Well, our built-in doors are done. We’re going with a shaker style inset type door for the bottom cabinet. It’s the same door style as in our first home’s kitchen and is the same style door in all the built-in photos we’ve been pinning. What other options are there besides inset? You can have 3/4 or full overlay, with most kitchen cabinets nowadays being full overlay. Our current home’s kitchen cabinets are actually full overlay. Overlay doors sit on the outer surface of the cabinet, where inset doors are flush and “inset” into the cabinet. 3/4 doors are partially in and partially out. A lot of older homes (50’s, 60’s, 70’s) have 3/4 doors.
So, why do I love inset doors so much? Because they scream “custom.” If you pickup a kitchen or home magazine and look at the gorgeous all-white kitchens, they almost all have inset doors. Custom kitchen cabinets though cost an arm and a leg. You may not know it, but if you have a modest amount of carpentry skills, have access to a table saw and a chop saw, you can make your own inset cabinet doors to replace your overlay doors. It’s easier to do this with painted cabinets, since you don’t have to match stain colors, but if you’re able to match stains, then you could just about replace any cabinet door.
Now I could write a detailed procedure on how to make these, but I think it would just be easier to show you with a video.
In the next day or two, I’ll be adding the hinges and test mounting the doors onto the face frame. I’ll take them off though for the rest of the construction process and the painting because it’ll be easier to deal with them off the built-in. Once the cabinet is totally finished, I’ll add them back in permanently.
Any questions so far?
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