Try to take your restoration of kitchen furniture Go one step further by adding molding to your flat top cabinet fronts. It will create an interesting touch in your room without spending much more money than you will on a simple finish. Putting molding on your cabinets can be done easily.

basic tasks

The first thing is to do the basic repainting. Remove cabinet doors and drawer fronts and remove all hardware. Rub them down with degreaser until they are completely free of grease and contaminants. This will allow the paint to adhere to the surface. After the wood has dried, you can sand, clean, and paint. Apply three or more very thin coats of paint, sanding and letting dry between coats. Always clean up sanding dust before repainting.

When you’ve finished up to this point, decide what type of molding you want to have on your cabinet doors and cabinet drawer fronts. You can use thin and flat moldings easily. Lattice trim and screen trim work well, as do other types of flat trim. They are about 1/4 inch thick. You should also consider the width you want. If you want a narrower trim, you can use a screen trim, which is usually 3/4 inch wide. Lattice trim, 1 1/8 to 1 3/4 inches wide, is not that narrow.

Hold sample moldings against cabinet doors

To figure out how you want to complete your restoration project, take home a couple of small pieces of each type you’re considering. Hold them up against the doors and try to get an idea of ​​how they would look in different patterns on the cabinet doors. Once you figure that out, you’re ready to move on. Take measurements on cabinet doors and drawer fronts to determine how much molding you’d like to put on. Buy the trim.

After you have the trim, it’s time to prime it and then paint it. When you’ve done those things, you can start cutting it. Use a miter saw, an electric miter saw if you have one available, to make the corners square. You have two options for how to proceed with your task at this point. You can cut all the trim pieces at once and then snap them together on the cabinet doors and cabinet drawer fronts. The other option is to cut the trim for each cabinet drawer front or door, glue it down, and then cut the next.

Use yellow wood glue to attach the trim to your cabinet

The best way to attach the molding to cabinet surfaces is to use yellow wood glue. You will need to put a thin layer of glue all over the bottom of each piece you are going to join. Then, press it and exert a little pressure for half an hour. You can do this by putting some weight on it or running some nails through it. Your cabinet finish will go better if you use nails, because the molding could move with a simple weight. Wipe up any spilled glue and let the pieces dry.

When you’ve replaced the cabinet doors and cabinet drawer fronts, the next job is to add your own hand-selected hardware. When you’re done, your kitchen cabinet restoration job will be complete.