DIY Cabinet Door Replacement & Refacing

The fastest, cheapest way to transform a kitchen.

A DIY cabinet door replacement runs 60–70% less than a full remodel and finishes over a single weekend rather than 4–8 weeks of construction. The two technical steps that defeat most DIYers — drilling 35 mm European hinge cups and getting them square, and priming raw MDF without grain-raise — we do at the factory. Your doors arrive sanded smooth — just dust them off, top-coat, and hang.

Get a price now (705) 652-3520

Cut to 1/16"Factory-bored cupsSprayed primerShips Canada-wide

Real customer kitchen

Kitchen Photo Courtesy of Lise O’Connor

60–70%less than a full remodel

1 weekendinstall vs. 4–8 weeks construction

1/16"cut tolerance, factory CNC

Canada-wideshipping · pickup in Warsaw, ON

The roadmap · 4 phases

From measure to finished kitchen.

A complete DIY cabinet door replacement from first measure to the final hinge adjustment — typically one weekend of actual work + ~2 weeks build time for sanded, ready-to-prime doors or ~4 weeks for factory-primed.

01

Phase 1

Measure & plan

30–45 min

How do I measure for replacement cabinet doors?

When you're replacing existing doors, don't measure the cabinet boxes — measure the doors you're taking off, to the nearest 1/16". That's the size you order. Width × Height. Always.

Then check the reveal — the gap between doors and between doors and the cabinet frame. Aim for a 1/8" reveal consistent across all openings — industry standard, tight but achievable with factory-bored hinges.

Industry standard: Width × Height, always. Flipping it is the #1 DIY ordering mistake.

📐 Read our Cabinet Door Measuring Worksheet — free printable PDF for full kitchen take-offs.
02

Phase 2

Order custom-sized doors

10 min

Where do I order replacement cabinet doors online?

Drop your measurements into our Quick Cabinet Door Order Form. Pick your style, your finish (sanded ready-to-prime or factory-primed), and confirm hinge boring with alignment dowels — real-time pricing updates as you go, so you can see exactly how style, finish, hinge boring, and quantity choices affect the total cost of your project.

Orders are cut to your exact dimensions — Width × Height, to the nearest 1/16" — and ship in roughly 2 weeks if you order sanded, ready-to-prime, or 4 weeks for factory-primed doors, from order approval. Pickup in Warsaw, Ontario or shipping across Canada.

Not sure on a style? Order a Sample Door first to see the actual routered profile and the primer finish in your space.
03

Phase 3

Finish

2–3 days (most of it cure time)

How do I prime and paint cabinet doors at home?

Did you order sanded, ready-to-prime doors? Your doors arrive sanded smooth and ready to take primer. Plan on one extra day for the priming cycle — the cabinet-maker's path to a flawless top coat:

1. Light scuff — 220-grit a quick once-over to break the factory sheen. Vacuum + tack cloth.
2. Prime coat #1 — one thin coat of a cabinet-grade bonding primer (BM Stix, Zinsser BIN, or Cloverdale URO-Cryl). Spray / HVLP gives the cleanest finish — a quality foam roller also works fine.
3. Sand between coats — 320-grit, just enough to flatten nibs and dust. Tack cloth again.
4. Prime coat #2 — second thin coat, same primer, 4 hours cure. Light scuff with 320 once dry. Now they're ready for a top coat.

Did you order factory-primed? Skip ahead — your primer's already on.

Top-coat — same drill for everyone:

1. Look the doors over — check for any shipping marks or dust nibs.
2. Dust them off — tack cloth or microfibre, no liquid solvents needed.
3. Top-coat — 2 thin coats of your finish paint, 4 hours cure between coats. Light sand with 320 between coats if you want a glass-smooth finish.
4. Cure 48 hours before installing.

Paint recommendations:

🇨🇦 In Peterborough / Kawarthas: Charlotte Paint and Wallpaper — they have one of our door displays in-store and can colour-match to our standard finishes.

🇨🇦 Anywhere else in Canada: any Benjamin Moore, Para, Cloverdale, or Sherwin-Williams dealer. Ask for a cabinet & trim-grade acrylic enamel (BM Advance, Para Anti-Mark) — not wall paint.
04

Phase 4

Install

Under 3 hours for a 25-door kitchen

How do I install replacement cabinet doors on existing boxes?

1. Drop the hinge into the bored cup and tighten the screws. Every hinge position on your door has 3 factory-bored holes: a single 35 mm cup in the middle where the hinge body seats, plus two 10 mm dowel holes above and below with our precision dowels press-fit in. Set the hinge body into the 35 mm cup, line up its flanges over the two dowels, and drive the two screws straight down into the dowels. The screws bite into hardwood dowel — not soft MDF — for a fully square, mechanically anchored seat. Far more secure than a press-fit hinge (Cheat Code #1 explains why). (Note: some hinges sold at hardware stores are press-fit only. They'll work but don't get the dowel-locking advantage — if you've sourced your own hinges, check whether they're screw-in or press-fit before installing.)

2. Screw the mounting plates to the cabinet face frame.

3. Click the door onto the plate.

4. Adjust the 3-way screws until reveals are even.

A complete 25-door kitchen takes under 3 hours with factory-bored cups + dowels.

The two factory cheat codes

We do the hard, dirty parts so the DIY part is actually doable.

01Cheat code #1

Factory hinge boring + precision alignment dowels.

We don't just bore the 35 mm cup. We also install two precision dowels above and below it on the same CNC cycle. That's the part most shops skip — and it's what separates a hinge that holds versus one that wallows out of MDF after a year of use.

Register the hinge square

The hinge plate seats against the dowels, not just the screws, so it sits perfectly perpendicular to the door edge every time. No more crooked doors.
Triple the screw holding-power in MDF

MDF screws into end-grain wallow out quickly under hinge stress. Dowels give the hinge a hardwood mechanical anchor, not just a screw thread biting into compressed fibre.

Specs

35 mm Ø cup hole, factory CNC-bored at exact depth and inset
2 precision dowels per hinge, factory-installed
Compatible with Blum, Salice, Grass, Häfele and every 35 mm European-style screw-in cup hinge
2 hinges per door under 36" / 3 hinges over 36"
$4 per hinge hole (includes the dowels — no extra charge)

Close-up of a factory-bored 35 mm European hinge cup with two grey alignment dowels installed above and below the cup in an MDF cabinet door. — Bored cup + alignment dowels. The reason your doors stay square.

02Cheat code #2

Two-coat primer sprayed in our booth.

Raw MDF cabinet doors need two full primer coats — scuff-sanded between coats, then sanded smooth after the second coat. That's three days of dust, fumes, and a no-go zone in your garage. We do it in our spray booth using catalyzed sealer primer — not house-paint primer.

Catalyzed sealer, not wall primer

Locks down the MDF fibres so your top coat goes on smooth. House-paint primer raises the grain and telegraphs every brush mark.
Sanded between coats, smooth after

Two sprayed coats, scuff-sanded in between, final sand to 220-grit. Doors arrive ready for top coat — just dust them off.

Specs

Catalyzed sealer primer (industrial cabinet-grade)
Sprayed both faces + all edges in our spray booth
Scuff-sanded between coats, finish-sanded after the second coat
Add $15 per sq ft — replaces 3 days of garage prep with a 5-minute dust-down on your end

Factory-primed Shaker corner. Two sprayed coats, sanded to 220-grit, ready for your top coat.

Measure once · order once

Measure your kitchen in 15 minutes.

Two ways to measure, one printable worksheet, and you’re done. Most kitchens take less than half an hour — and a good worksheet means you only order once.

Tape measure

Any size works — but a metal tape is best. Cloth tapes stretch, and fractions matter at this stage.

Sharp pencil + sticky notes

Label every door + drawer before you pull them. Trust us — you'll forget which one was where.

Our worksheet

Print the Cabinet Door Measuring Worksheet — one row per cabinet, with hinge-location columns.

Easiest · doors still on the cabinets

A. Measure your existing doors

If your kitchen is functional and you're just replacing the look, measure each door in place with a metal tape — no need to pull them off. Measure the width at both the top AND the bottom of each door and confirm they match. If they don't (older hand-built kitchens aren't always square), record the average of the two. Label the back of each door with masking tape — it'll double as a reference when the new ones arrive.

Width × height to the nearest 1/16"
Count the hinge holes (usually 2 per door)
Record where each hinge sits — see our measuring worksheet

For new builds or missing doors

B. Measure the cabinet boxes

If the doors are missing or damaged, just measure the OUTSIDE of the cabinet box with a tape measure — then subtract 1/8" from both the width and the height for your door size. That gives you a 1/16" reveal on every side.

Outside of box: measure W × H
Door size = box outside − 1/8" (both W and H)
Stacked banks: measure each box separately
Adjust accordingly if it’s directly under a countertop or up against an end gable — see the reveal diagram below.

The reveal · the gap that makes it look right

Aim for 1/8" between every face — and 1/4" under the countertop.

That sliver of space — the “reveal” — is what stops adjacent doors from banging into each other and gives the whole run a clean, intentional line. Too tight and doors rub; too wide and the kitchen looks gappy.

On frameless European cabinets, the reveal lives between adjacent doors, between stacked drawers, between a door and the drawer above it, between the outside door and the end panel, and around the perimeter top + bottom of every bank. The countertop gets a slightly larger 1/4" reveal so the doors clear cleanly when they swing.

Diagram of a kitchen base-cabinet bank with reveals labelled — 1/4 inch under countertop, 1/8 inch between doors, between drawers, between door and drawer, and between door and end panel.

Match the hinge boring · #1 reason swaps fail

Tell us where the existing hinge plates sit.

Your cabinet boxes already have hinge mounting plates screwed in. If the new doors don't match those positions, you'll either have to move every plate (slow + ugly) or drill new mounting holes (worse).

On the worksheet, the #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 columns are where you record each hinge's distance from the top of the door to the center of the hinge cup. Most doors only use #1 + #2 (2 hinges). Leave the rest blank.

Standard positions if you leave the worksheet blank

Door height	Hinges	Positions (from top)
Up to 36"	2 hinges	4" from top + 4" from bottom
36" – 60"	3 hinges	4" from top + middle + 4" from bottom
Over 60"	4 hinges	Call us — taller doors need custom spacing

These are the defaults we'll use for new builds. If you're replacing doors on existing cabinets, measure each hinge position — it must match the plates that are already in your boxes.

Inset or face-frame cabinets? Different math.

The formulas above are for frameless (European) cabinets — most kitchens built in the last 20 years. For other build styles:

Inset doors (sit flush inside the frame): aim for 1/8" reveal all around between the door and the frame opening — a 12" opening needs an 11¾" wide door.
Face-frame overlay: depends on the hinge brand and overlay spec — every shop sets these differently. Call us and we'll walk you through it.

Step 1

Print the measuring worksheet

One row per cabinet · width × height × hinge locations. Print on letter paper or save as PDF.

Step 2

Enter your measurements into the order form

The Quick Cabinet Door Order Form gives you a live price as you type. No back-and-forth.

Stuck on a weird cabinet? Text us a photo: (705) 652-3520

Door specs · The small choices that matter

How you’ll spec your doors before you order.

Two design decisions that come up on every quote — and that travel across every door style we make (Slim Shaker, Classic Shaker, Flat Panel, Raised Panel, Wood Veneer, and Integrated Handle).

Rail & Stile

The frame around the centre panel.

The stiles are the two vertical outside pieces of the frame; the rails are the horizontal pieces (top + bottom). Together they form the outside frame around your centre panel on every Shaker, Recessed, and Raised Panel door we build.

2½" is our typical width — clean, traditional, and forgiving of small reveal variations. But it’s a one-line change at order time: tell us 2", 2¼", or 3" and we’ll route it that way at no extra cost.

Top Rail (horizontal · top)Bottom Rail (horizontal · bottom)Left Stile (vertical · left)Right Stile (vertical · right)

Front view of a 5-piece Shaker-style cabinet door showing the rails (horizontal top + bottom pieces) and stiles (vertical left + right pieces) framing the centre panel.

Top RailBottom RailLeft StileRight Stile

Edge Profile

The outside front edge has a profile.

Every door, drawer front, and end panel we route gets one of seven edge profiles. 1/16" Radius is our standard — a barely- there ease that hides primer hairline build-up and stays sharp visually. Any of the seven is available on every style at no extra charge.

Side-view cross sections ↓

Square
Standard

1/16" Radius
1/8" Radius
1/4" Radius
Taper
Cove
Step Radius

Tip: cross-sections are drawn at actual ¾" door thickness so you can see exactly how much material is removed. The Cove and Step Radius profiles are usually paired with traditional kitchens; Square and Taper read more modern.

Avoid these · The 5 pitfalls

The mistakes that turn a good weekend into a redo.

01

Flipping Width × Height.

Industry standard is W × H, always. A 13" × 30" door is narrow and tall (a typical cabinet door). A 30" × 13" door is wide and short (a drawer front). Mix this up and you get the wrong door, full price, no returns — because they're cut to order. Always W × H.
02

Skipping factory hinge boring + dowels.

A hand drill drifts. A wood-boring bit chatters in MDF. Even with a $40 jig the cup will be 1/16" off — and worse, MDF screws wallow out without dowels. Factory boring with dowels is $4 per hole — cheaper than one ruined door + a year of saggy hinges.
03

The top drawer.

A standard shaker frame (2¼" rails) at 5" tall leaves only a ½" centre panel — it looks crushed. Two options: a flat slab drawer front (clean modern look), or our Narrow Drawer Front option on our 1-piece MDF doors (we reduce the routered top/bottom rail proportions so the panel breathes while keeping the shaker family across the rest of the kitchen). Both at standard drawer-front pricing.
04

Underestimating raw MDF edges.

If you order raw MDF, the cut edges drink primer like a sponge — they need two heavy primer coats before they'll hold a top coat without a fuzzy, mealy finish. Pre-primed eliminates this entirely. If you're going raw, plan on sanding sealer + two primer coats + two top coats on every cut edge.
05

Painting boxes the wrong colour.

If you're keeping your existing cabinet boxes, paint the face frames (the visible front-edges of the boxes) the same colour as the new doors. Skip this and you'll see a mismatched stripe of old paint between every door — the #1 reason a DIY reface still looks like a DIY reface.

Don’t go it alone · We’ve got your back

You’re not supposed to know this stuff yet. That’s what we’re here for.

Replacing kitchen cabinet doors is a project we’ve been guiding people through for years. If you hit anything that doesn’t make sense — a weird cabinet size, a hinge type you’ve never seen, a colour question, a paint you’re not sure about — just call us. We pick up the phone.

Measure-up help on tricky cabinets
Door style + reveal advice
Hinge cup / dowel questions
Primer + top-coat product picks
Whether your boxes are worth saving
Order revisions before we cut

No project is too small or too big — and there’s no obligation to order after a call.

Real humans · Real answers

Phone(705) 652-3520Mon–Fri 8–5 ET Emailorders@readytopaintcabinetdoors.comSend photos or a measure sheet — we usually reply same day

In Warsaw, OntarioDrop by the shop to see the door styles + finishes in person before you commit. Call first — we’re a working shop.

Featured transformations

Real homeowners. Real weekends.

Classic shaker · Painted warm white · In progress

Jillian

A full top-and-bottom replacement on a Kawartha-area kitchen. Classic Shaker in 1-piece MDF, factory-primed, top-coated in a warm off-white. Existing Blum hinges re-used — our factory-bored cups + dowels accepted them straight in with no fuss. Watch the in-progress clips above; finished photos coming soon.

Close-up of Jillian's classic shaker door style after factory priming, top-coated at home in a warm off-white.

Wide kitchen view showing Jillian's DIY cabinet door refacing project finished and installed.

Belmont · Shop-painted soft white · Watch the build ▶

Sabrina & Andrew

Part of a major renovation — a mix of existing and new cabinet boxes, all fronted with our Belmont door style in factory-primed MDF. Painted in our shop in a soft white two-part Lorchem lacquer: Sabrina & Andrew were able to pick up locally, so we took the finishing off their plate. Watch the full video above. P.S. We don't ship painted product — but if you can pick up at our Warsaw, Ontario shop, give us a call to discuss having us paint your order too.

Sabrina and Andrew's renovated kitchen with new Belmont-style cabinet doors painted in our shop with a soft white two-part Lorchem lacquer.

Detail view of Belmont-style drawer fronts after factory priming and a two-part Lorchem lacquer top-coat for DIY homeowners Sabrina and Andrew.

Wider angle of the Sabrina and Andrew cabinet door replacement showing the kitchen island with shop-painted Belmont doors and matching face frames.

Custom DIY built-ins · Ready-to-prime MDF · Primed & painted in place

Sasha

Custom DIY built-ins beside the fireplace — designed for the awkward gap the hearth leaves behind. Ordered as a 3-piece set in sanded, ready-to-prime MDF. Sasha primed and painted everything in place after install — the look of custom built-ins without the custom built-in price tag.

Sasha's 3-piece custom DIY built-in flanking a stone fireplace, ordered as ready-to-prime MDF and finished on site — easy-to-install built-ins without the custom built-in price tag.

From our customers

More DIY projects, sent in by customers.

DIY built-in bar nook with grey-painted cabinet doors and arched soffit, wallpaper backsplash. Painted in Benjamin Moore Ben. — Built-in bar nook with arched soffit, finished in dark warm grey. Painted in Benjamin Moore Ben.

Custom-angled DIY replacement cabinet doors fitted to the rake of a pine-clad cottage staircase, factory-primed and finished in soft white. — Custom-angled doors fitted to the rake of a pine-clad staircase. 1-piece MDF, primed, finished in soft white.

DIY under-stair pantry with custom-cut cabinet doors finished in deep navy on a cottage build, 1-piece MDF factory-primed. — The underside of the stair runs converted into a navy storage bank. 1-piece MDF, primed, finished in deep navy.

DIY cabinet door questions

What DIYers ask before they order.

Pre-primed is better for 95% of DIYers. Raw MDF needs two primer coats with scuff-sanding between each and a final sanding after the second coat — three days of mess. We do all of that at the factory in a controlled spray booth using a catalyzed sealer primer (not house-paint primer). Your prep is a 5-minute dust-down + your top coat. Cost difference: $15/sq ft.

Yes — the most common DIY reface scope. Measure your existing doors (not the cabinet boxes) to the nearest 1/16", order custom-sized replacements, and re-use your existing boxes and hinges. To get a seamless look, paint the cabinet face frames the same colour as the new doors — the box interior doesn't matter unless you have glass-front doors.

Yes — order Sample Doors directly from our sample page (/pages/sample-cabinet-doors), or call us and we'll ship one out. Sample Doors are full-style examples — not chips — so you see the actual routered profile, the actual primer finish, and the actual edge detail. Recommended if you're colour-matching to an existing kitchen or deciding between similar styles (e.g. Trent vs. Belmont shaker).

This applies to our 1-piece MDF doors only. Our standard 1-piece doors are routered to mimic a 5-piece shaker proportion — but for any drawer front under 6" tall, that proportion crowds the centre panel. A Narrow Drawer Front reduces the routered top/bottom rail height while keeping the side proportions the same, so the panel breathes and the shaker family stays visually consistent across the kitchen. Same price as a standard 1-piece drawer front. (Not applicable to 5-piece solid wood doors, where you'd use a slab front instead for narrow drawers.)

A typical DIY cabinet door replacement runs 60–70% less than a full custom remodel. You're paying for materials and our shop time — not for cabinet boxes, demolition, installers, or three weeks of project management. A 25-door kitchen at our factory-primed pricing typically lands in the $3,000–$6,000 range depending on style and size; the same kitchen as a full remodel commonly runs $25,000+.

About **2 weeks total** if you order sanded, ready-to-prime doors, or about **4 weeks total** for our factory-primed doors. The lead-time difference is our in-shop primer + sanding cycle on top of cut-to-order manufacturing — both ship the same way once they're done. Finish (your top-coat + cure) is another 2 days on your end. Install is a single weekend for most kitchens — under 3 hours of actual hands-on work for a 25-door kitchen with factory-bored cups + dowels.

Yes — we ship from Warsaw (Douro), Ontario to every province. Shipping is calculated as a percentage of the order subtotal (5 zones: Central, Eastern, Western, BC, Newfoundland) and previewed live in the Quick Cabinet Door Order Form. Pickup is also available with or without packaging.

Yes — our 35 mm cup hole follows the European hinge standard, so any Blum, Salice, Grass, or Häfele screw-in cup hinge will seat correctly against the alignment dowels. Press-fit hinges fit too but lose the dowel-locking advantage. If you've already bought hinges, check whether they're screw-in or press-fit before installing.

Ready to start your weekend project?

Get a price on your exact doors before you stand up from the laptop.

Plug your measurements into the Quick Cabinet Door Order Form, pick your style and finish, confirm hinge boring with alignment dowels, and you'll have a real, order-ready quote in front of you in under five minutes.

Get a price now Order a Sample Door Talk to a human(705) 652-3520

Custom-cut to 1/16" · ~2 weeks for sanded ready-to-prime or ~4 weeks for factory-primed · Pickup in Warsaw, Ontario or shipping across Canada.

DIY Replacement Cabinet Doors

The fastest, cheapest way to transform a kitchen.

From measure to finished kitchen.

How do I measure for replacement cabinet doors?

Where do I order replacement cabinet doors online?

How do I prime and paint cabinet doors at home?

How do I install replacement cabinet doors on existing boxes?

We do the hard, dirty parts so the DIY part is actually doable.