CABINET FACE-LIFT

ADD BEAUTY AND VALUE TO YOUR KITCHEN

- JAY CORK

We've all seen ugly kitchens-cabinets stained from decades of use or with a cringeworthy outdated style. Hiring a remodeling crew is expensive and can take your kitchen offline for weeks-even months! I'll show you how to give your kitchen a face-lift for a fraction of the cost and disruption.

1 STRIP DOWN THE CABINETS

Remove all the doors, hinges and drawer fronts. Label all the parts for reference later. I used numbers, but you can use anything that helps you remember what goes where.

2 TAKE MEASUREMENTS

Take accurate measurements of each rail and stile to determine the overall size of each cabinet. I drew all my cabinets in SketchUp, but you can use graph paper. Next, measure all doors and drawer fronts, and give each one a name or designation.

3 SAND THE FACE FRAMES

Normally I want to roughen a surface that's being glued, but not with PSA-backed veneer.

For pressure-sensitive adhesive, you want the substrate smooth.

I sanded the painted surface of the rails and stiles with 320-grit sandpaper-not to sand off all the paint, only to make it smooth.