Looking to update your old outdated kitchen cabinets? I’m going to show you how to DIY shaker style cabinets from existing old cabinets using MDF, and no power tools. All while being less than $100. Yes, really!
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This project is such an easy and budget friendly way to update any old cabinets into the beautiful shaker style cabinets you dream of!
We live in a small (900 sqft small) little blue house. Although it’s charming with its old home quirks, After three years of living here, the plain kitchen cabinets weren’t cutting it for me anymore. They were basically just boring, old, flat panels of wood. I really needed some new cabinets. (ok, I really wanted some new cabinets) That was until I saw the price of new cabinet doors. No thanks!
After painting those old cabinets to hold me over for a year or two, I thought of an idea. “Ah, ha! Would if I made some DIY shaker cabinet doors using the cabinet doors we already have?” That was until I realized I did not know how to use a circular saw, a kreg jig, (or any big power tool for that matter.)
I didn’t own a router table and I definitely didn’t know how to make pocket hole screws.
Finally, I had an idea.
I’ll use our existing flat cabinets as a base and turn them into shaker-style cabinet doors with no power tools. How you ask? I decided to use a sheet of MDF board and have my local hardware store (Home Depot) cut them into 2 inch strips for me. I was so excited that I had come up with a solution for my old, outdated cabinets that I didn’t even have exact measurements when I went to the store to get my supplies!
Since I didn’t own any power tools (except a drill!) and would need to cut the 2 inch MDF strips to fit the cabinet door base once I got home, I used a miter box with a saw included. It cut the MDF perfectly!
I put together a step-by-step tutorial of the supplies I used, and a price breakdown of how I updated my own cabinet doors for less than $100 using the cabinet door that was already in my kitchen! You can find all of the details below.
Supplies needed:
Here is a list of supplies to gather from your local hardware store to transform your old cabinets into DIY shaker cabinet doors.
- 1/4 2×4 medium MDF board ($14.95)
- Wood glue, I used the brand liquid nails. (3.58)
- Masking tape ($3.78) or spring clamps to hold your MDF strips in place.
- Sand paper ($6.98)
- Miter Box with Saw Included ($13.97)
- New Paint (I used some leftover paint from another project)
Bringing your shopping total to the amount of: $43.26! Talk about a budget friendly DIY!
Optional:
- New cabinet hardware (we added these brass knobs from amazon in the color champagne bronze)
Less than $100 dollars for new cabinet doors? Um, sign me up!
disclaimer: I have a small kitchen, based on how many cabinet doors you are trying to update, your total may be more than stated above. I was able to update 6 drawers/cabinets with the MDF strips I got from one 2×4 sheet of the MDF board.
How to DIY shaker style cabinets from existing old cabinets
Here is a before, during and after picture of our updated shaker style cabinet doors!
Step 1 – Cut the 2 inch strips of MDF using a miter box and saw
After you have had the hardware store cut your 2×4 MDF (which stands for medium density fiberboard) sheet into 2 inch strips, the first thing you will do when you get home is to measure the length of each side of your cabinet base.
Then, using the miter box and saw, you will cut the MDF strips based off the length and width of your cabinets base. You should have 4 pieces of your MDF cut into 2 different sizes (one size for the top and bottom of the door and one size for both sides of the cabinet base)
Step 2 – Glue the DIY Cabinet Doors Together
After you have cut your MDF strips to size, you will add each strip the existing cabinet door using the liquid nails wood glue.
Start by gluing one of the side strips first, then moving onto gluing the top strip, then the other side strip, finally ending with the bottom strip. Make sure you glue them on in that order!
Step 3 – Tape or Clamp the MDF strips onto the existing Cabinet
After each MDF strip has been glued to your cabinet door, use masking tape or wood clamps to tightly secure the MDF strips in place. This will take about 30 minutes to an hour to dry. I used the masking tape on every cabinet, and took turns putting my spring clamps on each cabinet until they were all dry since I only had two clamps. There were some spots where I could not fit the spring clamps, such as my cabinet drawer fronts. These cabinet drawers did fine with the masking tape only.
Step 4 – Sand your cabinets and use wood glue to fill in any gaps
The next step, you will use 120 grit sandpaper to sand your MDF and cabinets until smooth. Do not skip this step!
After sanding your cabinets, you will use wood filler on the seams and joints for a seamless finish. Fill any gaps or past hinge holes with the wood filler, if you have any.
Step 5 – Paint your DIY shaker style cabinets!
The next step is picking a paint color and painting your cabinets! This was the hardest part for me. I wanted green cabinets, But I was scared to paint the cabinets green. I was so worried how they would look. Ultimately, I went for it and LOVE how they turned out! See the color and finish we chose below.
Also, I did not have a primer so I did not apply a coat of primer to the cabinets first before painting, but you should. If you can’t tell, I am not a perfectionist. I just like finished projects and pretty things.
Step 6 – Pick out your new hardware or install existing ones
Speaking of pretty things, I knew I wanted to update our drawer handles. So, I found these beautiful gold brass knobs and drawer pulls on amazon. The quality of these knobs are amazing!!
By the way, the first time I updated these cabinets with paint only, I took off the drawer handles and never put them back on. We had cabinets without drawer handles for like a year.
So you can imagine my excitement when we finally installed the new brass knobs. The gold color also matched my gold brass sink faucet perfect!
We ended up replacing the old cabinets overlay hinges since they were so outdated. I did some Pinterest searching and found most shaker style cabinets used concealed hinges. I thought this looked much better, so we decided to add concealed hinges to our cabinet doors. A bag of 10 concealed hinges costed $19.98 at our local hardware store.
That’s it!
Once we replaced the cabinet hinges and added the brass knobs, we were done!
Now I think it is time for some new butcher block counter tops. If only I can find a budget friendly DIY as good as this one!
I could not believe what an easy way this was to transform our cabinets from flat doors into shaker-style doors. As a matter of fact, I did most of it all on my own while my husband was at work. This is defiantly a beginner friendly DIY project!
Could you use trim pieces instead to make these DIY shaker style cabinets from existing old cabinets?
Yes! You could definitely use trim pieces instead of MDF strips to create your own shaker cabinet doors. I bet you could even use the miter saw to cut the trim pieces for the shaker doors too.
I was going for the most budget-friendly option to update our cabinets. Which is why I ended up using the sheet of MDF cut into strips.
The paint color we used to paint the DIY shaker style cabinets:
We used the paint color svelte sage by Sherwin Williams. We used the finish semi-gloss to paint our new DIY shaker cabinets.
DIY Shaker Cabinet Doors Tips:
- Do light coats of paint and primer. It’s better to do multiple light coats than to have thick, drippy coats of paint. If you are not leaving your cabinets installed to paint, I would suggest using a paint sprayer for the best finish. I used a roll on brush since I left my cabinet doors installed during this project.
- When painting your kitchen cabinets, it is best to use a gloss finish. A gloss finish will give you the best durability in a busy kitchen where scratches, dings, and dents are likely to occur.
- Not all hardware stores will cut the MDF strips down to 2 inches. Apparently, it could be a safety hazard for their huge machine to cut that small. You may want to ask your local hardware store if they have a machine that would allow them to cut the MDF into 2 inch strips before getting started.
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