Damage to kitchen cabinets? What can I do?

[Ungratefulchild]

We had a shiney white kitchen installed about 5 years ago. Some areas of the doors are losing their gloss a bit. Is there anything I can do?

Any ideas?

You can get the doors re sprayed...look up car sprayers.

Polish up with car wax?

it is possible that your doors are foil-wrapped, which means that they have a paper-thin sheet of plastic heated and pressed onto an MDF door.

This is not much good and will not repaint or polish up. Look at the edges of the doors, especially where a kettle or oven is used underneath, and see if there is any sign of peeling.

If your doors are solid wood, or are covered with hard plastic laminate which you can't mark with your thumbnail, then you may be able to restore the shine with a T-cut or similar car-paint restorer, or you can paint them. They will need a lot of cleaning first as kitchens tend to have greasy dirt from cooking.

If the doors are in standard sizes, look at buying new doors to fit. They are much cheaper in the DIY sheds or some internet kitchen suppliers than from the advertisers in glossy magazines.

If you are not much good at DIY, see if any of your friends and neighbours know a good local joiner. He need not be young. They are usually more skilled and less expensive than kitchen fitters.