#How to Refinish Kitchen Cabinets

Before

It looks hopeless, but with new doors and enameled cabinet boxes you can create a whole new kitchen without the huge expense of replacing everything.

You'll be amazed at how simple it is to update your kitchen without tearing out your old cabinets and completely remodeling. By repainting the cabinets and installing new doors, you can achieve a whole new look at a fraction of the cost of new cabinets. To achieve our dramatic new look, we took off the old doors and painted the cabinet frames with a black, satin-finish oil paint. Then we hung slightly larger cherry panel doors with concealed “Euro-style” hinges. This reduced the space between the doors and eliminated hinge clutter for a more contemporary look.

Our kitchen design combines classic and contemporary elements for a fresh, eclectic look that blends well with many home styles, but these techniques work great to create any style you like. For a more traditional look, consider ordering raised-panel doors, or order flush doors for a sleek, modern look. We'll show you how to apply a smooth and durable painted finish to your cabinets, and then walk you through the process of ordering and installing the right-sized cabinet doors and hinges.

Is this project for you?

This project isn't as involved, or as messy, as a complete kitchen remodel, but it's still a major undertaking. Be prepared to devote three or four weekends, a lot of elbow grease and maximum brainpower. There's not much carpentry work involved, but you'll have to plan carefully and measure accurately to get the cabinet doors right. The painting is mainly a matter of perseverance. You'll spend a lot of time cleaning, sanding and spackling before you can even think about putting on paint.

In addition to the painting tools listed below, you'll need basic hand tools plus a drill, a handsaw, a hot-melt glue gun, and a vacuum cleaner with a hose and upholstery brush attachment.

For this project we purchased 16 cabinet doors and eight drawer fronts along with new hinges. We found a wide selection of decorative glass at a local stained glass supply store and chose a “crossreeded” pattern. The total cost of the cabinet renewal, not including the bin pulls and knobs, was less than half the cost of standard new cabinets.

(For another approach to renewing old cabinets, see Cabinet Refacing. )

Ordering doors and hinges: How to make a complex job easy

Photo 1: Carefully measure for new doors and drawer fronts