DIY Kitchen Doors and Drawers

Replacing the doors and drawers on your kitchen cabinets (or cupboards if you live outside the US) can be a fantastic way to provide a full kitchen refresh at a fraction of the cost!

In this project, we will show you how to update your kitchen by making your own inset doors and drawers.

Step 0: Planning

Taking the time to measure and draw out the face frames of your kitchen cabinets will allow you to create an accurate material list, budget your project, and can actually save a lot of time in the long run as you work through this project. Make sure you measure accurately (within 1/16” at most)!

DIYer Tip: I highly recommend a digital notebook (I primarily use a ReMarkable tablet), as this lets you visualize multiple modification ideas, pencil out calculations, etc.

Once you have accurate measurements of the inside of your face frames, you can now make a list of the doors and drawers that you need. Consistency is important since inset doors do not overlay the face frame, and you want to make sure that you have the same spacing all the way around every door/drawer. I recommend not less than 1/8” on each side, and not more than 1/4”. For my kitchen I settled on 1/8”. To maintain this spacing, measure your door and drawer front sizes 1/4” (or twice the spacing if using a different distance) smaller than the opening.

Recap: Subtract 1/4” from the opening size for a 1/8” spacing, e.g. a 12” x 21” opening would require an 11-3/4” x 20-3/4” door.

Great! Now you have your list of doors and drawer fronts. If you are planning to replace your drawer boxes and drawer slides, you’ll now need to list those out. The width of those will depend on what type of drawer slides you use. Some of the more common options include:

• Self-closing slides - these are slightly angled so that when you close them the retract the drawer fully

• Full-extension slides - these are heavy-duty ball bearing hinges that open the drawer fully, but are slightly firm to open or close

• DIY wood slides - if you’re on a really tight budget, you can always make wooden slats that your drawer boxes sit on. These will be harder to open/close (especially when full), and can make noise from the friction.

I opted for full-extension slides, with “soft-close” feature so they can’t be slammed.

Step 1: Supply run!

Now that you have your design figured out, list out the materials that you will need and run to your local building supply store to get them.

We went with our local Home Depot for this project, and this was our material list:

• 80 linear feet of 1 X 8 (3/4” x 7-1/4”) Poplar Lumber - [door frames, drawer fronts]
  @ $6.28 / ft = around $500

• 3 - 4’ X 8’ sheets of 1/4” birch plywood [door panels, regular doors]
  @ 45.68 / sheet = around $137

• 3 - 4’ X 8’ sheets of 1/2” birch plywood [door panels, appliance doors]
  @ $72.18 / sheet = around $216

• 4 - 4’ X 8’ sheets of 1/2” sanded plywood [15 drawer boxes]
  @ $45.55 / sheet = around $182

• 19 pairs 22” full extension soft-close drawer slides
  @24.93 / pair = around $374

• Wood glue, screws, and 16 gauge trim nails (for assembling drawer boxes) were mostly on hand in the shop, but it doesn’t hurt to budget another $100 or so for these.

There were a few specialty items that I wanted, as well, including:

• Brass door handles and drawer pulls (ordered from Rejuvination, cost somewhere around $700)

• Paint and primer (ordered from Farrow & Ball, cost somewhere around $300 including enough to paint the cabinets)

Approximate total cost of project: $2500

Step 2: Cut Frames and Panels

Step 3: Assemble Doors

Step 4: Build Drawer Boxes (if needed)

Step 5: Install Drawers (if needed)

Step 6: