Cabinets: Wood Veneer

You do not have to buy new kitchen cabinets to achieve a beautiful new look. You can give your old cabinets a facelift with wood veneer and new doors and drawers fronts.

Wood veneers are thin layers of real wood that are perfect for re-facing old cabinets. Unfortunately, wood veneer cannot be used for cover doors with recessed panels or which have any sort curvature, which is common to drawer fronts. So for this project, you may want to completely replace your door and drawer fronts to match the new veneer.

Before ordering the new materials, measure your cabinet, doors and drawers and be sure to add 15 percent to your veneer order to account for waste and working with corners. When you are ready to go, remove all the old doors and drawers. Veneer is so thin that any irregularities in the surface of the cabinets will show through so all bumps need to be sanded down. Plus, sanding will create tooth for a better bond later.

Now it is time to start re-facing. Pick a surface to start with and measure and cut a piece of veneer a bit larger that the panel. This can be done with sharp scissors or utility knife along with the straight edge.

Apply some wood glue to the back of the veneer and set it in place making sure to smooth out the veneer. Then, secure the veneer with a few small nails. Repeat this process for every part of the cabinet making sure to be extra careful with the thin rails and styles, the vertical and horizontal parts of t he face frame. And when working with a face frame, remember to leave a little overlap to cover the edges of t he side panels.

Once all the veneer is in place, you can stain it and your doors to match. Then, hang the new cabinet doors. With your doors up, go ahead and install your new drawer fronts. Painting or staining them is needed. Center the drawer on the back of the drawer front. Free drill a couple of screw holes, insert your screws and voila!

Now, just slide the whole drawer right back into place. Without a doubt, re-facing your old cabinets with a wood veneer is a great cost saving alternative to buying new ones.

They look fresh out of the box and you won’t have to tell a soul.