Why can’t something just be totally perfect? Must there always be a catch?

These are the questions I’ve been asking myself in the days and weeks since I replaced my kitchen faucet with a new Touch2O faucet from Delta Faucet. You see, the faucet is perfect! Totally perfect. Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever added a single thing to our home that has garnered so many compliments from the entire family.

Interestingly, and this is no lie and nobody is paying me to say this, the only thing that comes close to being as simply awesome is made by the exact same group of geniuses at Delta. Namely, the H20 Kinetics Showerhead (read my post on the showerhead). Those Delta folks are on fire!

So back to this kitchen faucet and my unabashed praise for it…

1. Easy Installation – This faucet comes packaged with pretty much everything you need to do the installation on a standard set-up. They even included a little wrench specially designed to make the installation easier. But the best part is that the directions are easy to understand with nice clear graphics showing you how to do the job. Of course, you know, Murphy’s Law… I had to completely remove my cast-iron sink from the countertop to access the nut to remove the old faucet. Fun times.
2. Beautiful Design – It’s really a great looking piece of hardware. The finish is beautiful (mine is a brushed stainless) and the high arch of the spout is a wonderful change from the old fashioned faucet we had. Great looking handle too!
3. Functional Design – The spray head is easily turned into a handheld sprayer just by pulling it out of the spout, where it’s held nicely in place with a magnet. I’m telling you those people at Delta are using their noggins. The magnet was a great idea that could have been easily implemented anytime over the last umpteen years. Somebody just had to think of it and do it. The high arching spout does more than just look great. It works great too. Big pots, no problem.
4. ROCKING AWESOME TOUCH FEATURE – I’m not a huge fan of all these initials that are popping-up everywhere basically saying certain words without actually saying them, as if making someone “think” a word is better than making them hear it…not. But if I were into those little strings of letters, I would be using them here. The touch feature is beyond words great. We use it all the time, always. You might think “what’s the big deal, how hard is it to turn on a faucet?” I was right there with you but I’m a believer now.

So, what’s the drawback? What’s the big “catch” that is going to be a part of my life for the foreseeable future? Don’t laugh…

Whenever any of our family goes to visit someone and attempts to use their kitchen faucet, we walk right up and smack it one. Sometimes we smack it a second time a little harder because it rudely rebuffed our first, more gentle, touch. At this point we usually realize that we’re dealing with a lesser piece of kitchen hardware and recover accordingly, but the damage is done.

Oh well, whatchya gonna do? Life’s rough.

-RG

“Plantation Shutter Doors”… Is that a thing, or are these just called “Plantation Doors”?

Last week, I wrote a post about window blinds and I made a negative remark about plantation shutters. What was I thinking? I must have been kidnapped by aliens.

Not three hours after posting that, I came across this picture at Coastal Living. I kid you not, I took a deep breath when I saw it. I needed my lungs full for the imminent “WOW!”.

These doors are completely amazing and I’m in love, again. I looked at the picture ten times before I even noticed the really cool lounge chair! Twenty before I realized there was a woman in the shot.

I must be ill… but not too sick to remember to share the picture with you!

So, do you agree that I was totally wrong to disparage plantation shutters?

~RG

Want more shutters?
Custom Exterior Shutters Equals Serious Wow!
Custom Cut Exterior Shutters (designs and stuff)

“I need a new kitchen!” These words are often spoken with some combination of feelings. These might include excitement, anticipation, and maybe a bit of old-fashioned fear! Fear of the work being too hard, fear that the cost will be too high, and fear of a bunch of contractors making life way too complicated!

I’ve got an idea for you today that might help put some of those concerns at ease. An idea that works for anyone looking to remodel a kitchen on a budget. Especially those who like the layout they already have. Here it is: Rather than replace the whole set of cabinets, try replacing just the doors.

Replacement Kitchen Cabinet Doors Are Nothing To Fear

Most of this article is focused on the DIY approach to this job, but these same ideas can work to save you money if you want to hire a capenter, cabinet maker, or contractor.

No matter your approach, replacement kitchen cabinet doors will save you a bundle of money as compared to new cabinets.

Cabinets Doors Are Most Of What You See

Take a look at your kitchen cabinets. What percentage of visible surface is doors? If you have a European style cabinet, it may be 100%, but even for a traditional design, the percentage is very high. The simple fact is that the visual component of cabinets is heavily focused on the doors.

This means that new cabinet doors will result in a visual impact very similar to a whole new cabinet! That said, a good bit more work is required to really complete the job. But it is all something you can totally do yourself.

This article is meant to be a relatively comprehensive overview of the various components of this job. We’ll start with the doors, move on to the process of updating the fixed components of your cabinets, and then finish with a brief overview of the hardware you’ll need.

Cabinet Doors – Make Them, Buy Them, or Have Them Made

Make Your Own Cabinet Doors

If you’re of the adventerous sort and have a fair dose of woodworking skill, you might be wondering if you can make your own cabinet doors. Of course the answer is yes! But the level of skill and tools required varies widely with the type of door you want to use.

Simple Plywood Cabinet Doors

The most basic cabinet door you can make is so simple, you can do it in about ten minutes! It’s only a matter of cutting a sheet of quality plywood to size. For the most basic form, that’s actually pretty much it.

• Cut the plywood to size.
• Sand the edges and faces.
• Paint it or finish it.
• Done!

Depending on your experience with plywood, you may be thinking: what about the big gaps in the edge of the plywood? You know what I mean, you cut a sheet of plywood and when you look at the edge, there are openings in the inner plys, sometimes quite large. These are called voids.

There are two options for that: the first is to use wood filler to fill these gaps prior to painting or finishing. The second, that you might not be aware of, is to buy plywood that doesn’t have that to begin with!

Plywood is available in various quality levels and one of the measures of quality has to do with the “voids”. You can buy plywood that is 100% void-free.

A Step-Up From Simple Plywood Cabinet Doors

No matter how high-quality your plywood is, it can be very difficult to make the edges appear totally smooth. Most simple plywood doors don’t totally cover the plys on the edge. You see the lines.

If that doesn’t sound like something you would like, there are a couple of easy alternatives.

1. You can use a glue-on edge band
2. or you can install a solid wood edge.

Glue-On Edge Band for Plywood Doors

Edge Banding is about as simple as it gets. Most of it has heat activated glue and, are you ready for this, you iron it on. With a regular iron. I’ll never forget the time we were building a huge set of top-dollar cabinets and our professional iron broke. I had to run to Wal-Mart and buy a regular clothes iron to finish the job. That was the most non-tool looking tool I ever purchased!

You just roll the banding on the edge, heat and press with the iron, let the glue set for awhile, then trim the excess off the edge with a sharp razor blade. A light sanding on the edge and the whole door looks like a slab of solid wood.

Solid Wood Strips On The Cabinet Door Edge

If you want to keep your DIY replacement kitchen cabinet doors simple, but you don’t like the look of a flat slab, you can add some depth and visual interest by adding a wood strip to the edge that protrudes a little beyond the face of the plywood.

By cutting your plywood panel 1.5 inches less than the size you want in the end, you can simply add some stock 1-by material (3/4″ thick) to the edge and meet your finished size easily.

This looks nice if you allow the edge strip to protrude a little. About 1/4″ looks nice. So if you’re using 3/4″ thick plywood (recommended for cabinet doors), you would use 1″ x 3/4″ wood strips for the edge.

Flat Panel Cabinet Doors

Another step-up on the time/effort/skill scale is a nice flat-panel door. Rather than a solid plywood structure, these doors are made in a more traditional style using five parts.

• Stiles – on either side of the door
• Rails – at the top and bottom
• Panel – the insert that fills the center of the door

There are a number of tutorials online that show how to make these doors at varying levels of detail and using graduating degrees of complex joinery and woodworking techniques.

One simple manner that I’ve used in the past is taking a solid 1×4 and cutting what’s known as a rabbet on the back edge, 1/4″ deep by 3/4″ wide, which creates a space for a flat panel. You can use plywood, mdf, or even a chalkboard for this flat panel insert.

Raised Panel Cabinet Doors

As flat panel doors are a step-up from simple plywood doors, so raised panel doors are a step-up from flat panels. As such, the whole concept really requires its own article and tutorials! Suffice it to say that the concept is very similar to flat panel in terms of door construction, and the complexity is mostly involved in the construction of the panel itself.

All of these doors are something that you can build yourself and when you install them, you’ll have a great new kitchen.

Buy Replacement Cabinet Doors

If you want to do the finish work yourself and install them yourself, you can still save a fortune with much less work by buying replacement cabinet doors from a company that specializes in this niche.

I’ve bought at least four or five kitchens full of doors from one particular company who provides great doors, but there are dozens (at least) that do nothing but build cabinet doors.

The company I’ve used in the past is Walzcraft, but there are many more listed online.

These companies all have huge selections and all you have to do is give them the measurements, select a style, and decide if you want them to do the finishing.

Pay your money (it can add up!) and a few weeks later a huge pile of boxes show up full of beautiiful cabinet doors.

Have Them Made

The last option is similar to the previous, but what I’m referring to here is going to a local cabinet maker or woodworker and having them make your replacement doors for you, with the understanding that you’ll finish them and install them. (or have them finish the doors for you!)

This option is nice because you can have more control over the design details. You can probably make your own design combining edge details, wood species, panel shape, and other factors to really make the door you want (though all those options are available from the big companies too).

If you want to really incorporate something unique, such as a wood carving or some stained glass you already own, this is the way to go.

Interestingly, it’s very possible that having the doors custom made locally might actually cost less than ordering them from a larger company. The trick to that is shopping around and knowing what the market price is for what you want.

What About The Rest Of The Cabinets When Replacing Doors

When you replace your cabinet doors, you cover the vast majority of the visible component of the cabinets, but not everything. What do you need to do to the rest to make it all look like new?

The answer depends on the style of your cabinets. They might be European Style or Face Frame (or a few varieties of these).

European Style Cabinets – generally consist of a plywood box with no face on it. If you remove the doors, you don’t see anything but the inside of the cabinets. These require the least work when replacing cabinet doors.

Face-Frame Style Cabinets – this style is more traditional and probably more common overall. With the doors in-place, you see some flat solid wood between your doors, usually a couple of inches or so. This wood is called the “face frame”. These type cabinets require a bit more effort when using replacement doors.

The Common Thread

Really, the gist of what is necessary between the two styles is the same. Anything that’s left when the doors are removed, or anything that is visible with them installed that isn’t part of the doors, has to be refinished to match your new doors, or to accent them the way you want.

The good news is that usually this is pretty do-able work. Especially if you’re painting your cabinets rather than staining them.

Installing The Doors

I’ve done these myself a number of times and I can tell you, it’s really not that terribly difficult. The market is full of custom tools and jigs, and you might be told you need a drill-press or other special machine. Sure, those things help, but not having them doesn’t mean you can’t do the job!

For regular exposed hinges all you really need is a drill with a tiny drill bit (for predrilling), a screwdriver (a hand screwdriver works fine), a tape measure, and a pencil.

For concealed hinges, you’ll need to add what’s known as a “forstner bit” to the mix for drilling a large flat bottom hole in the back of the door. This is a step you want to be extra careful with! No drilling huge holes all the way through!

To avoid that, you can mark the bit at the proper depth for your hinges. A scrap of lumber is good for a little trial and error testing before you start on your fancy new doors!

The End Result: A kitchen that looks brand new and a wallet with a few dollars left!

If you’re considering a kitchen remodel, think about replacement kitchen cabinet doors as an option!

Questions? I know that this is an undertaking with more questions than I’ve answered here. I’ll be adding more information as I can (might even do a bit at my house and show you) and eventually I’ll have the whole process detailed on the blog. But in the meantime, if you want to do this in your house and you have questions, please feel free to leave your question in the comments and I’ll get to it as quickly as I can.

One good way to be sure you don’t miss updates to this category is to subscribe to Remodeling Guy in a feed reader. It’s free and, at least in theory, you won’t miss a single new detail!

I get a whole slew of email newsletters from various remodeling sources. They offer great inspiration and sometimes completely novel ideas. Like these doors in a recent newsletter from RemodelingCenter.com

Cool Hardware, Cooler Doors

The use of exposed sliding door hardware like this is gaining popularity. It looks cool, saves floor space, and is easy to install. I published a post yesterday about some wall-mounted sliding door hardware from Johnson.

But what really makes this work is an awesome door. The question is, where do you get those doors? And maybe, how much do they cost?

Build Them Yourself

If you have the skills we might really be talking YOURself, but we might also be talking about YOUR carpenter. The point is that someone goes out and buys a stack of lumber and paint and goes to town cutting and sanding. End result: awesome door.

Just Look Closely

You’re not relegated to only those ideas that you can find a detailed tutorial on. You can often just look very closely at a picture to see how something was done.

This door is clearly made-up of a bunch of slats (probably 1×3′s). These slats are rounded or beveled on the edge to create a nice seam or joint. You could just glue together a bunch of bead-board slats and get a decent slab to start with.

Then a frame is made. This one is probably 2×4′s on the sides and 2×6′s at the top, middle, and bottom. The cross-bucks look like 1×4′s.

Decide Your Priority

If your priority is quality and longevity, you need to put some effort into the “joinery” in this door. To “do it right” you would most likely use a number of fairly advanced woodworking methods.

But, if your priority is look and cost, and you don’t mind some oddities, like a seam down the edge, or the back of the door being just the slats without the frame and cross-bucks, or it being a little less than perfect, then you can just start building and see what happens.

I wonder sometimes if the fear of throwing some work in the trash is what stops people from trying things like this. It all depends on what works for you. Would you rather spend $800.00 on a custom made door that is perfect (and that would be a good deal), or would you rather spend $100.00 on materials and learn as you go?

If you have the time, and want to learn, you can take a picture like this and just try to make it. Research joinery options online, or buy a book on woodworking. After a little trial and error you’ll have knowledge you can use on project after project. And, with a little luck, you’ll have a cool door.

I’d also like to talk about that wall paneling! But we’ll have to do that in another post. There are a couple of posts here about that if you’re interested:

Wainscot, Chair Rail, and Paint for a Quick New Look

Chair Rails and Crown Molding

Roomscape? Anyone ever heard of that word? I’m sure it’s widely used somewhere, but for the time being I’m under the delusion that I made it up! I made it up because I was looking for an interesting word to describe the way a room feels; the way it looks; and the way it flows !

I’m going to show you a super cool way to make it better!

Wish You Had A Pocket Door?

I can’t tell you how man ytimes I’ve been in people’s homes and had them say to me, “I just wish they would have put a pocket door here when they built this place. It’s been driving me nuts for years!”

These owners are often unwilling to part with the money it takes to tear out the drywall, remove and alter framing, install a pocket door frame, maybe re-route electrical and/or plumbing, and fix it all just to get that pocket door.

Pocket doors are great space savers because they eliminate the space needed for the door to swing, and they open up wall space where the door would normally “park” when open. They just aren’t the easiest thing to do after-the-fact! Enter this great new product…

Wall-Mounted Sliding Door Hardware

How cool is that? This new hardware from Johnson Hardware does some great things:

• Allows you to retro-fit a pocket “like” door where there is a swinging door now.
• Gives you an option to close off a dining room or home office in a classy manner (easily!)
• Just plain looks cool!

I promise you that you’ll be seeing this in new houses that could have easily installed a pocket door. They want to show off the door, and the cool hardware. I know because I’ve installed similar systems in some high-end projects. Do this, and you’ll be on the cutting edge.

It’s Johnson

I’m not getting paid a penny to tell you this, but I want you to know that Johnson makes some great hardware. I learned this the hard way unfortunately. The chief complaint about pocket doors is that they don’t operate properly. I’ve had to fix more than I care to remember.

Even in recent years I’ve had jobs finish only to get a call-back on the pocket door hardware. When I went to look…they put in the cheap stuff. It’s hard to believe because every time I ever send a carpenter after a pocket door frame, I tell him “Get the Johnson, make sure it’s the Johnson .” Literally…just like that!

So, you can rest easy with this hardware. It’s the Johnson Hardware’s Series 200 Wall Mount. You can buy it at Home Depot, Lowes, and local building supply outfits nationwide. (if they don’t have it in stock, you can special order the one you need)

The Nester’s Pic of The Week #2

The Nester was dreaming big when she sent me some house pictures she loved. This house here, in particular, is really amazing. She had seen it on Brooke Giannetti’s blog and fell in love. I think Brooke’s husband is the architect. The house is fantastic and too much for one post, but let’s start by showing you the exterior!

I wouldn’t mind walking up this path every day, would you?

—–

Let’s look inside and see what there is to see just inside the door!

Very, very nice! I wanted to show you this for three reasons. First, because it’s beautiful! Second, because it’s in a style I know many of you love! Third, because there are details here that you can include in a remodeling project, large or small.

Full-Wall Paneling

We’ve talked quite-a-bit about wainscot paneling with both 1/3 and 2/3 wall coverage. In this entry, the whole wall is covered with what appears to be a “v-joint” board. It really adds character and a more cozy feeling to the entry as compared to drywall or plaster.

This would be easy for a relative beginner to do themselves and is a great alternative to drywall because you don’t have to learn tape and mud! It makes picture hanging pretty simple too! Just drive a nail!

Beautiful Casing and Glass Doors & Transoms

Take a close look at how the trim around this door is done. The carpenters here did a great job of putting together a beautiful design. You can use various sizes and pieces of trim to create an overall effect that is much, much more stunning than “off-the-shelf” casing. Again, it’s not all that difficult to do. It just requires a little inspiration and imagination.

The other great effect is the use of glass. I’m surprised how rarely people use glass doors inside the house! They make a huge impact by opening up space while still providing privacy and sound dampening. The transoms are a great feature if you have the ceiling height for them! I also love the hardware on these sliders.

Beveled Floor Boards

Many people love the look of a hardwood floor that clearly shows the separation between the planks. This is often done with the use of a beveled edge on the floor planks, like you see in the picture above.

I’m a big fan of floors that are finished in-place and have no seams. What do you think?

What about the rest? Any other features in this entry that you would love to duplicate in your home?

Wait! Don’t change the channel just yet! It’s not how it sounds. I don’t mean I rock in the whole “yeah, I know it, I rock” sense of the phrase. That would be vain, and they didn’t write the song about me. Honk if you get it.

No, I don’t mean I rock all the time, I mean that I can RAWK (?) on occasion. We’re talking music here. Rock, roll, the works. I’m trying, in my standard long-winded fashion, to tell you about my night last night. My whole day in fact. Because you’ve been wondering about that. Right?

So, my son AJ is a huge metal fan.

His favorite band is a Christian band that goes by the name of Disciple. I think they have some form of advanced communication enabled, similar to my RSS feed, that lets him know exactly what Disciple is doing at any given moment. So when they scheduled three concerts in Florida he knew it. And then I knew it.

We picked the show in Vero Beach, obviously because it was near a beach, and got our tickets. AJ and I left bright and early yesterday for the three hour drive to Vero. We wanted to be sure that we were there in plenty of time for the 7:00pm show. We made it with time to spare.

I won’t bore you with all the details of our day. It was great and involved body surfing some HUGE waves, catching a movie at a beautiful theater called The Majestic, and getting in-line for the concert at 4:30, ensuring us front row seats for the general admission show. Did I mention it didn’t start until 7pm ?

(I’m getting to some remodeling stuff, I promise…)

There were three bands and the show started right on time at 7:00. That was the last I saw of my seat. It faded away behind four deep teenagers in the two feet of space between the stage and the chairs. Don’t ask me how they fit? They did, and apparently they felt like there was plenty of wiggle room because they proceeded to jump, and flail, and otherwise act out the joy coursing through them.

There were speakers. Let me give this to you in remodeling terms. Imagine two Sub-Zero’s on top of one another. They were about six feet from my head. And a stack of twenty wine cooler size speakers were hanging from the ceiling. But they weren’t wine coolers. Nope. So when I say the joy was coursing through them, I mean it.

So there I was (paperback novel in my pocket in preparation for the potential retreat that never came) on the front row, right on the stage, trying to “blend“…yeah, right, like THAT is going to happen. It was fun. Really, it was.

Kids Are Energy

Whew, you made it to the remodeling part. I woke up this morning thinking of all the room additions I’ve built as hang-out’s for kids. Parents all over are building room additions just to keep the kids at their house where they can see them. They fill these rooms with cool home theaters, pool tables, video games, and bean bags. I’ve built dozens of them.

But I realized this morning that I should have reinforced them! These kids are like little tanks! They can destroy! I started thinking of what I would do if I wanted to “teenager-proof” a room. Here is the list I came up with…

• Door Casing – Kids just kill the doors! What is that? So I would need to make sure that my door casing couldn’t be pulled off. That would mean an extra stud behind my door casing when I did framing, so that way it could be nailed solid on both the inside and the outside edge. I’d use glue too.
• Solid Core Doors – Forget these puny hollow core doors. Any respectable group of teenagers will make mince meat of that in no time flat. You would need solid doors. Either solid wood or LDF (Low Density Fiber-board).
• Light Fixtures – Lighting is important, you might need it for impromptu first aid. Fixtures should be mounted, up-high. Forget the lamps, they’ll never make it.
• Walls – I’m thinking solid wood up two-thirds of the wall. A wainscot type look with a nice cap rail on top. It looks great but is indestructible. You could do drywall, but you’ll need this post on drywall repair.
• Paint – Let’s be serious. I have to tell my son five times in one two sentence conversation to “stop hanging on the door”. He touches everything and despite the energetic bouncing I saw at the concert, teenagers apparently need bodily support from walls and doorways most of the time. So the paint needs to be very durable, and washable, and while you’re at it, I say go with a distressed look that way you don’t care when they take a chunk out of the wainscot in some completely unforeseeable way.
• Floors – Stained concrete? If that’s too cold, then I would go with either a solid 3/4″ thick nailed down hardwood floor, finished in-place, or a laminate flooring like Pergo. You’ve seen the demonstrations where they smack it with the hammer right? There you go.
• Windows – no windows.

So there you have it. The story of my wonderful day with my son, the huge metal fan, and some tips on how to design your remodeling project to be teenager proof. I wish I could go back in time, I’d be selling wainscot and solid core doors leftswing and rightswing. Contractors take notice…change order money here!

I’d love to hear some “my teenager destroyed my house” stories, just NOT FROM YOU MOM!

~ RG

Maybe that should be an either/or instead of an “and” in the title. Because the whole point of this awesome new door hardware is to prevent the drywall repairs! Take a look:

Isn’t that nice looking? This is new Wall Mounted Sliding Door hardware from Johnson Hardware (who I really like to use). I wrote a post all about it with bigger pictures at RG:Select! Check it out!

If You Just Love Drywall Work…

I wrote a quick post about drywall patches and repairs over at RG:Express.

Not only did I talk about repairs and “blowout patches”, I also included a picture that certainly gives me incentive to brush-up on my drywall skills. You can see what it is at RG:Express.

Make sure you come back on Monday for a ground-breaking tutorial! Have a great weekend!