The
first thing you will need to determine is whether you will be painting
your Schrock Cabinets or if you will be using a wood finish. If you will
simply be painting your schrock cabinets lowes that is quite a bit easier than achieving a wood finish.
If
you desire a painted finish there are a few choices you will have to
make. One is whether to replace your existing cabinet doors, or to just
paint the old ones. Most people that undertake a cabinet reface or
resurfacing project have grown tired of their cabinets and cabinet doors
so it is very common to replace the cabinet doors prior to repainting
your cabinets.
Now if your going to want a wood finish for your
Schrock Cabinets refacing project then it is a bit more involved than
just repainting cabinets. Typical cabinet refacing involves replacing
the old cabinet doors with new ones and adding a thin solid wood veneer
to the face frame, and any exposed cabinet ends. During this process the
veneer is cut to fit on every surface of the cabinet. Now you may be
saying "this is already getting complicated" but rest assured this is a
DIY project.
With either route you take, painting or wood finish,
you will need new cabinet doors. Building custom cabinet doors is
usually out of the scope of most do it yourselfers and far beyond this
article. But don't let that discourage you, many have made their own
cabinet doors, but keep in mind it will take a variety of specialized
tools and equipment, as well as a good supply of hardwood lumber. Now
days the cost for quality custom Schrock Cabinets doors have made it
affordable for the DIYer. There are numerous custom cabinet door
companies out there but I have included a resource below that has the
best quality, price and selection of cabinet doors and refacing
materials I have found to date.
How To Measure For Schrock Cabinets Doors
If
you will be purchasing new doors for your refacing project you will
have to measure for new cabinet doors. If your existing cabinet door
hinges are still in good shape and you want to save some cash you can
reuse them. In this case all you have to do is measure your old doors
and your good to go. One thing to keep in mind if your old doors have a
rabbet around the door, or simply put a notch that runs all the way
around the door you will need to order doors that have that should you
be using the same hinges. Also some hinges work with finger pull edges
that is milled around the door, if you put a door that has square edges
in those hinges you may have some problems with the door gap when two
doors come together. All you have to do is make sure the new doors will
work with your existing hinges.
If you will be buying new hinges
for you r cabinet doors you will need to measure the cabinet openings
themselves and add the appropriate overlay of the hinge. The most common
is ½" overlay hinges. There are 1/4" and 3/4" overlays as well. If you
are using 35mm European style hinges then these overlays are most often
times determined by the mounting plate that the hinge uses. So the part
of the hinge that get drilled into the door remains the same and you can
set the overlay by using a different overlay hinge plate that snaps
into the hinge. There are literally hundreds of different types of
European hinges for just about every application. The ones I am
referring to here are face frame mounted overlay hinges.
Ordering Cabinet Doors
One
you have your cabinet door dimensions, you are ready to order your new
custom Schrock Cabinets doors. There are virtually endless styles of
doors that can be made. But one of the more affordable types I see
requested for quite often in kitchen cabinet refacing is the shaker
style door. It is a inset or also called recessed panel cabinet door.
These types of cabinet doors can be made from affordable MDF and also a
combination of wood frame and MDF center panel for additional saving for
those of you that want to paint them. Along with the popular shaker
style are traditional raised panel, bead board, and applied moulding
doors. There are even solid slab cabinet doors for that clean modern
look. Another thing I would like to mention is you can also purchase
cabinet end panels that will match your new cabinet doors, these are
great for cabinet ends, island ends, or even can be used as wainscoting
in areas of the kitchen or other parts of the home for that matter. It
give a truly custom look to your finished project. The sky is pretty
much the limit when it comes to doors. What you ultimately decide on is
what will fit your decor and your cabinet refacing budget.
Additional Options
During
the purchase of your cabinet doors you can also order the necessary
veneer to apply to your cabinet face frames and exposed ends. This
veneer material is available with an adhesive back, a peel and stick
affair. You can purchase it in raw wood and apply a contact cement to
both the cabinet and the veneer. I don't recommend that approach for
most DIYers its messy and there are not much savings over the peel and
stick veneers. Along with your cabinet door purchase you may also opt to
replace the cabinet drawer boxes, other options include pull out or
"roll out" drawers, trays, etc. These are great storage and back saver
options. One thing the company I use offers that can be hard to find is
custom made bread boards. This is great for replacing the old nasty worn
out plywood breadboards that come with some homes. Although it seems to
be a fading trend to have built in bread boards there are some people
that really like them and nothing beats a solid hardwood bread board, if
built from quality hardwoods they will last a lifetime. There a so many
other options such as organizer trays for silverware, garbage bins,
that I simply can not list them all here, but I would like to make you
aware of them prior to tackling a refacing project so that you can
perhaps further research them and see it they may fit your needs.
Applying The Veneer
Applying
the veneer is a simple but time consuming. I will give you as many
pointers as I can to aid you in this process. You will have to cut the
veneer to fit it to your cabinet face frame and cabinet end panels. This
is pretty straightforward, measure the pieces you will need and cut
them to fit. One of the best ways to cut veneer is with a good sharp
utility knife and a metal straight edge. You will want to use a
sacrificial sheet of plywood or mdf under your cutting. When cutting for
the face frame pieces of your cabinets always try to be as accurate as
possible so you do not have to trim the veneer when it is placed on the
cabinets, its ok if it's a 1/32" over and you have use a block plane or a
sanding block to fine tune it, any more than that you will have to try
to cut it flush and that can cause problems, so accuracy is important
here. Once you have all the cabinet face frames and ends covered you can
move on to installing your new cabinet doors.
Installing Your New Custom Cabinet Doors
Once
you have unpacked your new replacement cabinet doors your have the
option to hang them on the cabinet, or as I would recommend is to paint
or stain them off of the cabinet cases. This allows for the best
possible coverage and the most professional looking job. Also install
the hinges after everything is painted or stained to prevent unwanted
finish build up on the hinges and drawer guides. That is the true mark
of a professional finishing job no paint or finish on the cabinet
hardware.
A great way to lay out your new cabinet doors for
painting or staining is to set up a few saw horses and place some 2 x 2
or 2 x 4 across them. You may opt to paint or spray them on these saw
horses or you can spray each door one at a time and place them on the
saw horses to dry, allowing each side to dry before flipping or
recoating.
Once your new are finished you can mount them on the cabinets, make any final adjustment to the hinges for a perfect fit, install the drawer boxes and your project is complete.