How to Update Kitchen Cupboards With Trim

Update your cabinets by putting trim on the doors.

Remodeling a kitchen can get to be very expensive. One way you can update your out-of-date kitchen is by trimming your cabinets. Cabinets with flat doors give you a blank slate to work with. You can create your own design of trim pattern you want on the front of your cabinet doors. If you use a trim design that only requires straight cuts, you don't even have to worry about matching angled corners to each other. Then put a new paint job on your newly-trimmed cabinets, and you have updated your cabinets inexpensively.

Things You'll Need

• Electric screwdriver
• Bowl
• Wood filler
• Fine sandpaper
• Clean rags
• 1-2" interior fluted or flat trim (12-foot lengths)
• Tape measure
• Pencil
• Electric table saw
• 2" to 3" wood molding corner square blocks (4 per door)
• Wood glue
• Nail gun with trim nails
• Primer
• Acrylic paint
• Fine bristle paintbrush
• Sponge paintbrush

Instructions

1. Remove your kitchen cabinet doors using an electric screwdriver. Take all the hinges, screws and handles off of the doors and store them in a bowl for safekeeping until you rehang the doors.

2. Sand the doors by hand with fine sandpaper to roughen the finish. Apply wood filler with your fingertip in any small dents or holes. Let filler dry. Sand these spots until smooth. Wipe the doors off with clean rags to remove any dust from the sanding.

3. 

   Choose the style of trim that you like best.

   Lay four of the decorative trim corner blocks 1-inch inside the corners of one of the doors. Measure and mark the door with a pencil where the corner moulding blocks are to be attached. Make sure all four corners measurements match. Now measure around each block. Measure the length between the top and bottom corner blocks on both sides. Measurements should be the same. Measure the length between the right and left corner blocks, top and bottom. These measurements should also be the same.

4. Cut two horizontal pieces of trim with the table saw per the measurement, and two vertical pieces of trim per measurement. Make straight end cuts because these pieces will butt up against the sides of the decorative corner trim blocks. Lay this set on the front of the door and center the trim in the middle of the sides of the corner trim blocks. Use the two different lengths of trim as a pattern, and cut all the pieces for all the door fronts so they will all be exactly alike.

5. Apply wood glue on the back of all four corner molding blocks and all four trim sticks. Apply to the front of the marked door. Mark the corners of all the other doors and apply the trim with glue to the rest of the doors. Let dry until the next day.

6. Use a nail gun and short trim nails, and from the back side of the doors, apply one nail in back of each square and two nails in back of each end of all trim sticks.

7. Prime all the cabinet doors with new trim applied. Use a soft bristle brush for painting or a sponge brush to avoid any brush marks. Let dry.

8. Paint the doors a bright white or any bright color to update your kitchen cabinets. Let dry.

9. Attach all the hinges and screws to the doors. When the cabinets are all painted and dried, re-apply the doors to your cabinets. If the trim has covered the handle holes, leave the handles off.

Tips & Warnings

• Use fluted trim with the decorative corner blocks, or any flat wall trim you like.

• Follow safety precautions when using the table saw.

• Open a window when painting for ventilation.

References

• Dummies: How to Update Your Kitchen Cabinets
• Better Homes and Gardens: Updating Your Kitchen Cabinets With Trim