Replacing kitchen cupboard doors

[CupcakeWednesday]

We have a fairly large kitchen with 30 cupboards/drawers plus two end panels that are completely exposed on one side.

I don’t love the kitchen but there’s probably no real option for a different layout and I think it’s fairly new so it would be mad to replace plus I can’t afford it

How horrific would it be to (spray?) paint 30 doors/drawers if I ordered replacement plain MDF ones online? Anyone done this?

Also, would it be possible to replace the end panels without lots of damage to the wall? What about the worktop and tiled splash back?

Not keen on the idea of wrapping at all.

Hopefully some one has some thoughts!

I've moved into a house where they have clearly painted the doors shortly before selling. After a year, the skirting board bits are really chipping and looking awful where they get bashed with the hoover and the mop - but there is some damp damage so perhaps that's why. The rest looks ok. If we had the original paint of course we could touch it up where it has chipped.

We painted some doors previously and it is a lot of work for probably 10 doors. 30 doors is going to be a lot of work. Maybe buy a second hand door and see what the effect is like before committing?

Does are around £30 each IF you can find the right sizes.

There are kitchen spray companies that can do it for you

Take the door, place it on bricks so you can get al the way round and leave to dry in the sunshine.

If you aim for 3/4 a weekend you’ll soon do all of them -

Love to see the result

Thanks both.

Very good point about possible damage, I’d definitely need to keep some paint for touch ups because I can be a menace with the broom around the kick boards.

I have seen people strip off the vinyl coating and paint the MDF below which I could do as the doors are fairly inoffensive plain doors but I’d have to destroy a door before I even decided if it was manageable to do it all. That would be the cheapest option but riskiest I think.

I’ve not broken the news yet to my OH that I’m pondering this idea so will see what he thinks tomorrow. I’ve got lots of painting to do already in the house so will try and nurture a love for DIY and go from there

Measure your doors. Popular widths are (just under) widths of 600mm, 500mm, 400mm. Also available are 300mm, 800mm and strange odd ones (but not so widely). All sizes are ever so slightly smaller than the nominal size so they open and shut without banging or rubbing on each other.

Also measure the distance between the centre of the hinge, and the top and bottom of tge door. There are a couple of standards and it is much quicker to fit doors that match your cabinets. Your supplier will know about that. If you have any cabinets where the screw holes have been damaged by allowing them to get loose, they can be repaired with ease using cabinet hinge repair plates.

Heights are mostly full doors, and drawer line. Over the past 20 years or so the height has slightly altered, so the taller ones stick out slightly below the fronts of older cabinets, but you will not be able to see it unless you lie on the floor, and you will not notice it if you fit the whole kitchen so they all match.

The most durable cabinets are laminated with a hard plastic similar to worktops. You can get them patterned and with fake woodgrain, but IMO they are not quite convincing, and it can be hard to match up the patterns on adjacent units. Laminated doors are pretty certain to be flat slabs. They can easily be made to odd sizes, and fully edged all round with laminate, because they are cut from large factory-made sheets. Egger produce a very wide range of boards, which are used by many makers, and you can order samples.

The least durable doors are vinyl-wrapped chipboard or MDF. They are available in numerous moulded shapes. They are made by applying a thin layer of plastic film to the moulding with heat and pressure. They are cheap and easy to wipe clean, and are OK in a room that does not contain anything hot, damp, or steamy, such as a kettle, hob, sink, oven or dishwasher, when the vinyl will crack and peel. I have even seen them peeling in kitchen showrooms, where customers have been touching displays with their sweaty hands.

Doors are made in door factories, at low cost, and are distributed through door merchants, joinery businesses, and kitchen fitting companies, who adjust the retail price to suit the pockets of their customers.

I am considering taking off the wrap off my bedroom wardrobes as the sizes are no longer available - a heat gun to mob the glue and then paint - i think spray paint would work but expensive

Why not try one and see how it looks?

You can paint over the vinyl, but you have to prepare the surface properly, google it.

I painted over a wrapped door the other day with Zinsser Allcoat exterior. You don’t need to prime. Clean and it will need 2 to 3 coats. I used a brush and Two Fussy blokes smooth roller. Buy online and mix to whatever colour you want. First coat looks awful then things improve quickly. Recoatable in an hour. Be gentle for 3 weeks as takes time to cure properly.

The kitchen was a collection of second hand units and one build to cover the boiler. All painted the same colour and with matching handles they look very decent. We had valuations last week and one agent asked where it came from, I tried to be suitably vague!

Mine were mdf coated in a kind of thin plastic, one chipped then another so I pulled it all off one door to see what they were like underneath and they were completely smooth so I bought kitchen door paint and painted them, took me a few weekends. That was 2 years ago and some could do with touching up especially the dishwasher as my rings catch there and it’s the one we open most but I’m glad I did it.

You should have told the agent that it's bespoke 😁

@MotherofPufflings I think I muttered it’s kind of bespoke!