonier door.
Lightly sand any rough edges with 100 grit sandpaper and remove the sanding dust.
Caulk all edges where in that location are any gaps between the layers of wood with paintable caulk.
Prime. I used Zinsser Bulls Centre 1-2-three i Gal. White H2o-Based Interior/Outside Primer and Sealer.
Once the primer is dry out, lightly sand with 100 dust sandpaper and remove the sanding grit.
Paint. I used Benjamin Moore ADVANCE Interior Paint- Satin and the color was Simply White.

Before: cathedral-style varnished cabinets — Before: Cathedral-manner varnished

After renovation shaker-style cabinet doors. — Subsequently: Shaker-style painted

As you can meet in the after images, the backsplash has been updated and I will show yous how I did it in some other postal service. The only affair left to do in the kitchen is to update the floors without violent them out. I did something similar to a bath floor and I have an thought of how to ready this dark-brown kitchen floor. Stay tuned for that projection post.

Concluding Thoughts

I can't say plenty proficient things near the Advance paint from Benjamin Moore. At first, I was prepare back by the hefty cost, but after using it I am beyond thrilled. It took about a half-gallon to do the entire kitchen, uppers and lowers. I practical two coats of primer and two coats of Advance paint. I used a synthetic sash brush to arrive the tight spots and for the rest of the surfaces, I used a Wooster Mini-Koter Mohair Alloy roller. This pigment was dry to the affect in 30 minutes and has a fully-cured fourth dimension of 60 days.

"ADVANCE is a waterborne alkyd pigment, so information technology provides the quality and durability of an oil-based paint with the soap-and-water cleanup of a h2o-based paint".
Benjamin Moore Website

Tip: Using the mohair rollers fabricated the cabinets wait like they were professionally sprayed.

At starting time, I tried a cream roller on the drawer fronts, and they came out with an orangish-peel texture. The Mohair roller is THE mode to get! The kitchen cabinets were done 2 years agone at the time of this writing and have held up remarkably well. My kitchen is a hostile environment and I fully expected to take a lot of dings and chips. I have done a small dot of tough-up a couple of times when something extreme happened just for all intents and purposes, there hasn't been any damage. The cabinets all the same expect brand spanking new and all-time of all, they haven't aureate at all!

I did paint the isle with Benjamin Moore Accelerate in Revere Pewter 25% darker and it's still besides calorie-free. I will exist taking the tin back to the Benjamin Moore shop to have it darkened some other 25%. I volition be using this for the trim, doors, and cabinets in the master bedroom and bathroom. I'm going for a French-country style with white walls and the darker greige trim. I'll do another postal service on the bedroom update project one time it'south complete.

Note: The cabinet doors had an ornate routered edge that I considered attempting to identify the stiles and rails all the way to the border of and then trying to fill up in the gap. In the cease, we covered only to the inside border of the fancy routing and permit the ornate function testify. I was concerned that it wouldn't work with the make clean lines of the shaker style only it worked out well and looks very custom.

Note: You will need to purchase longer screws for your knobs and pulls since the addition of the stiles and rails has made your chiffonier doors much thicker.

Determination

I couldn't be more pleased with the mode it turned out and I promise this helps you solve your outdated chiffonier dilemma! If you would like to be notified when a new project post goes upwards, sign upward for email updates in the footer below.