Replacing kitchen facades is an excellent solution for practical owners

/Furniture/Facades/

Are you tired of your old kitchen set or want some changes in the most important room in the house? Or maybe the furniture has long been worn out by steam, grease and water and has lost all its attractiveness? Then conduct a thorough inspection of the furniture - if the furniture bodies are still capable of performing their functions and do not require restoration/replacement, then it is quite possible to change only the facades - this is a practical and economical solution in most cases.

Buying new furniture always involves significant financial costs. But replacing the kitchen facades will allow you to decorate the room in a new way and at the same time remains a budget solution. In addition, you may not maintain the same stylistic design, but replace, for example, smooth glossy doors with classic facades with moldings or milling. This will make your kitchen design fresh and relevant again.

Varieties of facades on kitchen units (briefly)

Manufacturers offer a lot of material options, among which the most popular are:

• MDF (laminated, painted, coated with PVC film, acrylic coated).
• Alvic is laminated MDF with a plastic coating.
• Laminated chipboards.
• Wood veneer.
• Solid wood.

MDF and chipboard are used to make facades.
Exotic and expensive types of facades:

• Metal.
• Glass.
• Fake diamond.

First you need to find out about the properties of all the presented samples, and in your choice be guided by the criteria of not only price, but also the necessary qualities.

The kitchen facade can be made in any color.

Advantages

You can order new facades from a workshop or furniture showroom, or you can restore them yourself. In any case, compared to buying a new headset, it is cheaper (even with hinges, locks, glazing and lighting). No additional work, only replacement of old facades with new ones or restoration. And you don’t have to limit your imagination in choosing the color and texture of materials.

Those who spend most of their time at the stove and sink will appreciate this approach - there is no need to change habits, master a new arrangement of dishes and products, or give up the convenience and coziness of the old kitchen.

How to replace a facade with your own hands

The necessary replacement of facades on a kitchen unit can be carried out according to one of the options:

• If the set is standard, you can take measurements of all external surfaces of the cabinets, draw a diagram of the set with dimensions and the location of handles on it, and then order a ready-made set from a furniture shop.
• Advanced craftsmen make front facades with their own hands.

Damaged chipboard facades can be covered with different materials.

Materials

The front side of kitchen furniture must be attractive, but it must also meet the conditions of moisture and heat resistance, be durable and not deform, be resistant to abrasion and scratches, and serve for a long time without fading or loss of original qualities.

Updating your kitchen is easy - just replace outdated or damaged facades.

Note! The choice of material for the facades themselves must be approached very thoughtfully so that in a few years this problem does not arise again. A high-quality façade that is resistant to harmful factors will serve and please the eye for a long time, eliminating this problem for decades to come.

When making your own wardrobe, you will need various accessories.
What else will be needed to complete the work?

1. Accessories: handles, furniture hinges. If required, we also need retractable fittings, awnings, lifts, door lift latches, closers, and bar fittings.
2. The set of tools depends on the chosen work scheme. At a minimum, the master must have a drill/screwdriver, a set of screwdrivers, a ruler and tape measure, and a pencil. If the facades themselves are made independently, then the master will need a Forstner drill.
3. Fastening the furniture slats and doors is done using screws - they need to be purchased with a reserve, the length is no more than the width of the outer slats.

Prepare all tools and materials.

Selection of accessories

The fittings must also be of high quality, like the facades themselves.

Fittings and fasteners on chipboard furniture may also sometimes need restoration.

You should not install fittings from old ones on new slats and doors - they have already lost their luster, hinges and mechanisms may begin to fail after dismantling, and replacing boring fittings changes the overall design of the kitchen and makes it completely new, as if from scratch.

The reliability of furniture assembly is determined by high-quality fittings.

Size and number of fasteners, handles, hinges, etc. is selected according to the model of the previous set on this ensemble. Screws should be purchased with a reserve.

Fastening elements can be nails, screws and self-tapping screws.

Most often, owners prefer external kitchen fittings made of metal - matte or glossy. This is logical, metal is the easiest to care for, it has a long service life without breakdowns.

Keep in mind! Glossy metal fittings leave all the fingerprints, limescale and smudges on them, so matte ones are preferable in the kitchen.

To make the kitchen sparkle with new colors, sometimes it is enough to replace just one or two facades.
When choosing a set of necessary components, it is important to follow the rule of the “golden mean” - do not buy the cheapest samples from unknown manufacturers or Chinese craftsmen, but also do not chase after famous companies that sell the most expensive goods. The main emphasis is on quality.

Today you can paint the facade in any color.

Stages of work

How to change the facades on a kitchen unit yourself, and is it possible to cope with the work alone?

The main detail of the furniture is its facade, which catches the eye.

In order to replace facades from scratch, it is necessary to complete the following stages of work:

1. Decide on the choice of material, color, style of kitchen furniture facades.
2. Measure all doors and front panels of the headset.
3. Make a complete drawing of the furniture, mark the dimensions of all components of the ensemble that need to be replaced, mark the places for handles and on the inside of the doors - the exact distance from the edge to the mounting slots for furniture hinges. On the drawing of the front strips of drawers, it is necessary to indicate both the external dimensions and, on the inside, the distance from the edges of the strip to the walls of the drawer itself.
4. Doors can be ordered from a furniture shop, or you can make and replace them yourself - it’s up to the craftsman to choose. Working with chipboard, MDF boards, and solid wood too, requires special equipment and experience, which not everyone has.
5. The final stage is the installation of prepared furniture parts. Changing finished doors is not difficult.

Replacing the kitchen façade is an affordable way to change the interior

Stages of work

Most craftsmen recommend not to carry out work on replacing furniture facades with your own hands, but to involve specialists at all stages (from calculation to dismantling and installation). Although, if your kitchen is of standard size, in good working condition and does not have complex closers, then you can update the kitchen yourself.

The required dimensions of furniture fronts are calculated quite easily: to determine the height, 3 mm is subtracted from the height of the cabinet, and to determine the width, 4 mm is subtracted from the corresponding cabinet dimensions.

After this, work is carried out in the following sequence:

• Cabinet doors are milled for hinges;
• Handles are attached to them, for which preliminary markings are made in accordance with the selected fittings;
• The prepared parts are hung on the body - for this, a foot is attached to the walls, sold complete with hinges;
• The element hung on the foot is adjusted vertically and horizontally with special screws.

Decoration

At the end of the work, you need to secure the handles to the slats and doors.

There are quite a lot of paint options on the market, but not every composition is suitable for treating facades.

How to transform an old set

When the furniture has lost its visual appeal, but is still strong, without defects or breakages, you can decoratively update old facades without replacing them.

The film will decorate the facade of the kitchen.

1. Pasting with film is the most common option for updating old furniture. To perform the work efficiently, the facades must be dismantled, washed, treated with degreasers and dried well, and then a film must be applied to the surface. It is important to do this correctly, otherwise bubbles under the film, distortion, and sloppy joints on visible surfaces will give a sloppy appearance.
2. Old trims and doors can be painted. Preparation for work is the same as in the previous version. The paint must match the material to which it is applied, and its selection must be approached carefully. Solid wood can be varnished.

A spray bottle will help you quickly paint facades.

Procedure

It is recommended to do the following:

• dismantle old facades;
• make a decision - complete replacement or partial restoration;
• take measurements of all parts;
• inspect handles, fasteners, closers, rollers on drawers, guide runners and other parts and assemblies - replace if necessary;
• choose material and color;
• manufacture or restore facades;
• install furniture elements and parts in place.

Rules for caring for a modified façade

Furniture care must be carried out according to rules corresponding to the type of material or work performed.

Wood needs quality care.

• It is not recommended to clean painted or varnished doors with abrasive and aggressive chemicals; a warm soapy solution and a soft sponge are sufficient.
• Facades covered with film should not be rubbed intensively or abrasives should be used on them.
• It is important to rub metal surfaces and fittings dry with a special microfiber cloth so that no residue remains.

Film

If the PVC film has come off, you can use one of the following methods.

In the case of a peeled corner or strip, the surface area must be cleaned of dirt, degreased, heated with a hairdryer, applied with glue and rubbed in tightly, adjusting the edges. Bubbles are also eliminated: they are heated, pierced with a syringe with glue and rubbed onto the surface.

When completely replacing the coating, the film is peeled off, the surface is cleaned and degreased. The polyvinyl chloride surface is heated with a hairdryer, quickly lubricated with glue and rubbed into the facade.

The easiest way is to use self-adhesive film. It already has a special sticky composition applied to one of the sides. All you need is to prepare the surface and carefully stretch the material onto the facade. There is no need to rush; If wrinkles or bubbles appear, you need to pull the film away from the surface and walk over this area again, with all possible care.

Note!

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Take note! This method is considered the best for restoring facades made of wood or veneered. Affordable price, ease of use, ease of operation, high resistance to various external influences, a large selection of colors - you can handle this material even without special skills.

Options for kitchen facades in the photo

Decoupage

This is the pasting of drawings - from newspaper or magazine clippings, photo printouts to pieces of wallpaper or fragments of paintings. The old coating is removed with sandpaper, the surface is polished, and varnish is applied (PVA glue is possible). When it dries “to the touch”, the prepared drawings are applied.

After the entire surface has been pasted over, the drawings are varnished again (for a glossy surface, several layers of varnish are applied successively, each time waiting for the previous one to dry).

Restoration of glossy coatings

There are two ways to restore gloss. In the classic version, the surface of cabinets and pencil cases is primed and machine polished using special compounds. In about half of the cases, it is possible to restore the gloss and even out the shine of the old varnish.

If the idea of ​​replacing and polishing the old paintwork does not give the desired result, the furniture is disassembled into parts and painted with acrylic or pentaphthalic varnish using a machine sprayer.

Selection of accessories

Sometimes you can just paint the facades

In most cases, along with the facades, some of the fittings are also replaced: handles and hinges. When choosing new pens, you can rely entirely on your own taste and proceed from how they will look against the general background.

When choosing new handles for facades, you need to take into account that they come in different sizes - from small “mushrooms” to large rail handles. But most Russian manufacturers adhere to two standards in their concepts: handles with a running distance between the distances for mounting bolts of 96 and 128 millimeters. Sometimes, when ordering ready-made facades, customers ask for an additional fee to drill holes for the fittings in the same way as on the old doors. In this case, it is necessary to choose handles-brackets based on this. The situation is a little worse if the customer decides to make these holes himself, chooses new handles of a larger or smaller size, but, out of forgetfulness, drills the holes according to the old pattern. In this case, the purchased handles can be exchanged for suitable ones, but what to do if this model provides only one standard, and besides, you liked them?.. Regarding furniture hinges, there is no definite answer, and when choosing, the main thing is not to focus on the manufacturer (since there are currently a lot of them), but on cost and quality. Standard hinges for kitchen fronts have a cup diameter of 35 millimeters. There is also a standard of 26 millimeters, but such hinges are designed for light frame structures, and they will not support the large weight of a wooden or plastic facade.

Before purchasing, the loop must be opened and closed several times by hand: the cup’s movement should be smooth, there should be no extraneous sounds, clicks or squeaks. As for the cost, you shouldn’t buy hinges cheaper than one dollar apiece: these are short-lived fittings designed for a small number of openings.

Painting

The best material is automotive acrylic paint. It can be applied with a brush, roller or spray. The surface is sanded and degreased, painted carefully and evenly. It is worth applying the paint in several layers (each layer must first dry) - this will make the surface more resistant to external influences. Finally, you can apply varnish to make the surface more resistant to various damages.

Potal

This is an imitation of gold leaf (there are also copper and silver sheets). The technique of applying it is similar to decoupage: PVA glue is applied to the treated surface - it is not recommended to do this in too large pieces so that the gold leaf lies evenly. You can apply glue along a pre-prepared pattern, or only along the contour of a pattern.

When the glue dries, you need to put sheets of gold leaf on it, gently press it over the entire surface of the glue with a soft brush, and then use a stiffer brush to sweep away the remaining gold leaf from the surface. The operation can be performed repeatedly until the desired effect is achieved. The final result is covered with 1-2 layers of varnish.