Tips and Hints Measuring for Replacement Doors

Just Doors

 

Measure the doors and drawer fronts in millimetres. If the edges have mouldings which make it difficult to measure, then measure the back of them. Are the existing doors and drawer fronts a good fit ? If they aren't, don't be afraid to alter the sizes to improve the appearance. Before you do this, though, check that it isn't just the case that the hinges need adjusting.

 

Be careful if you have a run of wall units - often in old kitchens the middle units have sagged, causing 3 or 4mm of the bottom edge of the carcass to become visible. You may not notice this if, as is often the case, your doors are the same colour as the carcass. But, remove the old doors and replace them with a different colour and  you will notice !!! The solution is easy - just order the doors a few mm longer so that they drop down lower at the bottom.

 

Twenty year old kitchens like this often have integrated handles. This poses a problem if there are drawers in the base unit corners...... When you fit the replacement doors/drawers, the knobs or handles stick out and the corner drawers will foul each other when you pull them open - the drawer will only pull out a few inches then it catches on the knob or handle of the adjacent drawer.

This is how we do it if we are refurbishing a kitchen. We reduce the width of the door/drawer either side of the corner by about 20mm (so for example instead of being 496mm wide, they'll be 476mm wide), and fit a larger corner post. This is what we have done in the above photo (this is the 'after' photo of the 20 year old kitchen above left).

 

When refurbishing your kitchen you don't have to replicate  what you have got..... If you've got a unit with a door on, you can change it to a drawer unit, by ordering drawer fronts and fitting internal drawer boxes.

Or vice versa, you can remove the drawers from a carcass and fit a door instead. Or, you can alter the way a door opens by moving the hinges to the opposite side on the replacement door.

Copyright Just Doors Ltd 2009