Cabinet update

[Scott Davis]

Good evening!
we are looking to update our builder grade cabinets in the family room. They are 20 years old and mostly built with Butt joinery. I can see pin nails in some of the joints too. One day I may look to build new ones but for now, we are getting some other cabinets in house painted and thought we would do that for these too. It's a much cheaper way to freshen them up a bit. As I thought about this, I wondered about other ways to update them from a cabinetry standpoint.

1) Raised panel doors- these are solid wood and reasonably well built, but the room opposite has Shaker doors that do look nicer.
2) Crown is pretty dated looking, but made of solid wood, not cheap stuff. I can't tell exactly how these are attached?
3) The header on the face frame of the open upper cabinet has the curve cut we don't love.

How can these cabinets be updated from a carpentry standpoint, and how hard do you think it would be to do that? I have made built ins for other rooms and can do the job but I have never disassembled old cabinets and not sure how hard that is without tearing them up, which I would rather not do. From looking at them there isn't any strong joinery I see and I think it may be butt joints +- biscuits maybe?

I think I would :
1) replace header with a shorter non-curve
2) new Crown
3) Shaker doors
4) get them to paint them


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[Mel Fulks]

Of course the crown is dated….it is a real period design. Not a mishmash conjured up by a workman experimenting to see if his new
flights of fancy would be good enough for HIS kitchen ! Don’t think THAT doesn’t happen ! I would give the cabinets a good paint job
and replace those ugly handles. And call it beautiful.