Renovating your kitchen with made to measure kitchen doors and replacement drawer fronts will offer many of the benefits associated with complete kitchen overhauls but in a much more timely fashion and at a fraction of the price. By limiting the project to doors, drawers, and accessories, you are also reducing the likelihood of any unexpected surprises that could arise with more complex projects that add significant cost.  Costs can be further minimised by installing the doors yourself. If the budget is tight, it is more practical to choose higher quality doors rather than installing a cheap kitchen that may not stand the test of time.

Ordering your replacement kitchen doors online couldn’t be a more seamless process. By ordering online, you can save time as well as money while your doors are transported directly to your home within days. Installing the doors can take as little as a one day, minimising any inconvenience to you. By installing replacement kitchen drawer fronts, you can transform your home with a fresh new look that will immediately increase the re-sale value of your property.

Although time and budget may no longer be an issue, one obstacle that does pose a challenge to the inexperienced is measuring. Replacing your kitchen doors should be a seamless and hassle-free process as long as you are accurate with your measurements. If you are a beginner, we have prepared a comprehensive list of best practices when measuring for replacement kitchen drawer fronts that should assist you in accomplishing this task with flying colours.

1. Great ideas materialise from great plans – Before even considering placing an order, ensure that you have a kitchen plan in place. Start by making a sketch of your kitchen that highlights all of the kitchen doors and drawer fronts that will need to be replaced. Always cross reference the number of doors that you intend to order with your kitchen plan to ensure that nothing is missed.
2. Preparing to take measurements – Use a steel tape measure for your measurements to help with ease and accuracy. Since mistakes can be costly, take your measurements at least twice to ensure that you are accurate and make notes on your kitchen plan so that you will know where each corresponding new door ordered is to be installed.
3. Measuring for new kitchen doors – When taking your measurements, it is always important that you measure the actual kitchen door rather than the kitchen cabinet as long as the doors fit nicely to the units without any unsightly gaps. If this is the case you will need to allow for this. This is an important consideration as doors are typically smaller all around to facilitate clearance and adjustment when fitting it into the cabinet. As profiled edges of kitchen doors can interfere with measuring, it is recommended to measure across the rear face of the door for the greatest accuracy.
4. Accuracy is everything – When making notes of dimensions, always write the height first followed by the width as this is the standard practice for describing door and drawer sizes. Mismatching the measurements could lead to serious problems and headaches.
5. Success hinges on you – When planning to replace your doors, also inspect the hinges. Loose or worn hinges can cause your replacement kitchen doors to not fit properly. Purchasing new hinges will ensure that your door is aligned perfectly and opens with ease. Consider how far you would like the door to open when choosing new hinges and make note of the hinge dimensions to ensure that they fit properly.
6. Hinging in the correct location – It is important to take note of the way your door opens to ensure that hinge holes are on the appropriate sides. For example, a door that is hinged on the right will be a right hand door. If you need help drilling your hinge holes, you will need to supply measurements. Simply measure from the bottom and top edges of the door right to the very centre of the hinge hole.  Determine if your replacement kitchen door is a universal hanging product as it can be hung from either side. If not, you will need to note the distances from top and bottom in the correct order and note whether the door hangs from the left or right.

In most cases, your kitchen doors will measure four millimeters less than the cabinet. This is an appropriate guide when ordering replacement drawer fronts. Simply make sure that your door height is always 5 millimetres less than your cabinets in order to allow sufficient clearance for cornice and drawers. Don’t forget to take note on your kitchen plan as to which doors are right or left handed when opening. If your kitchen hinges appear to be in good condition, you may be able to re-use them with your new kitchen doors. Just ensure that your old hinges will fit into the standard hinge holes on new doors which are 35mm in diameter.

Accuracy is crucial when measuring for replacement kitchen drawer fronts, so get it right first time by following these tips:

• Millimetres are the standard unit of measurements for kitchen doors and drawers. Always take and supply your measurements in millimetres to avoid unnecessary conversions that could lead to inaccuracies.
• Don’t miss a door or drawer by taking a methodical approach. For example, create categories and then measure in order of each category. You could begin with all of the base unit doors and finish by measuring all of the drawer fronts.
• Measuring from the inside of back of the doors and drawer fronts will always lead to the most accurate measurements thanks to the flat surface on the backs of drawers and doors.
• If ordering a kitchen door that shows grain, always measure the height before the width. The height is always longer than the width and the grain will run in that direction. However, be aware that the grain will typically run along the horizontal length on drawer fronts as standard but can differ form range to range.

Lark and Larks boasts a wide selection of replacement drawer fronts to give your kitchen the facelift it deserves. If Do-It-Yourself isn’t right for you, we can also provide a replacement kitchen door installation service. Whether you are looking for the sleek look of Zurfiz kitchen doors or the charm of Bella kitchen doors, Lark and Larks is your one-stop online kitchen makeover shop.