How to Make Modern Kitchen Cabinet Doors – DIY Kitchen Cabinet Refacing

A step-by-step tutorial on how I made modern, flat panel, cabinet doors, using plywood, to reface my orange oak cabinets.

Hi there! What have you been up to lately?

I’ve been working on making over my kitchen cabinets.

I wanted to make them look more modern and less orange. So, I decided to reface them using wood veneer on the frames of the cabinets and make new simple flat front doors.

Want to see how I built my simple replacement cabinet doors?

Let me show you.

How to Build Modern Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Before we get the saws and wood out, there are a few things to consider before you start making your own replacement cupboard doors.

• The type of cabinet you have
• The kind of cabinet door/drawer you want
• If choosing overlay doors, what measurement overlay you want
• Type of wood/finish

If you’re not sure, or not familiar with any of the terms used above, check out my parts of a kitchen cabinet post where I explained the pieces that cabinets are made up of.

This tutorial will explain how I built new full overlay flat front cabinet doors for my face frame cabinets using plywood.

DIY Modern Kitchen Cabinet Doors – Video

If you can use a measuring tape and cut a straight line with a circular saw or would like to learn how to you can make these simple cabinet doors. Watch how to build simple flat panel cabinet doors in this video tutorial!

Table of Contents

• How to Build Modern Kitchen Cabinet Doors
• DIY Modern Kitchen Cabinet Doors – Video
  • Supplies
  • Step 1: Make Cabinet Design Decisions
  • Step 2: Determine Cabinet Door Size
  • Step 3: Cut Plywood for Cabinet Doors
  • Step 3. Finish cabinet doors
  • Step 4. Hang Kitchen Cabinet Doors
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • How difficult is it to build your own flat front cabinet doors?
  • How much does it cost to make your own flat front cabinet doors from plywood?
  • I have drawers in my kitchen. How do I make drawer fronts like these cabinet doors?

Supplies

• 3/4 inch x 4 feet x 8 feet PureBond Red Oak Plywood
• 3/4 inch Edge banding
• Polycrylic or finish of your choice
• 1 1/4 inch overlay soft close concealed hinges
• Black finger edge cabinet pull
• Ryobi cordless sander
• Kreg Accu-Cut saw track
• Kreg Rip-Cut saw guide
• Ryobi cordless circular saw with a good blade
• Kreg concealed hinge jig
• Ryobi cordless drill
• Iron
• 120 grit sandpaper

Step 1: Make Cabinet Design Decisions

First, determine what style of kitchen cabinets you have. If you are following this tutorial make sure you have face frame type cabinets as I mentioned above.

Second, decide what style of cabinet door you want to build. If you like a simple, flat front cabinet door then this tutorial should help you.

Third, decide what size overlay you are intending for your new doors to cover the face frame of your cabinet. Full overlay is 1 1/4 inches, but there are other sizes of overlay. Basically, decide how much of the front of the cabinet you want showing and make sure you can get the correct hinges for that size overlay for when you install the doors onto the cabinets.

Fourth, decide what finish you want your kitchen cabinet doors to have. I wanted a warm wood look. So, I used red oak hard wood plywood and finished them with clear polycrylic. There are other species of hardwood plywood that you can buy. Or if you intend on painting them, I would use birch hardwood plywood and paint them.

Step 2: Determine Cabinet Door Size

The first step in figuring out how large of a cabinet door to make is to measure.

For my cabinets with a face frame, I measured length and width of the hole on the front of the cabinet that is usually covered by a door. Each cabinet may have different sizes.

Next, since I was making a full overlay door (1 1/4 inch overlay) I added 1 1/4 inches to each side of the measurement.

For example: the measurements from the cabinet door hole above were 15 inches x 28 inches.

15 + 1 1/4 (left) +1 1/4(right) = 17 1/2

28 + 1 1/4 (top) + 1 1/4(bottom) = 30 1/2

The piece of wood I cut to make this full overlay door will be 17 1/2 inches x 30 1/2 inches

Step 3: Cut Plywood for Cabinet Doors

After you are sure you have your measurements correct for the size of each of your new cabinet doors it’s time for the fun part! Cutting them out!

First, plan out how you will cut your plywood to get the most doors out of each sheet of plywood.

I had several cabinet doors that were the same width, so I started by using a Kreg accu-cut saw track tool and my circular saw to rip down the length of my sheet of plywood the width of those cabinet doors.

Then, I used the Kreg rip-cut saw guide and circular saw to cut that piece to the lengths I needed for the doors.

After that, I continued cutting using these steps, until I had all of my cabinet doors cut out.

Step 3. Finish cabinet doors

After you’ve got your cabinet doors cut out of the plywood it’s time to finish them!

The first thing I do is apply edge banding onto the edges of the plywood to cover up the look of the layers of wood that have been glued to make the plywood and make it look like a solid piece of wood.

Follow the directions on the edge banding package. Using an iron on high heat (no steam) hold the edge banding centered on the edge of the plywood and hold it there for a few seconds so the glue can melt and adhere it.

You should be able to slide the edge band around a little if it is not lined up correctly.

Continue working your way down the edge of the plywood, adhering the edge banding.

When you get to the end of the wood carefully bend the edge band until it breaks off.

Then, use a scrap block of wood or a veneer scraper to press down the veneer on the plywood edge.

Continue until all edges are covered.

After that I gave the doors a good sanding, especially the edges to remove any extra edge band that was sticking out.

Then, I just wiped the cabinet doors down with a damp cloth to remove dust before I applied polycrylic.

Step 4. Hang Kitchen Cabinet Doors

After the new cabinet doors are finished it’s time to get them installed on the cabinets.

I followed the directions on the package of concealed hinges that I used.

First, using my Kreg concealed hinge jig, I drilled holes on the inside of my cabinet doors to mount concealed hinges into.

Next, I screwed my concealed hinges onto my cabinet doors.

Then, I installed the new cabinet doors onto my cabinets.

You don’t usually have to be exact screwing the doors to the cabinets, just close. You can usually adjust the hinges after, up or down, left or right, and in and out.

After I had all my doors in the positions that I wanted them, I installed my cabinet door pulls.

I used black finger edge cabinet door pulls.

They look so clean and modern! And they were super easy to install!

I just lined them up where I wanted them on the cabinet and marked where the screws should go in on the back of the cabinet door. Then I drilled pilot holes and screwed the handles onto the cabinet door.

Olia! New simple cabinet doors! Doesn’t it look much better than the old orange oak cabinets?

I love it! I’m so glad I took the time to do this project!

What do you think? Do you like modern kitchen cabinets or more traditional?

Frequently Asked Questions

How difficult is it to build your own flat front cabinet doors?

I have been doing simple woodworking for about five years and I would say it is suitable for a beginner, especially if you already have the tools or can borrow them. Flat front cabinet doors are basically just measuring and cutting straight lines, which I would consider the first things that you learn to do when building things.

How much does it cost to make your own flat front cabinet doors from plywood?

For my kitchen cabinet door materials (I have 16 cabinet doors and 5 cabinet drawers in my kitchen):

• $180 for about 2 pieces of 4×8 hardwood plywood ($90 each)
• $60 for 250 foot roll of edge banding (which I di not use the whole roll)
• $25 for one quart of polycrylic
• $256 on cabinet hinges ($8 a piece, two for each door)
• $25 for cabinet door pulls ($2.30 each)

About $550 for just materials. I already owned all of the tools and supplies.

I have drawers in my kitchen. How do I make drawer fronts like these cabinet doors?

I have five drawers in my kitchen. Use the same instructions for measurements, cutting, and finishing from above. Remove the old drawer front and screw the new one on.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below.

Would you like to do something like this to update your kitchen cabinets? Or have you in the past? I’d love to hear about it!

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