New doors on knackered kitchen cabinets

[Quodlibet]

I am trying to come to terms with the fact that we still can't afford to replace our horrible, badly installed, badly designed and tiny kitchen, and am attempting to come up with a plan to make the best of it on the cheap for another year or two.

I think I've worked out that we can squeeze in a slimline dishwasher if I knock out one of the crappy cupboards. This would improve the functionality at least.

All of the doors are grim laminate which is peeling and I hate them. I've looked at replacing with second-hand solid wood doors off ebay, but I think that it would be hard to match up the sizes and hinge holes exactly.
My other thought was getting someone to make some plywood doors to size (I only need about 5).
Could I get a panel made too for an integrated dishwasher?

Anyone done this or got any other ideas?

There's a company in Kent called Jali.co.uk and they can make MDF doors to what ever size for you ! You can then paint them and add new handles etc to jazz it up a bit !!

Oooh thank you!

the peeling doors will be "vinyl wrap" not laminate. Don't touch it with a bargepole.

Measure the distance between the centres of the hinges to the top and bottom of the doors. Doors are normally delivered with the hinge-holes already cut.

Oddly, there seem to be several "standard" dimensions. Mine seem to be 85mm, but others are 70mm. It will be much easier if you get doors that fit straight in.

It is fairly difficult to cut the special round hinge-hole in a door, but fairly easy to drill screwholes in the cabinet. The hinges come in standard sizes, Blum is a good and very popular make, you can fit soft-close buffers to them, and wide-opening hinges fit the same holes.

You may find "end of range" or used doors very cheap on ebay, but you need to know the exact size you want (4mm narrower than the cabinets so the doors can shut without hitting each other or jamming)

Thanks all for suggestions.

I would make my own MDF or ply doors but don't have a way of sinking the hinge holes. Have asked a couple of local workshops if they'd do them for me - I reckon I'd get the whole lot out of one 8x4 sheet.

And have looked on ebay, but the problem is I need a very specific selection - two high 600mm cupboards, one 600mm sink cupboard door and panel, one 400mm door and drawer front. When I measured them all to millimetre and started trawling the listings I realised that all the manufacturers have very slightly different spec, and eg the door vs drawer ratio is different. So I don't think I'd find it easy to get a set that match.

For the hinge holes, you can buy the cutter bit, and a jig to mark the position, but you would need a pillar drill which would cost £100 or so. If you are fond of woodwork it would be useful in future.

For made-to-order, you could try this company or Benjamin James, though their delivery charge may be rather high. The £1 samples are good. I'm not sure if this is the company I used before, I will see if I can find it.

yes, it was the tradekitchensEU company. I had some shelves made to measure, fully edged, and was pleased with them. I got some colour samples first. Mine were Egger brand. You fill in a spreadsheet of sizes, which calculates the cost as you fill it in. I did not have hinge holes, so ask if they do that. I thought the cost was very reasonable. Email is [email protected]

The holes for the hinges are easy to do, any competent chippy should be able to do it for you, kitchen fitters do it all the time. You definitely DO NOT need a pillar drill to do them.