I need to point out the fruit or futility of this project isn’t going to be evident until the final doors are hung from their hinges and the drawers are slid into their tracks and I can see how they look. Until then — who knows? It’s an exercise in faith. Correction — an exercise in faith by a complete novice with a minimal tools. I’m sure pros would groan over my methods.

Prep for applying strips

I built a couple of frames to assist me. For the drawers I cut sections of 2″ x 4″ and added some trashed door casing from replacing doors to hold the drawer fronts while I glued the MDF for the new fronts. That was when I got the awakening that the strips had not been cut to the requested width. The drawer strips fell a tad short of covering the original fronts.

The second frame was a small piece of 1/4″ plywood with 1″ x 1″ on two sides to hold the long edge strip in place while the glue dried. I made really, really sure the L shape was an absolute square corner (using a square) so I could trust it for keeping the strips straight for gluing.

As soon as I put the first drawer in the frame and put the strip of MDF on it I realized I had a problem. While the drawer was nice and snug in the frame, there was a gap with the MDF.

I measured the strip. My drawers are all 5 1/4″ high. The MDF was about 5 1/8″. I was depressed. I ran out to the garage and checked all the strips. Each and every strip was about 1/8″ short the width I had requested they be cut.

Too late now so I decided to have the top edge of the drawer strip even and hope the bottom wouldn’t show. The doors presented another problem. I had requested 3″ strips because that was the bare minimum to cover the holes from old cabinet pulls. I had already filled and sanded the inside holes, but hadn’t bothered with the outside since the strips would hide them. Wrong. Now I had to add the additional step of filling and sanding all the handle holes before I could apply the MDF strips to the door fronts.

Adhesive

I had researched and wanted to use Liquid Nails Paneling & Molding Adhesive – Low-VOC (LN-710). I hope it works well because I view it as a pain to use. I can barely get my caulk gun to force it out. Maybe I got old tubes or the stuff is just really thick. I can switch to painters caulk and the caulk gun is easy to use. When the first tube of Liquid Nails was gone I tried Heavy Duty and had the opposite problem. Even though I turned the caulk gun off so no pressure was being applied the tube continued to run out no matter what I tried so about half the tube ended up being wasted. This experience has left me less than impressed with Liquid Nails, but as long as the MDF strips stay attached to the cabinet doors I’ll be happy.

Extent of project

So now the extent of the project sinks in. I have to cut 7 drawer and sink fronts from the 5 1/4″ strips, and 80 door strips from the 3″ strips. 87 pieces. I don’t know about anyone else, but that’s pretty daunting to me. I don’t have a table saw so it’s cutting each one on my miter saw. I have to cut each one and glue each one. This is going to take a long time.

Drawer fronts

Obviously the one piece drawer fronts go fairly quickly — even though they aren’t quite the right size since they were cut less than the desired 5 1/4″.

 

 

 

Filling the routed edge

All the drawers and doors have a rounded edge from a router and the strips I’m adding are flat so there’s a gap between the strip and the original drawer or door.

I have decided I’m going for much improved, not perfect, so I’m going to use painters caulk to fill the gap between the original drawer or door and the added strips. It’s a learning experience applying the bead of caulk and I figure out that using a wet putty knife running along the strip and original edge is the best way to fill it with caulk. It gives a fairly flat edge, but I won’t know until I prime and paint everything if it’s really a good solution and will look good when the drawers are pulled out and the edge is visible.

The drawer fronts were the easy part. Next the 20 doors. With their 80 pieces. Sheesh.

Getting started on the doors

There were 8 wall cabinet doors the same height so I cut 16 26 1/2″ vertical strips. There were 8 base cabinets that needed 21 1/2″ strips that needed 2 strips each. So I cut those 32 vertical strips first. I would cut the horizontal strips as I worked on each door. The doors over the stove and refrigerator were shorter lengths and would be the last doors I would do.

Applying the strips

I start by using the frame I built to glue on the long side strips. Then door by door, I measure what’s required for the connecting horizontal strips. Might I mention here that I’m using a compound miter saw to cut all the strips and I sort of suck at exact measurements. I’m hoping this exercise will improve my skills, but for now I’m cutting them a little long and then shaving slivers off until the cross pieces fit.

This is not a fast process. I have 3 of the 20 doors done so far. Need I say more?

But I’m excited. It’s going to be a long, long process for me to do this on my own, but I’ve found it’s doable. After the glue on the door strips dries I will have to fill slight gaps between the side strips and top and bottom strips, and caulk between the routed edges of the original doors and the new flat Shaker look strips. Patience Grasshopper, patience. It’s going to take some time, but I can get it done. Then I will have 6 drawer fronts, 1 sink front, and 20 doors to prime and paint.