New Doors Transform Dated Cabinets in This Kitchen Makeover

After the leak was resolved and the cabinet bodies were covered, Suzy moved on to the doors. After applying the veneer and plywood edge banding, she trimmed and sanded down the cabinet edges and then added flat panel doors she cut from plywood. She sealed the doors with a layer of polyurethane protective finish. 

The end result? A set of natural-looking, fresh cabinets that bring the kitchen up to date. Materials-wise, it cost Jill about $235 to veneer the cabinet frames and $550 to make flat panel doors out of hardwood plywood, and her kitchen is about 200 square feet.  

“Considering how much you would have to spend to get new, modern, flat panel, red oak cabinets for a kitchen, I would say that refacing kitchen cabinets with veneer and building new cabinet doors is budget-friendly,” she says. “It feels really good to know that I was able to make my cabinets look the way I wanted.”