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Installing Replacement Cabinet Doors-Help for Homeowners

Some folks are not intimidated by the thought of buying replacement kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts and learning how to install them on their own. If Homeowners, looking for low cost ways remodel their cupboards, can locate special order door manufactures that deal in custom sizes, the task of installing them will be rather easy.


When things get difficult is when we try to make different sized doors and drawers than the original ones fit. That’s why it’s important to find a company that will provide the new door design made to the old sizes. One such company is Doormark Doors,  located in South Florida. They deal primarily in Thermofoil doors. If you are looking for real wood in oak or maple raised panel styles, then Conistoga is an excellent choice.

Plan on using the same style hinges that you have on your kitchen or bathroom vanity cabinetry now and the task will be rather simple to undertake. I understand that this does not always fit the ideas that you may have to change your current hinge style. This is where the difficulty begins when a “do it yourself” homeowner decides to start altering existing door sizes because they want to use a different hinge.

Various cabinet door hinges have their own set of overlay implications. What this means is how far the door overlays the face frame of the cabinets. Some have a ¼” overlay and others may have a ½” overlay. If your mind is set on changing to a different hinge style, then it would be a good idea to read our article on figuring cabinet door sizes.  Make sure that you don’t cut costs by purchasing affordable (or “cheap”) ones though. This will only create problems months to years later.

Replacing the Doors
Installing the replacement kitchen or bathroom doors is not going to be troublesome. The most challenging part of the project will be aligning things properly so that the door margins are consistent with one another. Sometimes the door parts will not rest flat against the cabinets face. This can be time consuming to correct. Keep in mind that hinge parts can oftentimes be shimmed in various places if the built-in adjustments are not providing the amount of space that you need the doors to move.

Three articles that can help with making the door adjustments

1) Adjusting Kitchen Cabinet Doors With European Hinges
2) Kitchen Cabinet Doors not Aligned Properly
3) Fixing Cabinet Doors That Rub Against Each Other

Replacing the Drawer Fronts

One of the best things you can do is make a pencil mark on the backside of the existing fronts to help you get the new drawer face aligned in the same place that the old one was. By doing this, you may be able to just measure the distance of the recesses and transfer them to the new parts. This article about installing drawer fronts will provide you with some excellent methods for accomplishing the task like a professional. One would think that switching out fronts would be easy, but to be honest with you, this will be the most difficult part of installing the new kitchen or bathroom vanity cupboard parts.

If you are replacing cabinet handles be sure that you have long enough screws for the drawers.

If at all possible find a local cabinet supply company to order the replacement doors from. They generally are good at providing help for homeowners because of their knowledge about possible difficulties that may arise with the new cupboard door installation. Sometimes certain style doors or drawer faces will not work with the old cabinetry hardware. Shopping online for bargains is a good idea because the results can be used for comparing prices and products that you may find offered from a local distributor. If you decide to purchase from an Internet supplier, make sure that they are a reputable company. You can do this by calling local cabinet manufactures and asking them if they have ever heard of the door suppliers.

  1. Ashley
    September 12th, 2009 at 14:26 | #1

    My husband used too long of screws when putting the hinges back on, now the wood is cracked and popped out where the screws are coming through. How can we fix them?

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