Replacing kitchen cabinets with birch plywood, by Joyce

Description

I made new kitchen cabinets using three 18 mm thick birch plywood boards. I grooved them and reused the hinges from the old cabinets. This creates a very natural effect compared to the boring yellow kitchen cabinets that were there before.

Custom kitchen cabinet doors

I measured the old cabinets and ordered birch plywood boards of exactly the same dimensions from OPMAATZAGEN.nl. I then calculated how wide the slats needed to be, considering a routing width of 8 mm, which came out to 4.2 cm (see Excel file) for both the large and small panels. They, of course, had to be exactly the same. By guiding the router with a long straightedge, I created very clean grooves 8 mm wide and 8 mm deep. At this depth, the wood grain remains beautifully visible.

Using the Wolfcraft hinge drill, I placed the old cabinets on the new panels and drilled through the hinge holes—this worked very easily. I drilled holes for the handles and then sanded everything thoroughly and finished it with SIGMAVAR WS MATT varnish. This varnish stays beautifully matte, and the wood doesn't discolor at all.

Tip: Order a small door as a test piece so you can practice routing and check if the project will succeed. The rest of the kitchen was painted—check out the before-and-after photos :-)

Dimensions of the plywood

The two large panels are 86.0 x 59.4 cm. These were only cut, not finished.
The small panel is 86.0 x 29.4 cm.