My wife and I just bought our first house and we want to make some kitchen renovations that make it scream less of builder grade and more of a personalized taste. Currently these cabinets have no soft close hinges or drawer slides, and the cabinets inner panels rattle when the upper cabinet doors are closed. I have an Idea of what and how I want to accomplish the renovations but I am looking to reddit woodworking professionals and seasoned DIYers for help on the methods I plan to use. This will be my first cabinet project, but is definitely a project I feel like I can take on in steps. So here is my plan…
For the cabinet doors my plan is to use a surfacing jig and a router to mill off an 1/8th for solid wood planks to be glued and clamped. I want to reuse the existing doors so I don’t have to mess with redrilling for door hinges and hardware. The hinges on the door seem to just be non-soft closing versions of a concealed hinge from the big box stores.
The cabinet boxes are what are tripping me up the most. I don’t really want to pull them off the walls to refinish so I am planning on doing it with them installed. My thought was to use a handheld planer to take them down an 1/8 inch again to apply solid wood planks. I thought about using veneer for this step to eliminate the tediousness of planing down the side and front of the cabinets, but I find it harder to blend veneer on the corners. This is definitely a skill issue.
Instead of reusing the inner panel that is basically as thin as rice paper, I want to insert fluted glass. I’ll just router out a step down in the cabinet frame to glue the cleat the glass in place.
From a material standpoint, the cabinets look like birch plywood so it should be fairly easy to work with, granted I mitigate tear out. I’m on the fence about what type of wood to use for the uppers but was leaning walnut or something a little lighter like an almond wood. I’m not too versed on my wood species so suggestions there would be very helpful. Ultimately looking for warmth and depth but not very dark.
I’ve attached some sketches I made and what the current kitchen looks like. Once I start, I'll post a progress update. Hoping to be finished in 2-3 weeks after first cut.