Cabinet Door Questions
Cabinet door knowledge base50+ Answers · Updated 2026
Cabinet door questions, real answers.
Everything you actually want to know about ordering custom cabinet doors in Canada — material choice, costs, IKEA compatibility, painting MDF, lead times, warping, drilling, shipping, and the trade-offs between Shaker, Slim Shaker, Flat Panel, Raised Panel and Wood Veneer. Made in rural Ontario about 20 km east of Peterborough and shipped Canada-wide. Use the table of contents below to jump to a section, or browse straight through.
01 · Start here
The basics — what we make
We're a Canadian cabinet shop with over 25 years experience that mills custom doors and drawer fronts to your exact sizes. Everything is made-to-order in our shop — not warehoused, not imported. Below: the basics on materials, construction styles, and how MDF actually behaves in a real kitchen.
A Ready To Paint cabinet door is a custom-milled MDF or wood-veneer cabinet door that ships sanded and unfinished, ready for you (or your painter) to spray or roll. We mill every door to your exact dimensions on our CNC, then ship it across Canada. You choose the style (Shaker, Flat Panel, Raised Panel, Slim Shaker, Wood Veneer, Integrated Handle, Decorative Panel), the size, the hinge drilling, and any optional priming. Start an order here.
MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) doors are engineered with a smooth paint-ready surface — perfect for any solid-colour painted finish (white, sage, navy, charcoal, etc.). Wood Veneer doors have a real wood face bonded to a particle board core, so you can stain, oil or seal them to show off natural grain (we offer Rift-Cut White Oak, Walnut, Cherry, Pine, Birch, Maple and others). Choose MDF if you want a flawless painted look; choose Veneer if you want visible wood grain.
Yes — MDF is the most common material in modern painted cabinets for good reason. It's stable, paints far better than solid wood (no joints to crack along the grain), and a premium MDF like Rangerboard Platinum (what we use) mills crisp corners and accepts primer without raising fibres. The trade-off is that MDF is heavier than plywood and reacts to humidity changes — keep your kitchen at normal household humidity (30–55%) and your doors will last decades.
A properly finished, climate-stable MDF cabinet door will last 25+ years — we have customers with original doors from our shop still in service. Longevity depends on three things: the quality of the MDF (we use Rangerboard Platinum, ~47–50 lb/ft³), the quality of the painted finish, and household humidity stability. Cabinets in bathrooms or basements with chronic moisture issues age faster — climate control is the biggest single lifespan variable.
MDF is denser, smoother, and machines into intricate profiles with crisp edges — making it the gold standard for painted doors. Plywood (or solid wood) is lighter, more dimensionally stable in extreme humidity swings, and shows real wood grain — making it the choice for stained doors. For a painted kitchen, MDF wins on finish quality. For a stained kitchen, choose our wood veneer doors instead.
Our standard wood-veneer species are Rift-Cut White Oak (the most-requested 2026 choice — straight modern grain), Walnut, Cherry, Pine and Birch. We also have access to Maple, Ash, Hickory, Sapele, Alder and most other species on request — contact us if you're after something specific. All veneer doors are real wood bonded to a particle board core, which gives you genuine grain on a stable substrate.
Yes — we can supply any MDF door in Rangerboard Platinum with a white melamine back at no extra cost. A melamine back is harder, easier to wipe clean, and acts as a moisture barrier on the cabinet-interior side. It also slightly improves dimensional stability vs. a raw MDF back, which is why we often recommend it for taller doors or doors in higher-humidity locations.
A 1-piece door is milled from a single MDF panel — every detail (frame and centre) is CNC-routed out of one piece, so there are no glue joints that can crack along a painted surface. A 2-piece door has a solid outer frame surrounding a routed centre panel — fewer joints than a traditional door, more profile options than a 1-piece. A 5-piece door is the traditional wood construction (two rails, two stiles, one centre panel) — gorgeous for stained wood, but the painted joints can show hairline cracks over time. For painted kitchens, 1-piece and 2-piece MDF outperform 5-piece every time. See all our door styles here.
On a traditional 5-piece door, the rails are the top and bottom horizontal pieces of the door frame, and the stiles are the two vertical side pieces. Together they form the rectangular frame surrounding the centre panel. We use the same terminology when talking about Shaker-style 1-piece MDF doors even though the door is milled from a single panel — the wider 'rail/stile' area around the routed centre panel is what defines a Shaker look.
All cabinet doors — MDF, plywood and solid wood — react to humidity. MDF can develop a slight bow if exposed to extreme humidity swings or chronic moisture (think uninsulated cottages, basement laundry rooms with no climate control). For normal climate-controlled homes, warping is rare and almost always within our published tolerances. Larger doors are more susceptible — see the warping-tolerance chart in the next question. Pocketing the back of a door (a routed recess) and using melamine-backed panels both reduce warp risk on taller doors.
Our acceptable warping tolerance scales with door height: up to 20" = 1/16", 20–40" = 1/8", 40–60" = 1/4", 60–80" = 5/16". Doors over 80" tall are sold no-warranty since the material physics make movement essentially guaranteed at that height. Warping inside these ranges is a natural characteristic of MDF as engineered wood and isn't classified as a manufacturer defect — but we'll always work with you if something looks off when your order arrives.
Pocketing is a shallow rectangular recess routed into the back of a door — typically to mimic the look of a traditional 5-piece door from the inside, or to reduce the chance of warping on a tall door. On 1-piece MDF doors over 40" tall, we often recommend pocketing the back; it relieves internal tension in the material and adds a small amount of dimensional stability. Pocketing is optional on smaller doors and can be specified during ordering.
Workshop explainer · 6 min 17 secWatch on YouTube
Watch — the 6-minute version
Refacing or refinishing?
The single biggest decision most homeowners face when renovating a kitchen. Why repainting your existing wood cabinet doors usually leads to cracked seams within a year — and how custom-milled MDF doors solve every problem that comes with painting oak, maple or ash. Six minutes, straight from our workshop.
- ·Why wood grain telegraphs through paint — and what it costs to fill it
- ·The 5-piece-door cracking problem (with a real before/after)
- ·What Rangerboard Platinum MDF actually is — and why we use it
- ·Custom profiles, end panels, toe kicks and gables you can't get from a 5-piece
- ·Honest cost comparison: refinish vs. replace
Read the full transcript+
Have you ever thought about simply repainting your existing wood cabinet doors? Seems like a straightforward solution — after all, why spend more money replacing them when you could just freshen them up with a coat of paint?
Here's the reality. If your cabinet doors are made of wood like oak, maple, or ash, you're in for far more work than you might think. These woods have prominent grain patterns that will show through no matter how many coats of paint you apply. That means you'll need to fill those grains first — but it's not as easy as it sounds.
You start by thoroughly sanding the surface to remove imperfections. Then you fill the grain. Then you sand again — and that's before you even get to prime. So we're already talking about a lot of prep work before you even get to paint the doors.
Even if you do all that right, there's still significant issues with painting wood doors, especially five-piece wood doors. They're a great door — looks super with wood. But once you paint it and the wood expands and contracts in changes of humidity, the seams of the doors — the joints — start to crack. You end up with a bad paint job. A ton of work, and at the end of the day you might not get a long-lasting result.
So what's the alternative? MDF doors. MDF stands for medium-density fiberboard — an engineered wood product made by pressing wood fibres, wax and resin into a smooth, dense sheet. No grain, no annoying texture to deal with. If you want a surface that's ready to paint, MDF doors are your best friend.
We use Rangerboard Platinum here at our shop for our Ready To Paint cabinet doors. It's a Canadian-made premium-quality MDF that mills beautifully and finishes nice. Our doors are cut from a single sheet of material using a precision CNC machine — no joints, no seams, nothing to crack or shift over time like a traditional wood door. With MDF you get a solid, uniform piece that's designed to last.
MDF doors come pre-sanded, ready to paint, and offer a lot of customization. With CNC router bits we can create profiles you wouldn't get on a five-piece wood door — there's a lot of detail we can put on the rail and stile, change the rail and stile width, do an end panel for a base cabinet with a taller rail at the bottom to match your toe kicks. Lots of options you wouldn't get with a traditional five-piece door.
Aside from doors and drawer fronts, we can also supply end panels and end gables for your kitchen, plus light valances, filler strips and toe kicks — even decorative panels and glass doors with custom mullions. Any style you'd like to do, you can customize with MDF.
First and foremost, there's no grain — no need to spend hours filling, sanding and re-sanding before you start painting. The surface is smooth and ready for that perfect coat of paint. No grain means a finish with no texture to show through, which is really the look people are going for these days.
Second, no cracking. MDF doors are made from a single, solid piece, so there's no joints to expand and contract like traditional wood doors. They won't split or shift over time, even in humid kitchen environments. One less thing to worry about — your cabinets stay looking great for years.
Third, it's surprisingly cost-effective. While MDF doors may have a slightly higher upfront cost than refinishing existing wood doors, when you factor in the hours, labour and materials needed for refinishing, MDF often comes out ahead — especially if you're hiring a professional. The labour involved in sanding, priming and painting old doors adds up fast.
From a distance a refinished five-piece door and an MDF door look the same. But take a closer look — you can see cracks at the rail-stile joints on the five-piece door. With MDF: no cracks, beautiful finish every time. If you're ready to upgrade your kitchen or bathroom, consider making the switch to MDF doors. They're not just a quick fix — they're a long-term solution that will look great and stand the test of time.
02 · Money matters
Cost & pricing
Buyer-first transparency on what custom cabinet doors actually cost in Canada, what fees apply, and when it makes more sense to replace vs. refinish.
Our cabinet doors are priced by square foot — so cost scales naturally with the size of the door, not arbitrary "small / medium / large" tiers. Starting prices by style:
• Flat Panel MDF — from $10/sq ft
• Recessed Panel (Shaker) MDF — from $16/sq ft
• Raised Panel MDF — from $19/sq ft
• Wood Veneer doors (real wood face on a particle-board core) — from $18/sq ft
• Premium Wood Veneer doors (same veneer species; built with solid-wood edges and a vacuum-pressed face for a more refined finish) — from $46/sq ft
Worked example: a standard 15"×30" upper door is about 3.1 sq ft, so a Shaker MDF version is roughly $50, while a Raised Panel MDF version is roughly $60. A larger 24"×40" pantry door (about 6.7 sq ft) lands around $107 in Shaker MDF, or $127 in Raised Panel. For exact pricing on every door in your kitchen, use our online order form — it prices every piece live as you spec it — or request an instant quote for the full kitchen.
• Flat Panel MDF — from $10/sq ft
• Recessed Panel (Shaker) MDF — from $16/sq ft
• Raised Panel MDF — from $19/sq ft
• Wood Veneer doors (real wood face on a particle-board core) — from $18/sq ft
• Premium Wood Veneer doors (same veneer species; built with solid-wood edges and a vacuum-pressed face for a more refined finish) — from $46/sq ft
Worked example: a standard 15"×30" upper door is about 3.1 sq ft, so a Shaker MDF version is roughly $50, while a Raised Panel MDF version is roughly $60. A larger 24"×40" pantry door (about 6.7 sq ft) lands around $107 in Shaker MDF, or $127 in Raised Panel. For exact pricing on every door in your kitchen, use our online order form — it prices every piece live as you spec it — or request an instant quote for the full kitchen.
For a typical 30-door kitchen (~120 sq ft of door area), the materials math works out like this:
• Replacing with new Shaker MDF doors: roughly $1,920 in doors (120 sq ft × $16) + a one-time $65 Order Setup Fee + $120–$180 packaging fee + shipping. All-in materials typically $2,200–$2,700, plus your installer's labour.
• Refinishing existing wood doors via a professional spray shop: $2,800–$5,000 in Ontario for labour, prep, primer, paint and the shop's overhead.
So in materials-and-labour terms, replacement is usually equal or slightly cheaper than refinishing — and it gets you brand-new doors with no painted joints to crack along the seams. Replacement is often the better value when the existing doors are dated styles (cathedral arches, oak raised panels), warped, or hinge-damaged. Refinishing wins when existing doors are recent Shaker or Flat styles in good shape and you just want a colour change. We supply many of Canada's busiest refinishers — see our refinisher program here.
• Replacing with new Shaker MDF doors: roughly $1,920 in doors (120 sq ft × $16) + a one-time $65 Order Setup Fee + $120–$180 packaging fee + shipping. All-in materials typically $2,200–$2,700, plus your installer's labour.
• Refinishing existing wood doors via a professional spray shop: $2,800–$5,000 in Ontario for labour, prep, primer, paint and the shop's overhead.
So in materials-and-labour terms, replacement is usually equal or slightly cheaper than refinishing — and it gets you brand-new doors with no painted joints to crack along the seams. Replacement is often the better value when the existing doors are dated styles (cathedral arches, oak raised panels), warped, or hinge-damaged. Refinishing wins when existing doors are recent Shaker or Flat styles in good shape and you just want a colour change. We supply many of Canada's busiest refinishers — see our refinisher program here.
Pricing scales by style and construction, not by some fixed multiplier:
• Shaker (Recessed Panel) MDF: from $16/sq ft — the painted-kitchen baseline.
• Standard Wood Veneer doors: from $18/sq ft — only ~12% above Shaker MDF. These are a 3/4" particle-board core with real wood veneer on both faces, milled and edge-banded — a great value when you want real grain on a stable substrate.
• Premium Wood Veneer doors: from $46/sq ft. Same veneer species (Rift-Cut White Oak, Walnut, Cherry, Pine, Birch) but built differently — we wrap a particle-board core with solid wood around all four edges (typically 1/4" thick, sized to the door style — an integrated-handle door needs about 1 3/4"), then vacuum-press veneer onto the face. Roughly 2.9× the cost of equivalent Shaker MDF, but a real step up in fit and finish. See the construction details in the Style & Design Decisions section below.
Most kitchens look great in a mix: Shaker MDF on the bulk of cabinetry, with a Walnut or Rift-Cut White Oak veneer island or hood surround as the focal point.
• Shaker (Recessed Panel) MDF: from $16/sq ft — the painted-kitchen baseline.
• Standard Wood Veneer doors: from $18/sq ft — only ~12% above Shaker MDF. These are a 3/4" particle-board core with real wood veneer on both faces, milled and edge-banded — a great value when you want real grain on a stable substrate.
• Premium Wood Veneer doors: from $46/sq ft. Same veneer species (Rift-Cut White Oak, Walnut, Cherry, Pine, Birch) but built differently — we wrap a particle-board core with solid wood around all four edges (typically 1/4" thick, sized to the door style — an integrated-handle door needs about 1 3/4"), then vacuum-press veneer onto the face. Roughly 2.9× the cost of equivalent Shaker MDF, but a real step up in fit and finish. See the construction details in the Style & Design Decisions section below.
Most kitchens look great in a mix: Shaker MDF on the bulk of cabinetry, with a Walnut or Rift-Cut White Oak veneer island or hood surround as the focal point.
Every order includes a one-time $65 Order Setup Fee, which covers the time we spend programming your job, generating your Order Review document, and confirming dimensions before milling. It applies once per order regardless of door count — so spreading it across a 30-door kitchen costs about $2/door, but it does meaningfully affect the cost of single-door sample orders.
The Handling & Packaging Fee covers materials and labour for crating or boxing your order to ship safely. It scales with order value: $30 for orders under $200, $40 for $200–$500, $90 for $501–$1,000, $120 for $1,001–$2,000, and $180 for orders over $2,000. Large orders typically ship in a custom-built plywood crate; smaller orders ship boxed or between thick cardboard sheets.
Yes — we work with refinishing companies, contractors, designers and cabinet makers across Canada and offer trade discount codes applied at checkout. Approved trade accounts get pricing, dedicated support, and access to our free measuring app CabinetDoors.app. Apply for a trade account here.
03 · IKEA compatibility
IKEA Sektion, Akurum & PAX
We make hundreds of replacement doors for IKEA cabinet systems every year. Sektion fits exactly; Akurum and PAX work too with the right specs.
Yes. Our doors and matching drawer fronts are precision-cut to IKEA Sektion specifications and pre-drilled (on request) for IKEA Utrusta hinges. We support every standard Sektion width — 12", 15", 18", 21" and 24" — and any height from drawer-front sizes (5"–15") up to 60" pantry doors. See our IKEA replacement doors page.
Yes — Akurum is the system IKEA used before discontinuing it in 2015, and we frequently make replacement doors for these cabinets. Akurum uses different sizing than Sektion and the hinge bore is in a slightly different location. Send us your cabinet measurements and we'll match exactly.
Yes — IKEA PAX wardrobes use a 75cm-wide and 50cm-wide cabinet system, and we make replacement doors sized and drilled to fit. Common upgrade choices: replacing IKEA's laminate doors with a paint-ready Shaker MDF for a custom-bedroom look, or moving to Rift-Cut White Oak veneer for a Scandi finish. Contact us with your PAX cabinet sizes to get started.
Generally yes for like-for-like styles, and significantly faster lead times. Semihandmade and Reform import their doors from the US and Europe; we make ours in Ontario with 12-business-day lead times and Canada-wide shipping (no cross-border duties or USD pricing). For a 30-door IKEA Sektion kitchen, our pricing typically lands 15–35% below Semihandmade equivalents — the exact comparison depends on door style and door count.
An IKEA hack is when you use IKEA cabinet boxes (Sektion or Akurum) as the structural carcass, then swap in custom doors and drawer fronts to elevate the look — getting custom-kitchen aesthetics at a fraction of custom-kitchen cost. We supply the doors and panels for thousands of IKEA hacks every year. Our IKEA Replacement Doors page walks through the whole process.
04 · Process
Ordering & the Order Review
Custom doors mean we double-check every dimension with you before we cut. Here's how the process works.
We're happy to take your order however you're most comfortable working — pick whichever route fits the job:
• Online ordering module — use our order form. Enter the first door, click "Add to Cart," hit the browser Back button to return to the configurator, adjust the next door's dimensions, then "Add to Cart" again. Repeat for every door.
• Email us a list or a drawing — send a spreadsheet, hand-sketched layout or PDF of your cut list to admin@readytopaintcabinetdoors.com (or use the contact form) and we'll build the order for you.
• Send your IKEA Kitchen Planner link — paste the share-link from IKEA's online kitchen planner and we'll pull the door list directly from your design.
• CabinetDoors.app — our free measuring app, best for 20+ door jobs. Measure on site from your phone and submit the entire job as one file.
Whichever method you choose, we always send an Order Review document for you to approve before any door is milled.
• Online ordering module — use our order form. Enter the first door, click "Add to Cart," hit the browser Back button to return to the configurator, adjust the next door's dimensions, then "Add to Cart" again. Repeat for every door.
• Email us a list or a drawing — send a spreadsheet, hand-sketched layout or PDF of your cut list to admin@readytopaintcabinetdoors.com (or use the contact form) and we'll build the order for you.
• Send your IKEA Kitchen Planner link — paste the share-link from IKEA's online kitchen planner and we'll pull the door list directly from your design.
• CabinetDoors.app — our free measuring app, best for 20+ door jobs. Measure on site from your phone and submit the entire job as one file.
Whichever method you choose, we always send an Order Review document for you to approve before any door is milled.
Before any door is milled, we send you an Order Review — a document showing every door in your order with its exact dimensions, hinge specs, and any optional features (pocketing, melamine back, factory priming). You review, request any adjustments, and approve. We don't cut anything until you've approved the Order Review and you are responsible for the final sizes. Read more about the Order Review process.
Yes — and we strongly recommend it for first-time customers. Sample doors cost $35 including shipping and let you confirm the profile, the MDF feel, and how the paint takes on the surface before committing to a full kitchen. Order samples here.
Yes — our shop is at 733 County Road 8, Warsaw (Douro), Ontario, K0L 3A0. We have a sample display of every door style we make. Open Monday–Friday 9–5, Saturday by appointment. Contact us first if you're driving in so we can have your samples ready.
We accept Visa, Mastercard and Debit through Shopify's secure checkout for online orders. Payment is taken at the time of order; if you cancel before the Order Review is approved, we issue a refund (less the $65 setup fee). We don't offer net-30 payment terms yet — orders are paid at checkout.
05 · Sizing
Measuring & sizing
Custom means custom — measure once, measure right, and the doors arrive perfect.
Use a tape measure and record the width × height of each existing door. Sketch your kitchen on paper, number every door and drawer front, and record measurements for each numbered piece. Photograph each cabinet for our reference. Our Free measuring app CabinetDoors.app keeps track of every door and drawer front and exports a clean cut list — much faster than pencil and paper.
Our order form is set up for imperial measurements with fractions (e.g. 15-3/4" × 30-1/2") or metric. If you have metric measurements from an IKEA cabinet specification, convert to imperial when entering your order — or send us your metric sizes via the contact form and we'll convert them for you.
Yes — every style we make is fully custom. Order any width and height up to 60" tall, and we'll mill exactly to your spec. For very tall doors (60–80"), we publish warping tolerances that scale with size; doors over 80" are sold no-warranty due to the inherent material physics of any engineered panel at that height.
We can mill MDF doors up to 96" tall and 30" wide, but we strongly recommend keeping doors at or under 60" tall for normal kitchens — taller doors get heavy, harder to install, and more susceptible to dimensional changes from humidity. For pantry doors over 60", we often recommend splitting the run into a stack of two doors instead of one full-height door.
Yes — angled-top doors are a popular choice for cathedral-ceiling kitchens. In the order form, select either "Angled Left" or "Angled Right" under "Door Type," then enter the left height, right height and bottom-edge width. We calculate the angle and top-edge length for you. Note: not every style supports an angled top — Shaker and Flat Panel always work, decorative profiles sometimes don't.
06 · Drilling
Hardware & hinge drilling
We drill for every major hinge brand, plus IKEA-specific drilling for hacks. Tell us your hinge brand and cup size, and we'll bore exactly to spec.
We drill for Blum, Hettich, Salice, and IKEA Utrusta hinges — all quality concealed-hinge brands. Standard drilling is a 35mm cup hole; some hinges also require two small 8mm or 10mm dowel holes for alignment, which we include automatically based on the hinge brand you select.
Standard rule: two hinges for doors up to 40" tall, three hinges for 40–65", four hinges for 65–90", five hinges for over 90". We drill hinge holes 4" from the top and bottom of the door by default; if your installer wants different placement, specify in the order notes. Spreading the load across more hinges keeps tall doors operating smoothly for years.
By default, hinge holes are drilled 4" in from the top edge and 4" in from the bottom edge of the door. For doors over 40" tall, an additional centre hinge hole is placed at the midpoint. You can override these positions in the order form's "Hinge Placement" field if your installer or cabinet boxes require specific locations.
$4 per hinge cup hole. For most kitchens that adds up to a small percentage of the total order — a typical 30-door kitchen with 2 hinges per door is about $240 in drilling. Doing it in-shop on the CNC is significantly more accurate than drilling on-site, so it's worth the small cost for fit and finish.
Yes — we offer IKEA Sektion (Utrusta) hinge drilling and we handle the IKEA-specific dimensions and hinge-cup locations correctly in the Order IKEA Sektion Cabinet Doors tab.
07 · Paint & stain
Finishing — paint & stain
Our doors arrive sanded and unfinished — ready for your painter, your spray shop, or your weekend DIY project. Below: everything you need to know about painting MDF, recommended products, and prep.
Absolutely — MDF cabinet doors are one of the most DIY-friendly painting projects, far easier than refinishing wood cabinet doors. The keys: prime first with a bonding primer designed for MDF (BIN Shellac, Zinsser Cover Stain, or Stix), sand lightly between coats, and use a roller-and-brush combo or a small HVLP sprayer. Three coats total (2 primer + 1 colour, or 1 primer + 2 colour) gives a professional-looking finish.
A cabinet-grade enamel — typically a water-based alkyd hybrid like Benjamin Moore Advance or Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel. These cure to a hard, washable finish that resists fingerprints and scuff marks. Avoid wall-grade latex paints — they stay soft and won't survive a kitchen environment. Talk to your local paint shop and tell them you're painting cabinet doors — they'll point to the right product.
Yes — always. Raw MDF will absorb paint inconsistently and the edges will fuzz if you skip primer. Use a bonding shellac or oil-based primer (BIN, Cover Stain, or Stix) on all surfaces including the milled edges — they're the thirstiest part of an MDF door. Two coats of primer give a far better final colour than one.
Plan on 2 coats of primer + 1–2 coats of colour. For dark colours over a white-tinted primer, you may need 2 colour coats; light colours often look done with 1 colour coat over primer. Always sand lightly (320 grit) between every coat — it's the difference between a DIY-looking finish and a sprayed-cabinet finish.
Yes — optional factory priming is available on every MDF door. Factory primer is applied in a controlled environment with even coverage on all six sides (front, back, four edges), saving your painter a coat of work and giving a more uniform base than priming after the door has shipped. Specify "factory primed" on the order form.
Our doors are sanded to a paint-ready surface before shipping, but it's best practice to go over them with a 400-grit sanding block just before priming — this knocks down any tiny fibres raised during transit and gives the primer a uniform tooth to grip. After every coat of primer or paint, lightly sand with 320 or 400 grit between coats.
You could, but MDF doesn't have a real wood grain to absorb stain, so the result will look blotchy and unconvincing. If you want a stained look, choose our Wood Veneer doors instead — they have a real-wood face on a particle board core that stains, oils and seals beautifully.
Wood veneer doors take stain, oil and clear sealants beautifully — treat them like solid wood. The typical sequence: sand with 220 grit, apply your stain (or oil — we love Saman or Rubio Monocoat for a low-maintenance modern look), let it dry per the product instructions, then seal with a clear water-based polyurethane (2–3 coats, sanded lightly between coats). For a natural unstained look on White Oak or Walnut, skip the stain and go straight to oil or polyurethane.
08 · Delivery
Shipping, lead times & delivery
We're based in Warsaw, Ontario and ship across Canada with multiple carriers. Lead time is approximately 12 business days after Order Review approval.
Lead time is approximately 2 weeks (12 business days) from the date you approve your Order Review. Delivery from our shop to your door adds 1–7 days depending on your location — local Ontario deliveries are fastest, Western Canada and Atlantic provinces are typically 4–7 days in transit. We'll send tracking when the order ships.
We ship across all of Canada using carriers including Canada Post, Manitoulin, CarPar and others depending on order size and destination. Free pickup is available from our shop at 733 County Road 8, Warsaw (Douro), Ontario. We unfortunately can't ship overseas. For the US, see our shipping page or contact us for a custom quote.
We use three packaging methods depending on order size: large orders are crated in custom-built plywood crates with reclaimed pallets; medium orders (doors smaller than 35"×23") are boxed with 3–12 doors per box; smaller orders and oversized panels are sandwiched between two layers of ¼" cardboard. Every shipment is inspected before it leaves the shop.
Shipping is calculated as a percentage of your shopping cart total based on destination — Ontario, Eastern Canada, Western Canada, BC, Newfoundland and USA all have different rate tiers. Oversized items (large panels, long toe kicks) or premium-rate locations (busy city centres or remote areas) may incur a surcharge — if so, we contact you within 48 hours of order and you can cancel without penalty. For exact current percentages by region, see our Shipping Details page.
Yes — free pickup is available at our shop in Warsaw, Ontario (just outside Peterborough). We'll email you when your order is ready. Pickup is Monday–Friday 9–5 or Saturday by appointment. Many trade customers in the Greater Toronto, Kawartha and Ottawa regions pick up directly.
09 · For the trade
For refinishers, cabinet makers & designers
We supply Canadian refinishing companies, contractors, cabinet makers and interior designers nationwide. Free measuring app, trade discount, and a workshop that's used to working at trade speed.
Yes. Approved trade accounts receive a discount code applied at checkout on every order. We don't offer net-30 payment terms yet — orders are paid at checkout with the discount code automatically reducing the total. See our refinishers program here or apply for a trade account.
Yes — many of our trade partners resell our doors as part of refinishing, cabinetry or design projects. The discount-code program effectively gives you wholesale-style pricing on every order. Contact us to discuss volume pricing and your specific business setup.
Yes — CabinetDoors.app is our free measuring tool built specifically for refinishers, contractors, installers and designers. Photograph every door, enter measurements on site from your phone, and submit clean job files straight to our quoting team. No license fee, no per-seat charge. Sign up at CabinetDoors.app and start using it the same day.
Not yet — currently all orders (trade and retail) are paid at checkout. We're working on a payment-terms program for high-volume trade partners; if that would unlock additional volume for your shop, let us know via the trade application and we'll keep you posted.
10 · Warranty & returns
Warranty, returns & refunds
Custom-milled doors are sold to your spec — but if something arrives damaged or the wrong piece slips out, we sort it out.
We offer a 1-year warranty on structural integrity — splits, separation, or manufacturing defects within 12 months of purchase. Email us at admin@readytopaintcabinetdoors.com with photos of the issue and we'll work with you on a remake or refund. Warping resulting from environmental conditions or oversized doors (see the warping tolerance chart in The Basics section) is considered a natural characteristic of MDF and isn't covered as a defect.
If you haven't yet received your Order Review, you can cancel and receive a refund minus a 10% admin fee. If you've received but not approved the Order Review, we'll refund all but the $65 Setup charge. Once you approve the Order Review, manufacturing begins and we can't issue a refund since the doors are being custom-cut to your specs. This is why the Order Review step is so important.
Inspect your order within 3 days of delivery. If anything was damaged in shipping, photograph the damage and email us at admin@readytopaintcabinetdoors.com (or use the contact form). We'll either remake the damaged piece or work out a discount with you depending on severity. The 3-day window matters because some carriers require claims filed within that period.
If a door doesn't match what's on your approved Order Review, contact us right away with photos. We'll determine whether it was a manufacturing or shipping error on our end and remake the correct piece at no charge. (If the dimensions on the Order Review were wrong but you approved them, that's a measurement issue rather than a manufacturing error — let us know either way and we'll figure out the best path.)
11 · Help me choose
Style & design decisions
Short answers to the questions buyers ask most when picking a door style — including the 2026 trends, the visual differences, and when each style works best.
Belmont is the most-requested style heading into 2026 — a recessed-panel Shaker with a tapered inside edge… it's a modern Shaker. Rail and stile can range from 1" to 3 ½", giving a more contemporary look while keeping a hint of classic warmth. Our Belmont is our Shaker variant. Flat Panel and Rift-Cut White Oak veneer are close behind.
Traditional Shaker doors have a frame width around 2.25"; Slim Shaker (or Skinny Shaker) doors have a noticeably narrower frame around ¾-1". Same construction, same paintability — Slim Shaker just reads more modern and gallery-like, which is why it's dominating 2026 design. Both styles are available in our Recessed Panel collection.
Think era + emotion. Shaker (Recessed Panel) is the all-rounder — works in 95% of kitchens and dates very slowly. Flat Panel is purely modern and minimalist — perfect for contemporary or Scandi kitchens. Raised Panel signals traditional, heritage or formal — beautiful in older homes but can feel dated in modern builds. Browse all six door types on our Door Styles page.
Rift-Cut White Oak reads modern and Scandi — straight grain, warm pale colour, pairs beautifully with brass and matte black hardware. It's the most-specified veneer of 2026. Walnut reads warm, rich and mid-century — darker chocolate tones, often paired with brass and stone counters. White Oak ages slowly and gracefully; Walnut starts deep and softens slightly with age. Both are available in our Wood Veneer collection.
A Flat Panel cabinet door is a single uninterrupted slab — no frame, no recessed centre, no profiling. It's the most modern of all cabinet door styles and works beautifully in contemporary, Scandi and minimalist kitchens. We offer Flat Panel in both MDF (paint-ready) and Wood Veneer (real grain). See our Flat Panel collection.
Integrated Handle doors — sometimes called Finger Pull or J-Pull doors — have the pull built directly into the door profile, so the kitchen reads as completely handle-free. They're a signature of modern European design and have become very popular in 2026 for handle-less minimalist kitchens. See our Integrated Handle collection. These need to be made using 1" thick MDF to accommodate the integrated handle.
Both versions use the same real-wood veneer species — Rift-Cut White Oak, Walnut, Cherry, Pine, Birch — but the way the door is built is fundamentally different:
• Standard veneer doors start with a 3/4" particle-board core. We laminate real wood veneer onto both faces, then mill the door to size and apply matching wood edge-banding around all four edges. The result is a beautiful, stable, real-wood door that paints/oils/seals like solid wood — a great value at $18/sq ft.
• Premium veneer doors start the same way, but instead of edge-banding we glue solid wood around all four edges of the particle-board core (typically 1/4" thick, sized to the door style — an integrated-handle door needs about 1 3/4"). We then glue up the veneer face in our vacuum press for a flawless, seamless front. The solid-wood edges machine like real wood (so we can profile or chamfer them), feel substantial in the hand, and won't show edge-banding glue lines over time. Pricing starts at $46/sq ft.
• Standard veneer doors start with a 3/4" particle-board core. We laminate real wood veneer onto both faces, then mill the door to size and apply matching wood edge-banding around all four edges. The result is a beautiful, stable, real-wood door that paints/oils/seals like solid wood — a great value at $18/sq ft.
• Premium veneer doors start the same way, but instead of edge-banding we glue solid wood around all four edges of the particle-board core (typically 1/4" thick, sized to the door style — an integrated-handle door needs about 1 3/4"). We then glue up the veneer face in our vacuum press for a flawless, seamless front. The solid-wood edges machine like real wood (so we can profile or chamfer them), feel substantial in the hand, and won't show edge-banding glue lines over time. Pricing starts at $46/sq ft.
Side-by-side
MDF or Wood Veneer — which to choose?
The single most-asked question we get. Short version: MDF for painted kitchens, Wood Veneer for stained kitchens. Long version below.
| Comparison | MDF Cabinet Doors | Wood Veneer Doors |
|---|---|---|
| Best use | Painted kitchens | Stained / oiled / sealed kitchens |
| Material | Engineered MDF (Rangerboard Platinum) | Real wood veneer on particle board core |
| Surface for paint | Excellent — smooth, no grain to telegraph | Visible grain — not designed for paint |
| Surface for stain | Not recommended — blotchy result | Excellent — real wood grain absorbs stain |
| Profile detail capability | Sharp corners, intricate routing | Flat panel + slab styles only |
| Cost vs. MDF baseline | Baseline | Roughly 1.5×–2× MDF |
| Best species available | n/a — paint colour is your choice | White Oak (rift-cut), Walnut, Cherry, Pine, Birch |
| Humidity sensitivity | Moderate — within tolerances at normal home humidity | Lower — solid wood face is more dimensionally stable |
| Weight | Heavier | Lighter |
Generalisations — both materials excel for the use cases they're designed for. Mix freely (e.g. MDF on a painted kitchen with a Walnut veneer island as the focal point).
Still have a question?
Ask us directly.
Real humans, real workshop, real answers. We reply same business day, Monday–Friday.
733 County Road 8, Warsaw (Douro), Ontario · Mon–Fri 9–5 · Sat by appt.
