What can inspire more pride than a piece of furniture made by yourself? Recently, people are increasingly realizing that creating the right things is not only about saving money, but also about creating pleasure. So, you can learn how to make furniture facades. Everything that is in its front part can be attributed to this element of furniture: front panels and ends of drawers, doors, etc. According to experts, this is a fairly simple matter, but the result will be the most positive.
To ensure a stylish appearance and prestige of the living space, the material for the furniture facade should be selected before starting work, carefully studying all its advantages and disadvantages.
Material Features
No one will argue that without facades, furniture loses not only its functionality, but also its aesthetics. Therefore, at all times the manufacture of these elements was given special attention. People came up with new materials and over time began to use them to make furniture.
To date, facades for furniture can be made from:
Facades for furniture are made of: plastic, MDF, aluminum, glass.
- wood;
- plastic;
- aluminum;
- glass.
Each of these materials has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, wood easily burns out under the influence of sunlight, but has a long service life. Glass, on the contrary, is not afraid of the sun, but can break if accidentally hit. In addition, elements from some materials require special processing, and they cannot be made at home.
In the modern world, when progress never ceases to amaze with its pace of development, many people get ample opportunities to independently learn what previously seemed impossible. This trend has also affected the furniture industry. Despite the fact that the custom-made furniture production service is quite well developed today, many people strive to learn how to make furniture on their own. Therefore, the question of how to make kitchen facades with your own hands remains relevant for many people.
Kitchen furniture plays a very important role. The presence of many cabinets and drawers allows you to hide all the kitchen utensils that are needed in the process of cooking. And facades play an important role in kitchen sets, as they are needed to perform certain functions and give kitchen furniture a special beauty.
The facades of kitchen furniture include doors, panels, the front of drawers and everything that is in front of kitchen furniture.
Furniture facades can be made of various materials. But the most popular materials are:
- wooden array;
- wood boards. It can be MDF boards, chipboard boards and others like that;
- glass;
- aluminum;
- plastic;
Important: when choosing material to make a facade, pay attention to the overall style of the kitchen and interior. Having precisely decided on the material, you can begin to manufacture kitchen facades.
Solid wood facades
The very first rule that the owners of an apartment or house must follow is that the facades for the kitchen cannot be selected from photographs or videos. The main criterion for choosing a facade, the manufacture of which will take place with your own hands, will be the material.
If you decide to make a facade for the kitchen from an array, then it is worth considering that they are made in several ways:
- paneled facades from the massif;
- solid facades from the array;
Such products can be made in various shapes and sizes, to make them ventilated or solid.
The main advantages of furniture facades made of solid wood are:
- attractive appearance;
- fashionable;
- long service life;
- environmentally friendly;
- installation is quite simple;
Important: in When choosing a technique for making facades from solid wood, one must remember that such material is easy to work with, easy to process and can be used to make ventilated facades, curved facades or any other.
Despite the positive qualities, the facade, made of solid wood, has some disadvantages:
- are able to absorb moisture and foreign odors, as a result of which they lose their original appearance;
- solid wood facades require constant maintenance;
- rather high cost of the material;
- solid wood facades do not tolerate direct sunlight;
Facades made of plastic
Installation of plastic facades is quite simple and unpretentious even for those who are engaged in such a process for the first time. To make such facades is quite simple. To do this, you must first make a base from MDF or chipboard, and on top of this base, install decorative plastic using a special adhesive.
Facades, the manufacture of which involves the use of plastic based on MDF or chipboard, have the following advantages:
- impact resistant;
- do not need special care;
- not afraid of direct sunlight and temperature changes;
- not afraid of moisture;
- have a long service life;
Disadvantages of plastic facades:
- leave handprints on themselves if touched;
- matte plastic, which is used in the manufacture of facades for kitchen furniture, is quite difficult to wash;
- the side parts of the plastic facade cannot be made without white color on the side, which will surely distinguish it from the general background of the kitchen;
Facades from MDF
The installation of an MDF facade involves the manufacture of a special frame, which is subsequently lined and pasted over with a film.
Important: about When installing facades for a kitchen from MDF, it must be remembered that materials such as mirror, glass, chipboard and so on can be used as a profile.
The main advantages of facades for kitchen furniture made of MDF:
- inexpensive material cost;
- quite light in weight;
- it is possible to make bent facades, ventilated and other non-standard forms;
Disadvantages of MDF kitchen facades:
- quite whimsical in care;
- do not tolerate moisture;
- do not tolerate high temperatures. Therefore, when carrying out the installation of facades of such a plan, it is worth avoiding contact, for example, with a gas stove;
- if you make a facade from MDF, then the seams of the profile connection will definitely be visible;
glass facades
Installation of facades for kitchen furniture made of glass involves the use of a material of increased strength.
Glass is quite easy to process, so if you decide to make curved facades, then glass will play the role of an assistant in your plan.
The main advantages of such products can be considered:
- aesthetically beautiful appearance;
- well tolerate the action of moisture and the sun;
- quite resistant to impacts;
Important: despite the fact that glass facades are quite strong, we must remember that it is not worth abusing blows against them.
The disadvantages of such a material for the manufacture of facades, like glass, can be called:
- have to wash frequently
- there is always a risk that the glass may break;
Other types of furniture facades
In addition to the above facades for kitchen furniture, the manufacture and installation of which can be done independently, there are such types:
- Wet facade. This type has gained popularity due to manufacturing technology, which involves the use of a minimum number of cold bridges. In addition, if you make a wet facade with your own hands, you can contribute to the removal of the dew point outside your premises;
- Frame facades, which are mostly made from MDF. The installation and manufacturing process of such products is quite simple, and their appearance is excellent. Standard sizes of facades are not about this type, since they can be made in any size. Such facades can also be made in the form of curved ones, as well as ventilated facades. When making frame facades, you can show your imagination by arranging different colors, which in this case is welcome;
As you can see, there is a large selection of materials from which facades can be made. Considering all the pros and cons of a particular material, you can choose the most suitable option and proceed directly to the very process of making a facade for your kitchen.
A modern kitchen should be functional and create a good mood. After all, this room is visited as often as a bathroom. Constant moisture, shock, steam and grease quickly damage the front walls of the furniture. You can create facades for the kitchen with your own hands, completely changing the look of the whole house. Various materials and decorative elements make the old kitchen facade unique. A little skill and imagination.
Self-finishing of the kitchen and facade
Modern home design is impossible without beautiful kitchen furniture.
We are engaged in the interior of the kitchen on our own
A friend has finished building a house. Now the restoration of the kitchen facades in the old apartment where he lived with his family, and with our aunts, was coming. We began to sort out with him ways of finishing and decorating kitchen facades. The easiest way was to paint in a bright color. Clean out potholes and scratches and level with putty. But simple budget solutions are not for us. The choice of material is large:
- wood;
- glass;
- plastic;
- self-adhesive film;
- dye;
- wallpaper.
As a decoration, you can use moldings, plastic elements with imitation of stucco, carvings, accessories.
We started from Vadik's apartment. There was no point in completely changing the furniture, since only the facade lost the view. While growing up, children repeatedly painted the doors of tables and cabinets with chalk and felt-tip pens. There were scratches on the surface, not washable stains.
Do-it-yourself restoration
Self-finishing facades in the kitchen
I have enough tools, starting from a jigsaw, and ending with a set of cutters for carving. We measured each door and made a sketch of its future appearance, and what kind of decoration we would put on it. After that, Vadik himself prepared the details. First, I cut it to the size of the plank for the frame. The cross bars are longer. They had to make protrusions - spikes that would go into the groove of the vertical slats.
Along the inner perimeter of the frame of future kitchen doors, I made a small groove, equal in width to the thickness of the panel. After that, a friend prepared inserts. After assembling each door of the facade, I checked the fit and the overall geometry.
The decoration of the facade was done in the same style as the design of the whole house - classical. Having applied a pattern according to the template, we created an ornament on the frame and a carved pattern on the panel with various cutters. Then carefully cleaned and polished all the details.
The elements of the future facade were fixed with glue. We took a special one for wooden surfaces. You can use building PVA. The composition was applied to the grooves, after the connection, all the excess that came out was quickly wiped off.
Now it was possible to paint, make a dark background and use a roller to go over with light paint, highlighting the carved decoration. We used a clear primer and matte varnish. The warmth from natural wood with a unique pattern was enough to create a warm atmosphere for the whole house.
Installed the fittings, hung the doors in place. Finished decorating the facade with decorative handles. The restoration took a long time. We made it with our own hands. There is no other facade like this. We managed not only to update the kitchen interior, but to make a unique design of old kitchen furniture.
Easy to paint with enamel
Do-it-yourself kitchen decoration
Vadik decided to make kitchen facades for aunts with his own hands. Our relatives preferred budget options. It was enough for them to paint the front walls with light paint to update the interior. The main thing is that you can carry out the work quickly and do not have to leave home.
The first facade was made of wood and plywood. He lost his appearance, but was whole. First, I had to correct the warped elements and replace the fittings in some places. Then clean and sand the surface. Align everything with putty and polish again. Before painting, coat twice with white primer.
The small area of the kitchen did not allow making the facades dark or painting them in rich colors. It was possible to update only light paint and small decorative elements. The restoration took place under the supervision and guidance of my aunt. So we had to choose the moment, distract her by preparing a surprise in advance. A vinyl decoration was glued to the facade. Application in the form of bouquets of wildflowers was different on each door. Self-adhesive ball pre-ordered in size. We were able to do the artwork in a few minutes.
Another relative had a larger kitchen. The facade was badly worn out and it was necessary to change the panel. We decided to make the doors and front walls of the boxes out of plastic.
- An aluminum profile was used for the frame. Cut it to size with a cutting disc.
- The elements were connected with self-tapping screws. Plastic was inserted into the grooves of the profile.
- Fittings installed.
- Hung new doors and adjusted them.
The apron also had to be updated. The façade was a rich crimson color, and my aunt loves it very much. The wall of the working area was covered with white plastic. The decoration was vinyl applications, only with a different pattern. Identical decorations are placed in the corners.
We use natural materials to improve the climate at home
Do-it-yourself facade
For a house located in the city, it is important to have more natural materials in the interior. Wood is expensive. A budget option that allows you to update the furniture in the kitchen, make the facade of chipboard and MDF. The material consists of natural wood waste, therefore relatively cheap. It can be painted, varnished. Fine pressed sawdust allows you to create relief patterns. The cutter needs a special one. The wood tool quickly sits down, and the decoration will have different grooves.
When working with pressed plates, the most difficult thing was to remove the aunt from the house. During processing, fine dust rises, settling in the lungs. We used respirators. The elderly woman always strove to give us instructions, without protecting her respiratory organs with anything.
By the time my aunt returned from the dacha, we managed to completely update the facade on her kitchen furniture. Paint the doors and drawers beige with a spray gun. Then, with a short pile roller, everything was covered with a white tone. Finished with a durable clear lacquer. When the woman returned, she was pleasantly struck by the new look of the interior of her house. We immediately received the title of the best nephews of the country.
Wallpaper and self-adhesive film as a budget home makeover
kitchen facade
My friend and I created another masterpiece by restoring the facade of the kitchen with glass doors. It was enough for us to update the frames and put in new glass. Working creatively out of habit, we used wallpaper. They can be glued on panels and varnished. It turns out in an original way when you stick the tapestries on the back walls of the cabinet. Through the glass you can see the dishes on the shelves. Wallpaper pattern creates an unusual background and makes a plain interior brighter and more fun.
On old kitchen sets made of wood, it is enough to clean the frames, soak them with an antiseptic and wax. Then replace the damaged glass. The high quality of the facades is surprising. The shiny surface of the glass reflects the rays, creating the illusion of space. Even the cramped kitchen seems spacious and bright. Therefore, we did not close the doors with wallpaper and film. Found another way to update the interior.
The self-adhesive film is moisture resistant. It can be used on an apron and any facade material. Such a decoration is able to update the facade of the kitchen, closing small defects. At the cottage, we just pasted the film on the doors. The advantage of this decor is the ability to quickly change the finish to a new one. Over time, the aunts liked to change the design, and they re-pasted the film in the country every season.
Moldings, fittings and other decorations for the kitchen facade
When restoring kitchen facades with chipboard, you have to create volume with decorative elements. The surface of the chipboard is difficult to process. That's why I use overlay decorative elements. I imitate the protruding frame with an overhead molding. I stick figured patterns from expanded polystyrene. They are molded and easy to stick. After painting, the appearance of the facade corresponds to the antique furniture in the rococo and classical style. It all depends on the choice of decorative elements.
To restore the facade of the kitchen, tools are needed. They are available to those who like to work with wood and craft with their own hands. If you are just starting to do repairs yourself, use plastic, wallpaper, film and paint. Fantasize, experiment and get a great result.
Making facades for the kitchen with your own hands is a good way to save money on buying a kitchen set. Old furniture can be given a different look by replacing the doors of cabinets and cabinets, installing doors that open upwards, complementing the set with fashionable details and beautiful fittings. And even the furniture facades themselves can be made by hand from relatively cheap and affordable materials. 
Similar articles:
Replacing the fronts of the kitchen is a great way to update the kitchen set.
The furniture facade is the face of the kitchen and the main component of its style. Decorating the headset with home-made parts should be done only when there is a great desire to do the job efficiently and accurately, because improper assembly can ruin even the best materials.
For independent production of facades from solid wood or shaped bent doors, you will need skills in working with wood, MDF or chipboard, as well as the availability of special tools.
In a simpler version, self-updating the kitchen set with furniture facades is limited to taking measurements and installing updated doors and drawer panels in their intended places. Finished parts can be bought and ordered in furniture stores. There is also a service for sawing and edging selected MDF or chipboard panels. At home, without a special tool, it is difficult to accurately cut laminated boards.
But even buying or ordering panels in a store will cost less than buying ready-made cabinet furniture. Therefore, updating the kitchen by replacing facades is a common design technique.
Manufacturing options from different materials
Most often, do-it-yourself kitchen facades are made of wood. It is an easy-to-process, affordable and cheap raw material for the manufacture of materials for the furniture industry. Kitchen facades must be resistant to detergents, temperature and humidity, and wood and laminated panels meet these conditions.
Do-it-yourself facades are easy to make from such materials:
- solid wood;
- plywood;
- pressed (chipboard, chipboard, MDF).
To work with the listed types of furniture raw materials, complex equipment is not required; wood can be cut with an electric jigsaw or a hand saw.
Plywood facades resemble massive ones: the top layer of birch plywood has a pronounced wood structure, some types of material have a moisture-resistant coating that gives smoothness and slight sheen. For the manufacture of plywood facades, it is better to choose thick varieties (2-3 cm). This will allow you to install mortise hinges for furniture, and the doors will be durable. Close the edge of the facades with a special tape, matched to the wood of the front side.
If there is no thick plywood, you can make beautiful facades using the technology of paneled doors. At the same time, a board about 2 cm thick is used for the frame, and the inserts are made of plywood.
With the help of additional decor (molding, painting, patination or staining), you can achieve a good result by making updated facades for kitchen furniture with your own hands.
From MDF
The simplest option for making an MDF facade is to measure the dimensions of doors and panels and order products in a furniture store. Having chosen boards with a coating of the desired color, the measurement results must be given to the master. On professional equipment, the material will be cut and glued on the edges. The customer will only have to pick up the facades prepared for installation and hang them with their own hands.
When self-cutting laminated MDF panels, it will not be possible to avoid chips on the coating along the cut line. Therefore, when cutting, you need to make an allowance of 2-3 mm around the entire perimeter of the facade. After sawing the edges, process with sandpaper, cleaning the cuts.
To glue the edges with your own hands, it is better to use PVC tape of the desired shade. The material is easy to fix on the edges of the facade with a hot iron, ironing the tape through thick paper. If it is possible to use a router at home, then it will be possible to perform edging with a tape with a spike.
The choice of materials for the kitchen must be approached responsibly: the plastic coating does not protect against water, and in conditions of high humidity, such facades quickly lose their shape. When using this type of panels, it is necessary to perform edging with high quality, so it is better to entrust the work to a professional.
Facade from chipboard
Choosing a cheap uncoated chipboard, you need to buy a film for finishing the facade. You can cut a simple chipboard with an electric jigsaw, and glue the finished facades with a film.
Chipboard has a coating that resembles valuable wood or is painted in different colors. It is better to cut such material in the workshop, providing the master with the dimensions of the panels and the location of the hinges. When cutting facades on your own, proceed as follows:
- draw a contour line on the front side of the chipboard;
- cut through the laminated layer of material with a sharp knife along the ruler;
- saw the chipboard with an electric jigsaw along the cut line.
The edging of the facade from laminated chipboard is carried out in the same way as the processing of MDF.
Glossy
Facades with gloss belong to the MDF group. To cover such models use:
- PVC film glued on a panel with or without milling on vacuum equipment;
- acrylic plastic with PVC or aluminum edge;
- special technology of staining with enamel and varnish.
It is impossible to make such a coating at home. To make a fashionable glossy facade for kitchen furniture, you need to purchase ready-made material. It is better to order cutting and edge stickers in the workshop, because when sanding with your own hands, the shiny layer will be damaged, and the facade will not look as elegant as in advertising photos.
When using glossy facades, careful attention to products will be required. On a shiny surface, the slightest dirt or fingerprints are clearly visible. The surface is easily damaged by slight mechanical impact, and the film coating is also unstable to high temperatures.
Handles are not only a functional piece of furniture. They complement and decorate facades. In styles with strict lines (minimalism, hi-tech), handles sometimes serve as an emphasizing element: large, shiny, but simple fittings are used. Such handles resemble roof rails and are located both vertically and horizontally.
The lightness of fashionable sets with glossy facades or made in modern style is better not to make them heavier with additional fittings. For such kitchens, ways of opening without the help of handles have been invented, by pressing the door. But sometimes such cabinets are equipped with special fittings, disguising the handle as an aluminum edge.
For rustic and luxurious styles, it is customary to choose antique handles, with a finish that imitates old bronze or made of non-ferrous metal. These are frilly cast products that should be combined with the decor of the facade.
The handles must be installed after hanging the facades on the pedestals. In order for the entire line of handles to be placed at the same height above the floor, you can stretch the cord along the entire front of the lower tier. On this line it is necessary to make marks for installing the handle on each door. The same is true when installing handles on drawers or wall cabinets.
How to properly install the handles on the facades in each individual case is written in the instructions for these products. Holes for their installation can be made in different ways: through in the plane, closed at the ends, or otherwise. When buying handles, it is better to purchase several pieces for repair during operation, as these products can be discontinued, and it will be difficult to find a replacement if necessary.
What do you do with old furniture?
The history of glossy facades is relatively young, only a few methods or types of manufacturing such facades are widely practiced, these are film facades, PVC film is applied by hot pressing in a vacuum environment. Painted facades - by gradually applying paint in several layers, and then in the same sequence of lacquer coating and further polishing. Acrylic facades - by applying acrylic glossy plastic on MDF. Postforming - application of paper-laminate (HPL) on the base in a press under high pressure and appropriate temperature.
All of these types are unsuitable for self-production at home; either high-tech equipment or a specially equipped room is required. I want to talk about an easier way to make a facade with a high degree of gloss and a perfectly smooth surface with your own hands using a simple hand tool.
We will use Kamellit acrylic plastic as a glossy coating. The plastic is 4mm thick, so you don't need a perfectly clean room or an expensive press. Due to the thickness of the plastic, debris inadvertently caught during the application of the adhesive or the uneven application of the adhesive composition itself will not affect the evenness and smoothness of the coating plane, which cannot be said when working with materials 1 mm thick or less, even a very small speck or a layer of adhesive applied even by the method sprays will manifest themselves on the front of the facade in the form of swelling or ripples, especially irregularities stand out on dark colors. When working with our material, you can not be afraid of this, the glue will be contact, I prefer to work with Solupren glue, in our case it can be applied with a roller, brush, you can just use a tampon made of cloth, polyurethane foam (sponge) and you don’t need to clean the working room to the state surgical operating room.
To begin with, I want to show some of our works, in which the facades are made by the proposed method. 
It should be noted that this material is much superior in strength, and also has more enhanced dirt-repellent properties than conventional, classic materials and coatings used in the manufacture of facades in modern furniture. 
There are also similar pearl-effect acrylics, grandsilk. The properties are more unique, for example, handprints are almost invisible even with close scrutiny. materials Camellit and grandsilk easy to process, sawing is done with a circular saw, milling with conventional milling cutters. But if you try to bend, you will have to sweat, the material is heat-resistant and for the manufacture of a radius (bent) facade it is necessary to heat the plastic to 160-180 degrees, it is much easier with artificial stone, it is more thermoplastic, although it should be noted that the processing technology of these materials is almost identical. 
There are three ways to make facades and decorative panels, at least I describe which I use myself: this is a preliminary preparation of panels with gluing a solid sheet of plastic onto a sheet of MDF or chipboard, but it is not very convenient, the format of the Kamellit plastic sheet is 3050 × 2030 × 4, Grandsilk 2020 × 1320×4 i.e. different from the size of MDF sheets and chipboard, chipboard. Then the prepared panels are cut to the desired size, it is convenient that the ends of the parts are already prepared for gluing the edging material, no additional operations associated with milling and fitting the ends are needed. The second way is cutting plastic to the size of the part, sticking it on the part, processing the ends (removing overhangs) and sticking the edge. The third way is edge sticker, plastic sticker, milling (plastic edge rounding).
I have shown the third method, first we apply a 1-2 mm PVC edge to the ends of the future facade, preferably glossy and matching the acrylic plastic to be glued. On the back side of the facade, we round off the chamfer of the edge with a 2-3mm cutter. 
Shown is the rear side of the façade with a finished edge. 
On the front side, we mill the protruding edge (remove the overhang) behind the face with the plane of the facade detail. 
Next, we adjust the grinding machine to an ideal, even plane, and at the same time we grind the lamination, which contributes to better adhesion when gluing the plastic and the facade panel. 
We clean from dust, rinse with alcohol or a non-greasy solvent. 
We proceed to the stage of gluing plastic. Apply contact adhesive to both surfaces to be bonded, let dry and press firmly. The better to press down, the better and stronger it will hold, the main and probably the most important requirement when working with contact adhesive. And another important point, you need to accurately determine the drying time of the applied adhesive before gluing (joining the surfaces to be glued). Personally, I have been working with this brand of glue for a long time, I determine readiness by changing the color of the drying layer, you can check it by touching the back of your hand, there should be no sticking and the glue should not stick and remain on the hand. The manufacturer recommends a certain drying time, but at different temperatures in the room, the presence of air movement, blowing is sometimes used or simply because of the shelf life of the glue (during long-term storage, the viscosity of the glue composition changes), the drying time of the adhesive layer varies greatly. In a word, the quality of bonding also depends on the correct pre-drying time of the adhesive. 
Next, we work with the plastic itself, first we remove the overhangs using a copy cutter. 
The cutter has a support bearing, the end of the part serves as a template. Milling takes place clearly along the contour of the facade. 
Next, we round off the sharp edges of the plastic with an edge cutter, the shape of the cutting knives of the cutter can be different. 
And the final step is polishing the rounded areas, using a grinding paste. Optionally, it is possible without polishing.
As you can see, everything is quite simple, you just need a little patience, the process is quite time consuming.
P.S. I have been using this technology for a long time, I see only positive aspects, only one minus is the expensive cost of acrylic plastic Camellit.
