Replacement doors

[Ezra]

Hello,

I'm planning to replace the doors/drawer fronts in my kitchen. I'd like to go with wood (oak). The cabinets themselves look fine and are in fine shape, so I don't plan to reface. I'm trying to find a good place online that's fairly reasonable, and can make a standard shaker-style, and finish it for me. The place that stands out so far is

They have a sister site, which is for their RTF stuff. Does anyone have any experience with them? I input all my dimensions with them, and it came out to a reasonable $1K or so, including hinges (I'll probably buy handles at the hardware store). This is in comparison to a local place who would do the same job, but including installation, for around $7K! If not kitchendoorsonline, who would you recommend (I'd need delivery to MA).

Thanks,

Ezra

[Mike G]

Hello Ezra

I don't of course, order doors so I can't tell you anything about the outfits you mention but if you take a trip to your nearest book store and check their magazine section for a monthly publication called "WoodShop News" it will have advertisements in it for outfits that make and supply doors and drawers.

It will at least give you some more options.

[Dave W]

Are you sure these are wood? The webpage does not say. We spent a fortune for kitchen cabinets and found (after installation) that they are made of floor sweepings held together with a water soluable glue! Dave

[Lowell Holmes]

I would order one door from the mail order place and see if I liked it before buying all of them.

The $7000 may sound cheap before your through.

[Greg]

If I had to buy more than 6-8 doors I would be looking at a good router and the raised panel bits necessary to make my own. When you are done you will still own the tools and you will be money ahead, even if you make some firewood in the learning curve.

[Lowell Holmes]

I don't know about that. There used to be a company in Dallas (they may still be there for all I know) that made solid wood raised panel cabinet doors and solid drawer fronts. They would ship the doors to me at a cost I couldn't match by making them myself. IIRC, they had ash, oak, birch, and walnut available.

It only took about a week to get the doors.

Like you, I'd make my own doors,but it may not be cheaper.

[Bob]

Ezra,

Just to give you a cost differential for purchasing or building your own.

Did 40 cabinet doors for SIL last year and estimated them out with a national supplier for making raised panel doors from hardwood. These would be unfinished and no hardware supplied was $2,500 plus delivery and tax.

My cost to make them, included all Blum hinges and some medium cost knobs and pulls, rough sawn lumber was a total of $500. Took me about 2 weeks of spare time and no, I did not have enough clamps - so that slowed me down.

Cabinet doors are not brain surgery and while you need some tools to do them, if you're woodworking now, you probably own most of them already.

Bob S.