Looking for maple slab/flat reface doors (Ikea style)

9 years ago

Our kitchen remodeling plans have been contingent on the assumption that Ikea would offer a birch slab door (like the discontinued Nexus birch) in the new Sektion line available Feb 2. Ikea does offer such a door called Haganas birch in Europe, but unfortunately I just found out yesterday during a visit to Ikea in Palo Alto that besides the shaker style (similar to Orsa), Ikea currently has no plans to offer the slab birch style of door in the US Sektion line.

In the meanwhile, we have proceeded with other things that need to be done: some structural changes, selecting countertops, backsplash, flooring etc.

What we plan to do now is use Ikea Sektion cabinets (incl. drawers and hardware etc), and just get maple or birch doors and drawer fronts made by places that cater to homeowners doing cabinet refacing.

RTF/laminate doors are fine (actually preferred), so long as the quality is OK. It won't make sense to get cabinet doors that are high end or expensive. If you have light colored woodgrain (not necessarily wood) slab doors that you are happy with, I would appreciate your recommendations.

This post was edited by andyscott on Thu, Dec 25, 14 at 19:59

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Comments (11)

Carrie B
9 years ago
Scherr's and Semi-handmade (and I believe another couple of companies) make door fronts specifically made to go with IKEA. I'd start there.
andyscott
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks carrieb, I'll contact Scherr's to see what their pricing is like. Semi-handmade is about double the price of Ikea's most expensive Abstrakt doors, according to their website.

Since I'll be specifying the exact size of the doors we need, it really can be any company that makes slab doors. Based on my limited experience, door companies that specifically cater to homeowners with Ikea cabinets have inflated prices.

This post was edited by andyscott on Thu, Dec 25, 14 at 20:56
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When I was researching cabinet styles, I noticed a correlation between door and drawer details. The simpler the style, the more likely you'd see slab drawers, sometimes all slab and sometimes mixed with 5-piece drawer fronts. As cabinet styles became more detailed, there was a much slimmer chance of seeing them paired with slab drawer fronts. As buehl discovered, plain fronts don't look as finished with more detailed doors. Drawers that echo door details just look better. I think you could go either way and I'd be more inclined to aim for a balanced look of stile versus inset panel. 1" clearance between stiles doesn't seem to provide that, IMO. Your wider stiles sound more like the contemporized Shaker cabintes that Ikea offers. Perhaps you can find some inspiration by looking at photos of Ikea kitchens. There are several in the FKB. Here's an example of a 4-drawer bank next to a 3-drawer bank from mindstorm's kitchen (link below). You can see more photos if you click on the link to the photo album from mindstorm's FKB page. Here is a link that might be useful: FKB - Mindstorm's kitchen.
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Viola Park is a line a cabinets that is owned by Henrybuilt. It is made in the same factory using same processes but cheaper: they use fiberboard (not sure the exact name) instead of plywood and MDF slab doors. These are great quality cabinets also. Viola Park uses slab painted cabinets extremely well for stylish look. I think you should go for a fashionable color; grey with punch of accent. Viola park does these amazingly wonderful colorful accent pieces! I have been looking at many many old houses recently to buy. Most older homes from 1920 to 1950s that still have orignal cabinets intact (which are many in Seattle!) have slab painted cabinet doors that are mounted over framed site built boxes. The almost all have vent holes in the sink cabinets. (why? they thought garbage needed airing!) I have yet to see an older home with original shaker style cabinets in the kitchen. They are however, in the original built ins... Perhaps, they thought they were saving money by not putting in the nice stuff in the kitchen. who knows. I think you can't go wrong either way. I happened to really like the simplicity of slab doors. My 1960s rental house has slab cabinets with framelss boxes, euro exposed hinges of that era and the cabinets are still being used. The are still straight and extremely functional and stylish looking and they work well in the house. They are currently painted white. I may paint them soft grey next time to make them look "modernized". My dentist's office has turquoise/teal colored painted slab cabinets from 1960s with flat tongue and groove cedar paneling accent walls. The design is an amazing example of MCM! The dentist who has really good eye kept the design when he expanded. I know that you do not want MCM but I just wanted to let you know that the slab doors extremely versatile. Here is a link that might be useful: Viola Park
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Thanks for all the feedback on Ikea! I think the Ikea birch is definitely a bit softer than either the oak options or the AW prospects, which were maple and cherry. So I'm ruling out any of the birch doors including the Adel medium brown which seems to be the most popular one. I'm sure they do fine, but I'm still very nervous about using Ikea for a kitchen, and I don't want anything that I am likely to have second thoughts about. Our galley is effectively a corridor - it gets a lot of traffic and every single guest has to cross the kitchen to get to our living and dining rooms. I don't want to cringe everytime my 2yo rides a car through the room because I'm worried about door dings. I've actually just returned from my local store and picked up a sample of the Tidaholm (light oak) door, which I actually like a lot better than I'd expected to - in my small galley it has the feel of almost whitewash, less yellowish than in photos I'd seen. So now it's the dark Liljestad vs. the light Tidaholm.... I had just talked myself into the Liljestad based on a few of hte really nice kitchens on the finished kitchen blog. I know that lighter wood is probably preferable for a small room though. Hmmm, maybe I'll post a second appeal for advice once I get the layout from the designer who works for the installation company.
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brightm
9 years ago
I think barker cabinets can provide doors only too.
GauchoGordo1993
9 years ago
In order to plug-n-play with Ikea the fronts must be machined (drilled) to tight tolerances, which is why it's expensive, and why I wouldn't trust anyone to do it.

This post was edited by GauchoGordo1993 on Thu, Dec 25, 14 at 23:34
andyscott
Original Author
9 years ago
Gaucho, I'm not sure what you mean about "machining". Any door with the same width/height of an Ikea door can fit an Ikea cabinet frame. I certainly plan to be very careful about accepting any door unless it meets specified measurements.
GauchoGordo1993
9 years ago
You're not considering how the fronts attach to the drawers or hinges. There are holes in the backs of the doors and drawer fronts to mate with the hinges and drawers respectively, and gap between fronts is only 1/8", so the machining tolerances are tight. It requires a machining jig and proper setup to do properly. Making fronts for Ikea isn't as easy as you think.
andyscott
Original Author
9 years ago
Gaucho - I guess I'll have to order a sample door and drawer front, to see if they'll work. So is this more of a manufacturer issue (let's say it's Scherr's), or can a skilled installer get it done right?
remodelfla
9 years ago
Scherrs has all of IKEAS spec. You just tell them the size of the cabinets (30" 3 drawer...etc) and the know exactly how to bore them if you choose to pay for that service
GauchoGordo1993
9 years ago
The backs of the cab doors and drawer fronts must be bored-out and drilled at cabinet shop with tooling specifically designed to Ikea specs. This type of work is not done onsite.

BTW, I used Scherr's and and I'd use them again.
feisty68
9 years ago
We got a pretty good price on solid maple fronts from a local cabinet door wholesaler, and of course we didn't have to pay for shipping. It ended up being CAN$12/sf. It would have been less if we hadn't had as many small pieces. I had to do a lot of measuring and we will have to do the drilling etc. I chose to do the finishing myself but we could pick from a variety of standard finishes, or go custom with them. They also offered a variety of wood species and door styles. I think they supply to kitchen installers and cabinet companies, but they also sell to the public. No fancy marketing or showroom though.

Edited to add: my point is that it's worth googling cabinet door fabricators in your area.

This post was edited by feisty68 on Fri, Dec 26, 14 at 21:33
JAD87 D
9 years ago
We have doors from Semihandmade and love them. They are drilled precisely for use with Ikea hardware. We sent them our kitchen plan and they figured out which doors, filler, and trim were needed to make everything work. And the woods are sequence matched. Beautiful.

Looking for maple slab/flat reface doors (Ikea style)

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Looking for maple slab/flat reface doors (Ikea style)

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