Kitchen · DIY guide
How to replace kitchen cabinet doors and handles
If your cabinet carcasses are sound — square, dry, no swelling at the base — replacing just the doors, drawer fronts and handles gets you most of the visual change of a new kitchen for a fraction of the price. The whole job lives or dies on measuring.
Legal to DIY in Victoria
Checked as at September 2026. Rules and prices change — confirm anything you are about to act on.
What you need
- New doors and drawer fronts made to your sizes
- New hinges (usually supplied bored) and handles
- Cordless drill, Phillips bits
- Tape measure and a steel rule
- Drilling jig for handles — worth every cent
- Pencil, masking tape
Step by step
Check the carcasses are worth keeping
Open every door. Look at the bottom of the sink cabinet especially — swollen, soft or delaminating chipboard means water damage and the carcass should be replaced, not dressed up. Also check the boxes are square and the shelves are not sagging.
Measure every door individually
Never assume they are the same. Measure each opening and each existing door to the millimetre, number them, and draw a simple map of the kitchen with the numbers on it. Note which way each door hinges.
Note the hinge type and bore positions
Take a door off and photograph the hinge, including any numbers stamped on it. Measure the distance from the door edge to the centre of the 35mm cup. Getting this wrong is the single most expensive mistake in this job.
Fit the hinges before you hang anything
Mount hinges onto all the new doors first, on a bench, at the same settings. Working at the bench is far faster and more accurate than at arm's length in front of a cabinet.
Hang, then adjust
Clip each door on and only then adjust. European hinges adjust in three directions — side, depth and height. Work along the run getting the gaps even rather than perfecting one door at a time.
Drill handles with a jig
Mark one door, check it, then use a jig for every other one. Freehand handle holes are visible from across the room and cannot be undone.
Common mistakes
- Ordering from one measurement and assuming all doors match
- Not recording hinge bore positions
- Drilling handle holes freehand
- Keeping carcasses that have water damage at the base
- Adjusting doors individually rather than aligning the whole run
When to stop and call someone
If the carcasses are water damaged, out of square, or the benchtop has to come off, you are into a full kitchen replacement rather than a facelift. That is also the point where the numbers change — a facelift is a fraction of a rebuild, but only if the boxes are sound.
This guide is general information, not advice for your particular house. Rules change — check the current position with the Building and Plumbing Commission, Energy Safe Victoria and WorkSafe Victoria before you rely on it. Plumbing, gas and electrical work must be done by a licensed practitioner. If your home was built or last renovated before 1990, assume asbestos until it is ruled out — see what a strip-out finds.