DIY Ikea Cabinet Doors

7:00 AM



First up, real cabinets are soooo much better than stupid cardboard boxes. Hard to imagine, I know. However cabinets with no doors doesn't really hide all my stuff very well. My only problem with doors is really just the cost. To buy THE cheapest doors Ikea offers would cost $92. As in crap particle board with white laminate. Not very pretty. If I was to order the same high gloss grey doors that we have in dry bar it would only cost $670. Yikes! And even if I ordered them, it wouldn't have solved my water valve hole in the wall problem. So I decided to make my own.



I started out with 3 1x10" boards and marked out where my cuts and hinges would be, aproxametly.



Then I used my rarely used Kreg Jigg to drill pocket holes.



Once all my holes were drilled I joined all the boards together so I had one giant slab of wood.



Then I marked and cut all the door widths. Now I have doors!!! (spoiler alert: or so I thought)



Now that I had doors I needed hinges to attach them to the cabinets. I decided to use the hinges that Ikea sells because I wasn't sure if other ones would work or not, but I didn't want to spend the $6 per pair. I know I'm making myself sound incredibly cheap right now but I didn't. Enter this magical box in the as is department!





For 4 pairs of hinges (I had one set left over from the dry bar) I spent about $8. You might have to check back a few different times and spend a little time digging through. You might even want to snap a picture of some hinges from one of the kitchens in the show room for reference.



Now that I had doors and hinges I needed a fancy drill bit. A forstner bit to be exact. A 1 3/8" forstner bit to be even more exact. And thanks to this post I knew what size bit to buy.



What it didn't really help me with was where to drill these fancy holes. Thankfully I could just take one of the doors off of the dry bar and measure where the center point is. Then since I had to drill the hole for the hinge in the same spot ten times I made myself a little template out of a scrap piece of wood.



I also drilled some smaller holes like on the Ikea door to accommodate the little nubs that are on the hinge.



After you get all the holes drilled and hinge pieces attached I snapped the doors on the cabinets.



Womp womp, as you can imagine I was a little less than thrilled with the results. They were about 2 1/4" too short. So once more I returned to the lumber section at home depot and got one 1x4" board that was also 8' long. I used my new table saw (ultra romantic b-day gift from MJ, I think he's a keeper) and ripped boards to go in between the 10" boards.



More boards would require more Kreg Jigg holes and screws, of course! Once I got the smaller strips in the mix the doors magically became the right size. Yessss!



The last thing I needed to rig was the door that would cover the water valve. I used a scrap piece of wood left over from my arm rest side table thingy. I clamped it to one of the cabinets so that I could get the exact same placement of the holes the hinges connect to.


To attach the board to the wall I predrilled some holes for screws. Then I held my predrilled board where it would end up and drilled holes into the dry wall. That way I could throw in my anchors before I attached the board to the wall. Can you tell yet that I don't really like to measure?



With my board firmly attached to the wall I could snap on my last door. Aaaaahhhhhh! ( <--- that should sound like angels singing and not someone screaming, just so you know)



I could finally step back and enjoy my handiwork. (well after cleaning up for about 45 minutes and getting a tiny black eye from my stupid vacuum cleaner)



Now I just need to finish them and create some type of countertop to go flush with my windowsill. I've got an idea that I'm really excited about for the doors. I just need to pick a color to stain them. As far as a countertop I don't really have a clue what I want to do. I kinda like this idea, but who knows.



Alright, tell me what you think! Would you ever make your own cabinet doors? How would you finish them? Do you know of any awesome DIY countertops? Oh, and if you're not so much into the idea of building your own doors, Semihandmade can help you out too.




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58 comments

  1. Good job. I had to check out your post as I saw you reference IKEA. I have an IKEA bookcase that I'm planning on making doors for. I've been coming up with ideas for MONTHS. I need them to be light-weight so I'll probably use a thin substrate like pegboard (or similar) and then cover the front side with something unique and again, lightweight.

    Checked out your home tour and was drooling over the dark hardwood floors! Classy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, we really lucked out with our floors. They were on clearance when we moved in. I'm interested to see what your doors will look like.

      Nikki

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  2. awesome job Nikki! what an amazing transformation!

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  3. Thanks so much for sharing with us on Someday Crafts Facebook page. I will be featuring your project today on our blog. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  4. This was the most timely post I have yet needed to find on the internet. Thank you! My kitchen thanks you!

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    Replies
    1. Glad to help! You should leave me a link when you get the doors finished.

      Nikki

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  5. great inspiration! I like building my own craft storage too.

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  6. Great work! Love what you did with these cabinets!
    It's always a pleasure to see so handy girls ♥
    Congratulations for what you did ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I visit each ԁay a few websites andd information sites to read articles, but this blog presents feature basеd content.


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  8. At this point in town Nashville doesn't have many cab in nashville community eateries-mostly restaurants. Nevertheless the community versions tend to be good.

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  9. Your work is amazing! Love your style of writing as well :) How did your staining and countertop turn out? Although your post is from 2 years ago, an up-to-date picture would be nice. Best wishes from a fellow DIY addict from Germany

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  10. That was not complete without knowing how you finished the doors. Don't you know everyone wants to see the before and after ;-)
    Since you like mystery, I won't give it away but what you decided to do on the doors was a good idea.

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  11. Great work! Love what you did with these cabinets! I love to do similar work on my cabinets

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  12. This is beautiful and exactly what I'm in the process of doing. Could you update the article with the dimensions of the jig you used for the hinges, and maybe a part number for the hinge you used? Thank you!

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  13. Look great! You did a really good job. I think it is better than before. My kitchen have cabinet, too. And I don't like its plastic door. I love your idea about the cabinets doors.

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  14. The snap-out rings for several aren't straightforward. I stony-broke one or two of snap-out rings once attempting to require them out. From a easy viewpoint, they're troublesome. a number of these insert plates tend to sag over time. which will not provide you with associate degree correct cut.

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  15. I love this post; thank you! I'm making doors and drawer fronts for an Ikea Sektion pantry as I type.

    QUESTION: Did you have any trouble getting the hinges to fit in the 1 3/8" hole?

    I've got the right forstener bit (borrowed from a friend who used it for an Akurum project)...but my Sektion hinges WILL NOT heed my demands! I've pushed, and even tried to hammer them in...but the hole is just too small. I tried the 1 1/2" forstener but it's much too big.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can I ask where you bored for the hinges on the doors? We are trying to get custom doors for a sektion system and are not sure where to have the hinge cups placed. Thanks!

      Delete
    2. The hole should be 35mm. Metric Forstener bits are easy to find or you can get them from Lee Valley in Canada (they ship to the US from Upstate NY). You have to be a bit careful about IKEA parts because they don't always adhere to European standards. I bought IKEA hinges for the Euro-style kitchen cabinets I built only to find that they are made for a 27mm offset vs. the standard 37mm. Drilling the extra holes wasn't a huge deal, but it was a bother.

      Delete
  16. Thank you so much you have given the great blogs site by which we can get more advantage. my company

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  17. Thank Nikki , for this Project , i will choose Biscuit joiner , it s very easy to make..
    You can see some Biscuit joiner here

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  18. What is the distance between each door? Are you able to open only one door at a time?

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  19. Looks great.Thanks for sharing DIY project guide. Keep posting such blogs.

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  20. What an amazing transformation! Your room look great. I want to do something like that for my family.

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  21. Thanks so much for this. I've been waiting for IKEA to make simple wood doors for their kitchen cabinets to no avail. So this is a great option.

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  22. Good idea Nikki. Your room looks more spacious and tidy after you creat the cabinet door. I think I also have idea for my room. Thanks so much.

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  23. Thank Nikki. Now i can do something like that for my kitchen

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  24. You're creative. It's really nice and i'll try to make one to put in my kitchen. Thanks for your guide!

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  25. I need a 2x7 door for my cabinet and I think I'll follow your tips. The door will make the cabinet looks more clean and lovely, like your. You are so creative, I think I have become your fan. Thanks for sharing!

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  26. This is a great DIY project. I love it. Will try to make one like this. Thank you !

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  27. I think that's a "bad" thing we get once we get into DIY woodworking - we know how much exactly these costs, LOL! So when we see one in a furniture shop and see the price tag, we always walk away and plan for the next project. Anyway, great tips here and totally agree with you!

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  28. Can you tell me how far the center of the hinge cup is from the edges of the door? We are having custom made doors and don't have a template to copy. Thanks in advance!

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  29. Great explanation!
    Could you please tell me where exactly I have to make the holes in the cabinet and the doors, and what diametre they should be? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
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