Assist request: (de-)laminated kitchen cupboard doorways
Making an attempt to fix-up the home previous to itemizing, one factor we by no means obtained spherical to is changing the kitchen. I’d guess it’s unique to the home (1978) and the cupboards are structurally sound, however the end is delaminating on mainly all of the doorways and drawers. The photograph is in regards to the worst of it, however there are related points with many of the different doorways/drawers.
What’s the best choice for fixing this up with out changing? I don’t need to sink a ton of cash however suppose I must spruce issues up not less than slightly.
I’ve checked out merchandise like kitchen cupboard paint and so forth however I feel that’s actually not going to match the laminate materials. I additionally checked /r/diy and /r/homeimprovement and most responses referred to changing the doorways, which I don’t suppose is the fitting resolution right here. Any recommendation, particularly based mostly on expertise, is absolutely appreciated!
https://imgur.com/a/NP8jKn6
Comments ( 7 )
I can’t think of anything other than tearing it all off, carefully scratching off the glue with utility knives (or a plane on the flat parts, but not gonna help on the weird curves), and then sanding and painting. If it had ONLY been delaminating, maybe you could have glued it back down, but that’s not the case here, there’s a whole bunch of huge chunks completely missing.
Which sounds vastly more effortful and expensive than just buying some new cabinet doors, which is what you should do instead. I would only refinish these if cabinet doors costed like $300 each.
Also, they don’t look like they even fit anyway, I can see the rectangular shaped hole underneath the curved corner of at least one of those. Or maybe that one’s warped? The two big doors in front don’t line up either. Refinishing warped doors/drawers is especially silly, if so.
Wood glue and wood filler sand and repaint ?
Those are laminate doors – not something you can really touch up unfortunately. Some ideas that will attempt to hide the brown spots, though they all fall under the category of “landlord specials”
1) paint the chipped areas – will look like crap in person but may make for acceptable photos
2) bondo the chipped areas then paint
3)glue hardboard to the fronts of the doors and use a flush trim bit on a cheap router to trim off the excess. Then paint.
The only thing that would be guaranteed to not look like shit is replacing the doors. If replacing the doors brings the kitchen up a notch and increases the sale value of the house (kitchens are high priorities for buyers) it could be worth the money. None of the other options will increase the value of the kitchen.
Replace all doors and draws only new bench tops,good diy project
Wood filler, sand, repaint. It’s time-consuming but but an inexpensive fix. Maybe replace the hardware too; Temple of Bezos has tons at reasonable price. Do a couple of doors or one side of the kitchen at a time.
We (okay Hubby; he’s retired) painted ours as a quick fix – we planned to remodel some day. The cabinets turned out so well that we decided to keep them and replaced the countertops. (To be honest, our doors were in better shape than yours.) Since you are selling, do the doors and skip the countertops. Fresh paint makes things brighter and attractive to buyers, even if they plan a ripout. They’ll focus on the space, not the flaws.
If it were me I would —
* Take off all the door and drawer fronts and throw them in the trash.
* Wipe down cabinet boxes with tsp or even a vinegar solution then scuff with sand paper and prime with an oil based primer .. put a couple coats of good paint on.. maybe a dark blue gray kind of thing. Whatever is trendy on hgtv
* buy unfinished shaker style door and drawer fronts from any of the online rta cabinet outlets, Home Depot, or even ikea.. prime and paint as above .. add knobs from Amazon.. not sure how much this would cost, maybe $50 each?
* plunk a butcher block counter on top.. like $350 a section
If you do it right it can look like a million bucks and will pay for itself and then some.
Rub the doors with some new f&^king doors!
Seriously though, the cheapest DIY way to make these look good would be to remove the face veneer (use a hot iron to soften the cement) and relaminate HPL to the door and drawer faces & edges. It’s a sizable job.
If you’re contracting it out, new doors will be the least costly due to the labor.