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My kitchen needs help . . .

1K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Ghidrah 
#1 · (Edited)
I could use some suggestions.
Attached are images of the cabinets in my kitchen. There were in place when I bought the house in 1981. They're pretty rough . . . poor examples of the cabinet maker's craft.

Funny thing is . . . I recall being very impressed with them when I first saw the place. :laugh: But, it's all plywood.

Now I know that even I can do better. Not sure if it's worth all the work though.

I know I can spend $20,000 or so and make some salesman very happy by buying new, commercially-made, hardwood cabinetry. It ain't gonn'a happen!

I find myself thinking that using the existing carcasses and adding new doors and drawer fronts might be a good thing to do and a project that would be lighter on my wallet and boost my ego. The existing cabinet fronts are not great . . . they too are 3/4" ply as are the carcasses.

I could do raised panels in knotty pine or perhaps, even easier, just rout rails and stiles and use beadboard paneling for panels.

I'd sure like to hear suggestions from folks about this before I do something stupid. :laugh:
 

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#2 ·
The look of the house is rustic, knotty pine, panel boards running up the walls exposed beams, even though the cabs are made of (cab grade ply) everything looks right to me, ranch style look.

The carcass appears to be in good shape if it is solid there are only a couple of exposed sides to veneer. Simplest, a solid color paint and new doors could work.

Next selection you could take one of the small sections out and see how difficult it would be to remove the face frame from the carcass, (those new little multimasters are killer for this type of job). If the damage and time are minimal rebuild one at a time from there. The thing is you have so much interlocking trim, it'll be like trying to take and keep hamburger hill.

For me, the removal process is going to be challenging and time consuming there's wood interlocking everywhere. I would build new upper cabs ply carcass, (the few exposed surfaces can be veneered), solid face frames and doors. When done I'd remove the existing uppers as gently as possible and store them for resale when the lowers were available.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Thanks, Ronald.
I had not considered pulling the face frames. After checking it seems they are nailed. Could be some glue involved but I won't know that until I try to pry one up.

I don't plan on replacing the carcasses at all. They are all quite solid and, while inelegant in appearance on the inside, I am not unhappy about that.

I think perhaps I should make a panel door, hang it and see how it looks.
The veneer suggestion is another one I had not considered. Much to my surprise, I found a CDN source for knotty pine veneer and this looks like a very good way to go to spruce up these cabinets.
 
#6 ·
That's what I did for my 1st cab, bathroom. 2 daughters in a tub at the same time does not a dry floor make.

Our cabs were junk particle board, which doesn't do well getting wet. The maple door looked so nice I veneered the face frame which made it look nicer still. Then the kick began disintegrating so I built a new carcass using 1/2" luan with the exposed side veneered with 1/4" maple, (wish I had a band saw back then)

My parents have a similar setup as your's, although with clear pine with ends veneered.
 
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