Beginner Friendly Cabinet Doors
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How to Reface your Cabinets
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If you’re looking to build beginner friendly, paintable cabinet doors on a budget, MDF is one of the best materials to start with. Over the years, I’ve built and assembled a wide variety of built-ins, offices, kitchens and bathroom vanities but when it came to building doors from scratch I always opted to buy them vs build them because I thought it was worth the expense.
My last project I ordered raw MDF doors from NIEU Cabinet Doors, something really clicked for me. While those doors were cut perfectly using technical equipment, at the end of the day, they were still MDF doors. And since I already knew how to work with and paint MDF, it dawned on me that I could save thousands of dollars by building them myself and I’m here to show YOU the easiest way to do it too!
For this project I was able to build
18 cabinet doors and 16 drawers for $230 in MDF.
That’s INSANE considering ordering these same size doors would cost me $2600 + hundreds in shipping for RAW MDF doors.
Why MDF vs. Hardwood
It’s also important to understand why so many custom cabinet door companies use MDF in the first place. While solid wood is great for furniture, it’s actually not ideal for painted kitchen or bathroom cabinet doors. Solid wood is prone to warping and expands and contracts with changes in humidity, which can lead to cracks forming at the joints over time. MDF, on the other hand, is made from fine wood fibers that are bonded together to create a dense, stable material. Because it has no grain, it allows for an incredibly smooth surface and a high level of detail, which makes it perfect for painted cabinet doors. Yes, you heard it right, professional painted cabinet doors are also made from MDF!
MDF is intentionally used for painted doors because it finishes so cleanly. When painted, the surface is smooth, consistent, and professional-looking in a way that’s difficult to achieve with solid wood. MDF also offers better moisture resistance than solid wood, which makes it a great option for a kitchen, laundry room, or bathroom where humidity is always a factor.
Another great way to build MDF construction would be using pine or another hardwood for the rail and stile door frame, with an MDF center panel. This process is a lot more involved, and maybe not the best for beginners which is why this tutorial isn’t going over that style!
This entire tutorial is based around painted cabinet doors. If you’re looking for stained cabinets, white oak, walnut, or any other natural hardwood doors, this is not the tutorial for you. But if your goal is to build beginner-friendly, paintable beginner friendly cabinet doors (with NO pocket holes needed) on a budget let’s get you building new cabinet doors!
Materials & Tools
½-inch MDF sheet
¼-inch MDF sheet
¾-inch MDF sheet
Bondo body filler
Wood filler
Titebond II wood glue
Zinsser 123 primer
Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel
Foam rollers
Wooster short handle paintbrush
Painter’s tape
1-inch foam insulation board
Cabinet hinges
Crown molding
Kreg Rip-Cut guide
Kreg Track Saw
Circular saw
Table saw
Drill
Tapered drill bit
Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig
Kreg cabinet install spacers
Router
Flush trim bit
Orbital sander
120-grit sandpaper
220-grit sandpaper
Sanding block
Micro sanding tool
Tack cloth
Pin nailer
⅝-inch 23 gauge pin nails
Level
Paint sprayer
Speed square
Tape measurer
Step 1: Know Your Cabinet Sizes Before You Build Anything
Before building any doors, you need to know your exact cabinet sizes. I highly recommend having all of your new cabinets built and installed before you start buying materials or building doors.
For my craft homework room, I chose not to build the majority of my cabinet boxes. I ordered them from a company called Cabinotch to save time (scroll to the bottom of this post to learn more about Cabinotch & why I use them) and to ensure that the boxes were very square. Square cabinet boxes are extremely important when building doors.
If you’re a beginner and you try to build both cabinet boxes and cabinet doors, things can get frustrating quickly. Even slightly out-of-square cabinet boxes can cause doors to not line up properly. If budget is a concern and you have to choose, I recommend building either the cabinet boxes or the doors, not both. Once you feel confident building one, then you can move onto a project building both.
Once your cabinet boxes are built, measure all of your openings. I cover this process in detail in my cabinet measuring and cabinet refacing blog posts here. After you have all your door measurements and quantities, plug them into a free cut list optimizer. This is truly the easiest and best way because the website maps out all of your cuts on full sheets so you know exactly how many sheets of material you need and how to cut them to not waste wood.
For reference:
How to Measure Cabinet Doors
How to Measure and Order Cabinet Doors
Materials and Thickness Breakdown
For my project I used:
3 sheets of 1/2″ MDF for the Doors
1 sheet of 3/4″ MDF for the drawer fronts
1 sheet of 1/4″ MDF for the shaker style detail (my Home Depot only sells 1/4″ MDF 2ft by 4ft. so I had to buy 3 of these)
My drawers are flat slab drawers with no shaker detail which made them easier to build and the style I wanted them to look. But required me to buy different thickness wood for them. You cannot buy 3/4″ MDF for everything and add the shaker detail to it for your doors otherwise they will be too thick and stick out further than your slab drawers.
If you want all your doors and drawers to have the shaker detail, then build everything out of 1/2″ MDF with 1/4″ for the shaker detail layered on top.
Step 2: Cut MDF for New Doors and Drawers
Because MDF sheets are 4 feet by 8 feet, they’re heavy and awkward to cut on a table saw without a large outfeed setup. Instead, I break down full sheets on the floor.
I use a Kreg Jig Rip-Cut with a circular saw for straight cuts. I place a 1-inch foam insulation board on the ground as a buffer between the concrete and the MDF. This allows me to safely cut large sheets while keeping everything supported.
Using your cut list diagram, cut all of the rectangles and squares that make up your cabinet doors. Double-check measurements and fine-tune on a table saw if needed.
Step 3: Adding the Shaker Detail.
Shaker-style Cabinet Doors.
I ripped all of my ¼-inch MDF to 2 inches wide for the shaker detail. Traditional shaker doors give you a timeless look and usually fall between 2 and 2½ inches wide, so you can customize this based on your preference.
Cut your side pieces first to match the height of each door. Then measure between the sides and cut the top and bottom pieces to fit in between. Slight overhang is okay if you plan to use a flush trim bit later.
Attach the shaker pieces using Titebond II wood glue and ⅝-inch 23-gauge pin nails. Set aside to let dry.
Step 4: Filling the Shaker Joints & Flush Trim
Once the shaker detail is attached, fill the seams where the side pieces meet the top and bottom pieces. I prefer Bondo because it doesn’t shrink or crack, but it does set quickly, so mix small batches and apply with a plastic scraper. Sand with 120 grit, followed by 220 grit.
If you’re more comfortable with wood filler, you can use that instead, just expect longer dry times and possible shrinkage.
Using a Router with a Flush Trim Bit to Clean Up Your Doors
This part is optional, but will yield the best results and make all your doors perfect!
Once your shaker detail is glued and nailed to the face of your door, you’ll probably have a little overhang where the strips are proud of the panel. The easiest and most accurate way to clean that up, is with a router and a flush trim bit. If you don’t have one, you can use an orbital sander on the edges with 120 grit until they are flush and smooth just be sure to not go too much on the corner edges or they will be rounded and misshapen.
A flush trim router bit is a bearing-guided cutter that rides along one surface and trims the other surface exactly level with it. The bearing on the bit follows the edge you want to match, and the cutting edges make the piece below perfectly flush with that edge.
Tips for Beginners
After routing, you can lightly sand with 220-grit to remove any tiny burrs before priming.
Go slow and steady. Let the router do the work instead of forcing it.
If you’re nervous, practice on a scrap piece first!
Edgeband or wood fill?
One major advantage of building paintable cabinet doors out of MDF because MDF is made from compressed wood fibers all the way through, the material is the same from the surface to the core. That means when you cut MDF, you don’t expose ugly layers like you do with plywood. Once your shaker detail is attached and your edges are trimmed flush, you can simply sand, prime, and paint the edges, and they’ll disappear.
You do not need to use Bondo, wood filler, veneer tape, or edge banding on the outside edges of MDF cabinet doors. As long as they’re sanded smooth and properly primed, MDF edges paint beautifully.
Drill Hinge Holes and Test Fit
Before priming and painting, drill hinge holes using the Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig. The set up for this jig is really easy. Measure 3.75″ from the top and bottom of your cabinet. This is where the center of your hinge hole will be. Mark it on your cabinet and place the sharp tip of the drill bit over your mark. Clamp it in place and drill out your hinge hole.
Since we are using MDF it is important to note that MDF doesn’t hold screws as well as hardwood or plywood does long-term. To help with a better more secure fit you can also drill out a dowel anchor hole. These come with your hinges. If you don’t have to use them (I didn’t), but they are an option.
Before you paint it’s super important to test-fit all doors before painting. If you accidentally cut one incorrectly or need to trim another, now is the time to do it!
PRO TIP: Take a sharpie and label each door inside the hinge hole (for example, 2L for 2nd cabinet box left door or 4R for 4th cabinet box right door. Also label your cabinet boxes) then cover up the sharpie with with painter’s tape so it doesn’t get painted over. After paint you can peel off the tape and see exactly where that door goes.
Understanding Cabinet Hinge Overlays (And Why I Mixed Them)
When choosing concealed hinges, one thing you’ll need to decide is the overlay, which refers to how much of the cabinet frame the door covers when it’s closed.
The two most common overlays are 1¼-inch and 1½-inch. A 1¼-inch overlay is more traditional, while a 1½-inch overlay gives a slightly more modern, frameless look. Both work — it really comes down to how you want your doors to sit visually on the cabinet boxes.
In my space, I actually used a mix of overlays because my face frame was different widths.
About 80% of my doors use a 1½-inch overlay
About 20% use a 1¼-inch overlay
How do you choose? I would opt to buy both 1 1/2″ and 1 1/4″ and play around with the two to get the equal spacing of your doors.
Priming & Painting MDF Cabinet Doors
I have several blog posts that go into detail on how to paint cabinet doors.
Blog Post: FAQ Painting Cabinets your questions answered
Paint Stained Cabinets
How to use a paint sprayer
Lightly sand all doors with 220 grit sandpaper, then wipe clean with a tack cloth or compressed air.
I use Zinsser 123 primer and apply two coats, sanding lightly with 220 grit and wiping clean between coats with a tack cloth. This fully seals the MDF before paint.
I prefer spraying cabinet doors because it gets thicker paint on faster for better coverage and durability, but brushing and rolling also work well.
My go-to paint is Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel in Satin. It self-levels beautifully, cures within seven days, and does not require a polyurethane top coat.
– Spraying: 2 coats
– Brushing/Rolling: 3 coats
Lightly sand with 220 grit between coats. After the final coat, do not sand. Let the doors sit untouched for several days, ideally up to a week, before installing.
PRO TIP: The emerald paint is expensive per gallon so when Sherwin Williams is running a paint sale (typically around holiday weekends like memorial day or labor day) I like to buy a few gallons and tape on the receipt but I don’t tint them a color yet. When I have decided on my color I bring them back and have them tinted for free! This helps save money + not make a premature paint color choice before I’m really ready and decided. They have different paint bases (white for lighter colors and deep for darker colors which they will swap out for free if you have your receipt).
More Details On Why I Chose Cabinotch Cabinet Boxes
I’ve tried a few of the different RTA (ready to assemble) cabinet box companies from IKEA to Cabinet Joint and Cabinotch. They all have their pros and cons. From the 3 I would say Cabinotch is the least expensive CUSTOM size solid plywood option, but they require you to have a business in order to order from them and you have to have a little bit of knowledge in cabinet construction to make your selections because every detail is customizable.
Unlike IKEA which only has particle board cabinet boxes, Cabinotch offers particle board and PureBone hard plywood. The construction of the boxes take under 15 minutes each because the sides slide into the face frame or Lamello snaps.
They also have all different hardwood options for the face frames. All 3 of these bathroom vanity cabinet boxes were custom ordered through Cabinotch. I used white oak for my bathroom vanities, walnut face frame for my boys vanity, and paint ready for my girls vanity, then ordered custom size doors from Fast Cabinet Doors to match.
Hopefully this tutorial helps you have the confidence to tackle your own cabinet doors saving thousands of dollars in the process. Let me know if you have any questions with a DM over on Instagram @Honeybuilthome
