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The KITCHEN CABINET RE DO! MEASURING FOR NEW DOORS AND DRAWERS FRONTS

July 5, 2011

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Now onto the Long Awaited
KITCHEN CABINET RE-DO!!!

but first…Lets recall what the ORIGINAL KITCHEN looked like.
ICK!
YACK!!!

NEED I SAY MORE?!!!

So, before we even moved into our house 7 years ago,
we painted all of the walls and cabinets.
We also installed NEW:
counter tops,
lighting, sink, hardware,
floor, and appliances.
Nothing fancy,
remember we were renting,
but we upgraded one step
UP!

I TOOK AN OLD CHANGING TABLE AND HAD THE COUNTERTOP PEOPLE AT LOWES MAKE A TOP FOR IT AND MADE AN ISLAND. WE HAVE SINCE REMOVED IT, IT WAS A BIT TOO CUMBERSOME.

It was a vast improvement.
Sure, there were things that still bugged me.
I have never been a fan of the cut outs over the windows and doorways.
I prefer stone to formica countertops, and I would love have tile on the floor.
BUT, IN REAL LIFE, you can’t always have it ALL, all at once.
fast forward………………..

…AND 7 YEARS WENT BY VERY FAST..
and here we are in 2011
Time for an upgrade!
We ruled out an entire gut renovation of our kitchen…for many reasons, one of them being the age of the house. 130 years. When you demo an old house, you need to be prepared for surprises and you need to have a “surprise fund” in your budget. Surprises can be very expensive. We were just not prepared to go there. SO, We decided to start with the replacing the cabinet doors.

REPLACING CABINET DOORS IS ONE WAY
TO UPGRADE YOUR KITCHEN MORE AFFORDABLY.

Step 1. Choose the cabinet and grade wood you desire.
I searched the internet and found a great cabinet maker in Kentucky, http://www.hunterswoodworking.com/. I found him first on ebay, then followed him to his website. Wanting to know more, I called, and I  spoke to “Charley” and right away I was impressed with his customer service. I usually go with my gut in these situations. I knew working long distance that I would need a good communicator and that Charley is. He has stood by his word, and we did even have a few doors which were the wrong size and he has replaced them promptly, at his cost.
     Charley took me step by step through the process of choosing wood and style and helped me with the measuring of the doors and frames. We chose Poplar doors and inserts. They were not the cheapest, but the best deal for us. I could not tell the difference with the other wood once they were painted and I had to remember that this was NOT intended to be a Glamour Kitchen, but an upgrade. so- stay grounded- don’t get to caught up in the dream. Someday I will have a Glamour kitchen.
I chose a Shaker Style cabinet and Drawer front because I like the clean simple classic lines. When you are in an OLD COUNTRY house, you do not want your kitchen looking out of place or TOO modern, and at the same time, I am not really into the Authentic OLD look either. Plus, I discovered that every single magazine article I had saved over the years, of every single kitchen I ever aspired to have, had Shaker cabinets, so It is safe to say that was the look I wanted. Shaker Cabinets it was.

Measuring the Cabinet Doors:


I am going to be stone cold honest here… of ALL of the aspects of this cabinet redo that I wish I had hired a professional for, or at least a friend who does carpentry, it is the measuring that I could have used the most help with. In the end, it all came out fine, but I was in WAY over my head, and it took me a loonnnnng time to get it all down straight.
With that in mind- this is what I did:

Measure your DOOR openings

side to side…
 …and top to bottom

if you have strips of wood between each door measure those too…


…and then you need to measure the entire length of the frame…end to end and top to bottom.


Next- You need to decide how much you want your doors to cover the frame or not cover the frame. Doors and cabinets come either inset into the door frame OR and with an OVERLAY. I knew that I wanted our doors to cover as much of the frames as possible, to make the cabinets look new. So we wanted an BIG OVERLAY. There are European hinges made which give you anywhere from a 1/4 inch to 1.5 inch overlay. I paid extra ($7 a door) for my hinges and for the doors to be predrilled for these hinges (VERY SMART thing to do).

So for example- this door measures 19″ x 23 1/2″

and
the strip between each door is 2″
So I had Charley make our doors 21″ x 25 1/2″. This way, when they were all laid on top of the frame, most of the frame would be covered.
HOWEVER- to make sure that they were not too tight, we made an executive decision that ALL measurements would be adjusted by 1/16″ of an inch, therefore making them all fit.
okay, no more math. I know the above does not sound so bad, when condensed into a readers digest version one paragraph description, but it was a tedious process, we have 35 doors and 15 drawers…that is ALOT of MATH for this girl.

TOMORROW-

Choosing colors and hardware!!! The FUN part! and a peek at the new doors!

 

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