We’re in the VERY long process of a DYI kitchen redo. We’ve chosen to keep the original 1960’s cabinets because they are solid wood. We’re sanding/painting them. The doors are plain front – which is not to some people’s taste – but I like it. Simple, unfussy – and makes the sanding/resurfacing much easier.

We looked at cabinets at HD, Lowes, Ikea, etc… We were not impressed with prices or quality.

Another pet peeve of mine. Our existing upper cabinets go to the ceiling. Which means we have more storage and don’t have that gap that gathers dust and isn’t useful that you see in most kitchens these days. We looked for pre-fab upper cabinets that were of a similar height and there weren’t any. I see so many kitchens that have that gap from about 7′ up. That gap drives me nuts.

It’s labor intensive to resurface existing cabinets – but in our case it was worth it because the exising cabinets built from quality dimensioned lumber and were of the size we wanted. It does tie us to the existing layout – but that’s ok because the layout works.