Door-Only Kitchen Refresh: Tips, Measuring & Installation Insights

Once you've decided now is the right time to give your kitchen a refresh by switching out your cabinet doors, it's not always easy to know exactly where to begin. To demystify the process, we've put together some of our top tips and to help you navigate this simple interior design project with ease.

How To Choose The Right Style Of Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Finding the perfect replacement kitchen cabinet doors to bring your design vision to life is an important first step. We recommend browsing our full catalogue online, as it'll give you a good understanding of the different styles, colours and finishes that are available.

Shaker style doors are a great option if you want your kitchen to feel both contemporary and timeless, as doors in this range feature beautiful panelling and other details that feel very classic and traditional.

For a more contemporary and minimal look, one of our slab style kitchen door styles could be your perfect match. The streamlined profile of this style can help to establish a sense of space and airiness in your kitchen, particularly if you also choose a light colourway and a light-reflecting gloss finish.

We've also got a range of more overtly traditional styles, such as our Bella Westbury doors which feature tongue and groove inspired detailing, and our Bella Canterbury doors which have a beautiful cathedral arch detail.

How To Choose The Right Colour And Finish

From classic neutrals to deeper jewel tones, there's a colourway to suit every kitchen. It's not always easy to narrow down your colour options, especially when you're shopping with us online. To take the guesswork out of your decision making process, you can order up to 6 free colour swatch samples directly from our website.

Pro Tip: Don't forget, you can also give our kitchen experts a call if you need some extra advice or guidance!

Don't Forget About The Finishing Touches

As well as our range of kitchen cabinet doors, we also stock a selection of accessories which match our different styles and can help you to achieve a high quality finish in your kitchen. This includes end panels to provide a seamless finish to exposed cabinet sides, as well as edging tape, plinths, cornices and pelmets.

Pro Tip: Our accessories range also includes a variety of different door and drawer handles, including both contemporary and more traditional options. Our handles have been carefully designed to complement our range of doors and includes shell style cup handles, as well as flat and rounded bars.

How To Measure For New Kitchen Cabinet Doors

As we'll craft your new doors to the measurements you provide when placing your order, it's important to make sure that they're accurate. The measuring process is incredibly simple and can be completed in just 10 minutes with a couple of tools.

Taking your tape measure, you'll want to measure each door from the back. This part is important, as it'll prevent any detailing on the front of your existing doors, such as bevelled edges, from creating inaccuracies. Note down the side-to-side and top-to-bottom measurements of each door, which will provide your width and height measurements.

Pro Tip: Our step-by-step guide also includes a video, which may be helpful to follow along with when measuring up for your new doors.

Include Hinge Hole Measurements When Placing Your Order

When placing your order, you'll also notice that there's space for you to provide hinge hole measurements. If you choose to include these, then we'll use them to pre-drill hinge holes into your new doors. This will make the installation process even simpler, as all you'll need to do is swap over your hinges and attach your new doors.

To measure hinge hole placements, measure from the top of each door to the centre of the top hinge. Then, measure from the bottom of each food to the middle of the bottom hinge. Taking the measurement to the centre of the hinge will ensure that your new kitchen doors fit perfectly with your existing hinges.

Don't forget to note down whether each door is right or left hanging. Left hanging doors open outwards to the left, whereas right hanging doors open outwards to the right.

Finding The Right Hinges To Further Simplify Installation

High quality hinges can make such a huge difference to the overall experience your new cabinet doors will offer every single day. We recommend soft close hinges, which will prevent fingers from being accidentally injured and support the longevity of your new doors by making it impossible for them to be slammed shut.

Our Hettich hinges also offer 3-way adjustment, which will make it super simple to achieve a seamless and high quality finish in no time.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will my replacement kitchen cabinet doors take to arrive?

Orders from Happy Doors typically arrive within 20 days, as everything is made to order. We'll make sure to keep you updated throughout the process, so you'll always know when you can expect your order to arrive.

What happens if my new doors arrive with damage?

When receiving your order, we recommend looking at each box to see if there's any damage. If you do spot anything of concern, sign for your delivery with the word 'damaged' rather than your name. This is something we've agreed with our couriers and is the correct process to follow, so please ignore any requests from the driver not to do this.

Sometimes outer packaging can get damaged in transit, however this doesn't always mean that the items inside are also damaged. If you spot any issues when unpacking your order, give us a quick call and a member of our team will advise you on how to email us pictures showing the damage. We'll handle everything from here, ensuring that suitable replacements are sent out as soon as possible.