How to Make Cabinet Doors With Moulding

New cabinets are a great way to transform an old kitchen or bathroom. They are also a very expensive way to do it. Simply replacing your cabinet doors can achieve much of the effect, with little of the cost. Just by using commonly available moldings and plywood, you can easily and quickly upgrade your doors and your kitchen or bath.

Instructions

1

Make a diagram of your cabinets. Measure the height and width of each cabinet door opening and record it on the diagram. Regardless of whether you choose to list height or width first, whichever dimension you list first should be the first dimension on all the doors. This saves a lot of confusion and remeasuring down the line.

2

Add a 1 inch to both dimensions on each door opening. Gang ripping the plywood is the fastest method, as opposed to cutting out one door at a time. Most of your doors should have some common dimensions. Simply rip a sheet of plywood to a common dimension, and then cut the individual doors out of the ripped sheet. For example, a lot of base cabinet doors will be the same height. Just rip the sheet to that dimension and then come back and cut the doors out according to width. That will save several cuts for each sheet of plywood.

3

Determine molding dimensions. There are two ways to do this. The first is more accurate but also more time consuming. Place a piece of molding where it will go on the door and use a pencil to mark the two corners. The second involves measuring each side of the door and recording the measurement. It is best to write the dimension on the side of the door as well as a separate cut sheet. Then use the measurements to mark the molding so you know where to cut each piece.

4

Using the marks made in Step 3, cut the molding. Each mark is a long point of a 45 degree cut. That is, the saw will cut from the mark, or long point, across and into the body of the molding, so that the front side of the molding is shorter than the back side.

5

Place the molding in place on the door and check to see if any pieces need to be recut. When all the molding is ready, apply glue to the back side and then nail in place. Fill the nail holes with wood putty and caulk the seams where the molding meets the plywood panel.