Comparing kitchen cupboard doors

Librarian_with_attitude

I've come out of long term lurkerdom to ask this! Please can someone shed a bit of light or offer some opinions? We are planning to replace a kitchen which is about 15 years old, the doors are a "maple" lookylikey and it has looked frankly ropey for about the last 4 years where the vinyl (?) seems to have blown on a few doors. Finally we've got the money together to replace it and we are hoping that the kitchen we put in will last another 15 years so I am reluctant to have the same type of door again.

I'd like a Shaker style off-white kitchen, not gloss finish, and don't think we can afford painted wood. So my question is, what door finish should we be looking at in terms of decent durability without having to have real wood?

So far we've looked at Wickes Marlow, Howdens Burford Cream, and I got bemused by the many Shaker options on DIY Kitchens but like the Alabaster and Chalk colours of several on there.

Could someone in the know tell me what they think we should be looking for, and suggest where to get it?

ryder72

Looks like you have a foil wrap door and the delaminating you are seeing is characteristic of this type of door. It is also the mainstay of kitchens from the lower end of the market.

What you need to find is wood, laminate or lacquered (not lacquer on foil) type of door. A dead giveaway of this type of door is a sharp edge on the rear of the door front where the sides meet the back of the door.

Stay clear of foil or vinyl wraps or you could find yourself changing yet another kitchen in a few years.

cddc

Depending on the size of the kitchen, it would not be that much more expensive to have a painted Ash or even Oak

For instance, the Wickes Tiverton Bone door is far far nicer than the Marlow and overall, on most kitchens, would probably cost you less than a thousand more to have it instead of the Marlow.

The doors should last far longer and look much nicer as well. Get a comparative price on both, you may be pleasantly surprised.

jerrypaul12

Cost of kitchen remodel will depend upon the size and materials used , as you can use oak which looks good.As I recently furnished my kitchen from denver renovations , they used oak and it is not much costly.

DigForVictory

+1 for real wood. If you intend to paint it, pretty much any wood will do, just not the thick sticky back plastic on something unspecified stuff.

Solid wood costs more, can be lovely enough to escape painting & in extremis can be taken off, sanded down, re-oiled & hung back up again to the show & awe of visitors who think you've redecorated entirely!

If you want to paint do consider blackboard paint so you can have a door & notice board. (I've not forgotten one mum who thoroughly labelled the washing machine, drier & dishwasher. Nor her then correcting the spelling of comments left, until the whole family agreed on a more organised rota &, ahem, a new kitchen paint job.)

Librarian_with_attitude

Thank you for all your input so far. I do love the look of painted wood and we did get a quote for Wickes Tiverton Bone. Oh how we laughed when it came to £5600 in the sale (before installation costs) with almost no appliances as we are keeping our existing ones. That was when we downgraded our expectations away from painted wood!

So today I've priced up a Broadoak painted wood kitchen on DIY Kitchens with cooker hood and hob from ao.com, and that was £3420. Much better, but unfortunately that is still too much so I'm back to trying to see what is the best of the non real wood kitchens.

I can see I need to steer away from foil wrapped MDF as that might be what we have already. Is vinyl wrapped better? Is that the basic difference between say Howdens Greenwich and Burford ranges?

adamg

have a look at the milbourne door on diy, its the mdf version of the broadoak.

Librarian_with_attitude

adamg wrote: »

have a look at the milbourne door on diy, its the mdf version of the broadoak.

Thanks adamg, just done a comparison price up and Milbourne comes in £900 cheaper than Broadoak, so we will send for a sample and see what's what. The description is painted vinyl MDF, so we'll need to see what it looks like "in the flesh" but if its going to be more hard wearing than vinyl wrapped anything else, it could be perfect.

evokit

The Milbourne will be the same wearing as a vinyl door.
It is vinyl wrapped and over painted, so the same as what you had.

adamg

evokit wrote: »

The Milbourne will be the same wearing as a vinyl door.
It is vinyl wrapped and over painted, so the same as what you had.

but with a neater edge profile, and not 15 years old so better adhesives to hold the vinyl on and not subject to as much sunlight fading.

evokit

The op said they are reluctant to have the same type of door again, just pointing out it is the same.
The paint will also fade from sunlight just like a natural oak painted door over time. That's not a down side, makes it more real.
The newer vinyl and foil doors still peel/blow.