kitchen cabinet upper box re-make

[Jeremy Patrick]

Looking for some advice on supplies regarding the following project:

Currently have 9 upper kitchen cabinets that are, well to put it lightly, crappy, at least the box material is.
One section is two full cabinets on the ends with 2 half height in the middle. The other section has a 3/4 height on either side of full height and a triangular corner unit that is the same 3/4 height.

The doors are oak and fairly decent but the actual box is a real cheap pressed board. I've had to attempt repairs of things like the hinge screw holes and things have gone down hill from there.
The cabinets were also all single units paired up, so there are gaps and uneven spacing when you look close up.
We're looking to prep the house for selling in the next 1-1.5 years. Having halfway functioning cabinets isn't going to be a highlight.

My idea is to re-make the cabinet box and re-use the doors. Ideally I would build the box to be as wide as the current setup.
The problem I'm not quite sure on is materials. Pressed board is definitely not my ideal choice, but to match oak cabinet doors would I be aiming for oak veneer plywood?

[Max Neu]

Are these frameless cabinets you are describing?If so,I would use prefinished maple or birch plywood and edgeband with oak veneer to match the doors.

[roger wiegand]

Prefinished maple ply would be my ideal choice, but for near-term re-sale melamine-coated particle board might be the cost effective answer. There's probably a better than even chance that whoever buys your place will remodel the kitchen and replace the oak with something else, probably whatever is trendy at Ikea. You're unlikely to get a return on investment for building good for a lifetime cabinet boxes.

[Jeremy Patrick]

They are frameless.
I can see the use of veneer to match on the edges, but since the actual cabinet box is mounted on the wall, one or more sides of the plywood would be seen. Would you want to have oak matching on the visible exterior portions?

[George Bokros]

IMO I would replace them with some Big Box Store or Ikea cabinets. Less work and likely not any more expensive.

[Jeremy Patrick]

Oh yes, def agree on the return not really happening from putting decent time and effort into this. Would love to put the effort into it for a new place but for now just the basics for restoring functionality are the goal.

For the materials though, whether it's prefinished maple or whatever else, what are the shops then tend to have the decent quality stuff? Stay away from the stores like HD/Menards and go for a milling Co? Would only need a few sheets of ply if I maximize my cutouts.

[Brian Tymchak]

Do you have matching lower cabinets?

[Jeremy Patrick]

I had thought about that, will have to look at their selection and see. I don't want to buy another set of individual cabinets and stack them together like what is already here. That would gain my almost nothing except for some of the units having properly secured door.
Unless it really would be cost prohibitive I would prefer to put some effort into making the box portion a bit more pleasing to see on the wall. I know the previous owners slapped this together out of convenience and money. Trying to balance my perfectionist view with what is actually possible!

[John Lankers]

Why not approach the Realtor of your choice and ask him/her what they think, they know the market in your area.
Also, you might not be able recover your investment but what is a potentially quicker sale worth to you?

[Jeremy Patrick]

No. The bottom are framed, none of the particle board stuff either. The cabinet doors are interestingly enough fairly identical.

[Jeremy Patrick]

Very good point. I have a realtor already lined up to walk through the house and see what they can suggest for needed improvements. From the pictures he already said the counter has to go, which I completely agree with. But for one area of the cabinets where I had to repair a hinge, when I tried to install a new hinge it's like putting an M80 in the particle board, the stuff just shreds since it's an existing hole, nothing to grab on to.
So I have a horribly patched hole on a plainly visible left side of the wall cabinets. Given that, and how half_xxx the previous owners installed these and secured them, maybe it would be worth my time to put something in place a tad nicer.

[Max Neu]

I would talk to a local cabinet shop and see if they will sell you some Domestic prefinished maple or birch plywood.You can't get good plywood at the box stores,it needs to be flat,and stay flat,espescially for frameless cabinets.All the stuff at the box stores is imported,and not good enough for what your needing it for.As for the finished ends,I would just use oak,and clear coat the inside,I doubt if the next owner will notice or care.

[Mark W Pugh]

I'll just throw this out. There was a post on one of the forums here of someone rebuilding their entire kitchen cabinets, with oak, then put it up for sale. One of the comments, from a potential buyer, was how outdated the oak cabinets looked/were.

So, if I were going to sale, I would first talk to a realtor, and if they said they needed replaced, I would go cheap, and not spend the time in the shop.

[Jim Dwight]

I've built a kitchen out of the rotary cut oak plywood sold at the big box stores. I found some with poplar inner plys and it was pretty good to work with. I sawed veneer to cover the edge, the boxes were frameless. We liked them and I think it helped sell the house. Plywood boxes are much more durable than particle board.

I built a kitchenette for the last house out of melamine particle board. It's hard to glue, I cut shallow dados to expose the particle board and then caulked the crack. Worked OK but wasn't nearly as nice (or as expensive) as the oak plywood. I used the special screws made for particle board and the plugs where the screws showed. I made doors of softwood and put a whitewash stain on them. For a basement kitchenette I think it was fine. Some of the doors were glass.

If you like building boxes and have the time, I think you can save a bit but I would make sure. I would check the Chinese knock-downs, I think they are cheaper than the cabinets at the big box stores. You'd have a bit of assembly to do but not nearly as much work as making the cabinets.

[John Lankers]

I would check the Chinese knock-downs, I think they are cheaper than the cabinets at the big box stores. You'd have a bit of assembly to do but not nearly as much work as making the cabinets.

At least the "Chinese Flatware" is finished and looks modern.
I've seen fully assembled cabinets at one Big Box Store near me yesterday, the boxes were made out of oak veneered particle board, the edgebanding so rough it would be impossible to fix. The raised panel doors had gaps and cracks and were so rough they had never even been sanded before assembly. Not sure about their origin.

[Jim Becker]

One thing I suggest you consider is if the current upper boxes are deep enough for "modern" needs...if not, bumping them even an inch deeper for the new carcasses can make a huge difference relative to storage ease. I wish I would have done that when I did my kitchen back in 2003. I made the mistake of duplicating the depth of the previous cabinets and it's been constraining.

[Jeremy Patrick]

Although I have the best of intentions I can't say I have the most finesse for cabinetry (yet). So I was figuring re-making just the box wouldn't be too much of a stretch.
But like Max mentioned, I'll start looking through the listings for cabinet shops and see what they can provide for some options.

[Jeremy Patrick]

In my eye I already see what is installed as fairly cheap, just something that was put in and not really thought through. So I'm probably not going to put in something of lesser quality.
If the options from the cabinet shop turn out to be too expensive then I'll roll back to the idea of building the boxes from plywood. Just have to find a good source for the oak plywood.
Now that I'm looking at the cabinets in front of me, I could probably get away with addressing only one section and not all. Just have to make sure they match up or it will definitely look odd!

A s a last resort I could try and find the exact cabinet style if they bought it from one of the big stores around here and just replace the one unit. That may make it pretty enough for a selling even if I'm not thrilled about it.