Thread: Cupboard Doors - Please help me track these down!! **PICS**

Hi everyone,

I'm really REALLY hoping someone might be able to help me out here. Below are several photos of our current kitchen cabinet doors. I'm trying to track down the supplier of these, as I need to get some more.

My wife and I recently bought a 'renovators delight' - and the kitchen is very incomplete. We're using some of the existing cabinets, and also adding some new ones (in particular 2 corner base units that I bought in flat-pack form and assembled myself).

Our budget has allowed for a new benchtop, but not the doors, so now the hunt is on to track these down!!! I'd love the find the same style, colour, finish etc... The current ones are in decent enough nick for now, so that's why we're going to try and finish the set. There's plenty of spare end panel material in the garage too.

Any help, advice, or contacts would be GREATLY appreciated. I will let the pics do the rest of the talking....

Cheers,
Brett.

they are lime washed tasmainian oak ,i suggest you take one off and go to a joinery shop ,they can repoduce the arch and profile for a small setting up fee ,then your hunt is to find a french polished to copy the wash

Thanks for that info arms, it's excellent to know.

I'm still crossing my fingers someone might be able to put me onto the original supplier... but if not, I'll have to go down that path.

These are fairly generic solid timber joinery doors, so it'll be tricky for anyone to identify the original supplier - except perhaps the kitchen cabinet maker or retailer you got it from. And sometimes the door maker just makes the bare timber doors and your kitchen cabinet maker then does the limed finish & varnish.

Hey guys, just another thought... if this proves too tricky to match up... would it be easy enough for me to strip down these ones back to bare timber - and then get some matching ones made (also bare), and then just choose a finish and do the whole lot at once... even if they are just painted?

I wonder how a belt sander would go on them? Obviously, there would need to be some hand sanding involved too....

Stripping the lime wash could be a bit of a task. I think the doors are pretty generic. My parents have that design, but I don't think they are finished with them yet. Maybe "ye olde Bunnings" might even have them.

Failing matching the doors, maybe you could get plain flat doors. It looks like the segment under the stove is flat. You could make a feature of a necessity and paint them white or completely different colour.

Originally Posted by tea lady

It looks like the segment under the stove is flat.

I actually think that is just a blank cupboard side intended to be hidden by a bank of cupboards returning along the wall.

The timber could also be called "Limed Vic Ash" as well as Tassie Oak.

It looks to me like the kitchen you have was a pullout from some other job that was never properly installed when it was moved into your house. There are no kick boards. You might be able to find a suitable match at all sorts of places, but matching the lime wash exactly can be difficult. There are at least two methods out there, one is to stain the timber with a wash like any other stain and then clear coat over it. My experience with that system is the polyurethane top coat can yellow and getting an exact match is then difficult. Another option is an all in one finish like Cabot's "White Pine" which seemed quite acceptable to me and didn't yellow as much.

You might be able to find odd cabinets or reasonable matches for sale at auctions like http://www.graysonline.com.au/sale.asp?SALE_ID=2436

its not the supplier thats the problem but copying the mouldings that makes the door the design that it is

Personally I'd be more worried about all of those gables going down to floor level - looks to me like they have already taken some wear.

I would be more inclined to chase up a set of colourboard doors - as some have suggested possibly in a contrasting finish rather that lashing out serious readies on a project that might not really be worth it.

Cheers,

Earl

Thanks for all the latest comments and suggestions.

Fuzzie has hit the nail on the head - we believe this kitchen was a pull-out from another house, and was never installed correctly (it never even looked like fitting). It was totally incomplete, and no allowance for the corners (hence why I have since gone and bought 2 corner base units myself - which will take bi-fold doors).

I am only using some of the cabinets seen in the photos - and since those pics were taken, I've gutted the kitchen, re-wired, re-plumbed, plastered and painted. It looks fantastic now, so I'm getting more and more turned off from these current doors. They will certainly be the weakest link in the kitchen. I will still consider all my options, but yeah I'm in two minds over it all!!!

Try this Mob - I'm sure that they will have that profile.
Fenton Timbers
Fax 03 6339 4399.

They're in Tassie but they send stuff up all the time and have good prices.

Ask to speak to Bruce.

BTW I did a similar thing had some Tassie oak doors that looked very tired. I restored those and bought additional ones that you couldn't tell the difference.

Incidentally, these are solid timber joinery doors, and would last years and years, so don't even think of getting rid of them. Much better than most of the chipboard or mdf doors that come with kitchens.

Can't tell without a close up look, but it's possible that they may even be Ash (not Victorian Ash but the European stuff). I had a joinery door make a fair bit for me sometime back, overseas. What you did then was tell them the door dimensions and the profile of the door pattern ie. whether straight or curved or mixed. In your case, most of the doors would then be curved at the top and straight at the bottom. They came bare, and you'd have to sand and apply whatever finish you wanted. Really solid stuff.

I'd avoid removing the limed finish. Would not be that hard to find the finishes needed to get the limed finish, although colour matching (esp. as it may have darkened through age) may be difficult.

Just to add more info. Cheers.

That's a good point Ashwood - if I can, I'd rather keep solid timber doors that will last ages, rather than replace them with cheaper mdf / chipboard doors.

I have a possible lead at the moment - a bloke at work saw my photos and reckons he has the identical doors in his kitchen. The company he used are still operating (in Dandenong) which is not to far from me, so I'll be taking a door or two down there and having a good chat with them. Have already spoken over the phone, and he said it certainly sounds like something they offer. He is keen to identify my doors and see what options we have. Fingers crossed.

Thanks also for your help Bleedin Thumb. I'll keep that Tassie mob in mind too if this goes no where!

- Brett.

The doors are just routered out, as there are no joins in the corners of the mouldings. Therefore if you can make up the blank doors you just need to go to somebody with a cnc router to do the pattern. Or one of the door manufacturers like Bardicorp in Dandenong etc. as they have similar looking profiles in there brochure.
Otherwise I know of a couple of CNC router places in Ferntree Gully, Knox area.

Originally Posted by aspectdisplays

The doors are just routered out, as there are no joins in the corners of the mouldings............

Nope, sorry you can clearly see the rail and stile joint in each corner and the change in grain direction - horizontal for the rails and vertical for the stiles. You can also clearly see different coloured boards which have been joined to make the floating panels, these colours don't carry into the rails.

Mick

Sorry,
Maybe I wasn't clear enough.
I understand that the door is not one piece.
But the moulding detail has been routered.
So if he was to make the door blank i.e. rails,stiles and centre he would then just need to get it routered.
At least that would match the drawers and be reasonably close to doors.

."Nope, sorry you can clearly see the rail and stile joint in each corner and the change in grain direction - horizontal for the rails and vertical for the stiles. You can also clearly see different coloured boards which have been joined to make the floating panels, these colours don't carry into the rails"

I think you will find that if you are making a raised panel door you "route" the required profile of the panel at that time. You dont make a blank first.

Originally Posted by Bleedin Thumb

I think you will find that if you are making a raised panel door you route the required profile of the panel at that time. You dont make a blank first.

I understand how you make a solid timber door I've done them myself. The guy obviously can't do that otherwise he wouldn't be after them, if he was capable of making them from scratch. He's after a cheap way of matching them.

But why would he want to make a "door blank"

The moulding profile on the door frame parts has been cut prior to assembly, probably with a matching rail and stile cutter. You can tell because the internal corners are sharp 'mitres' not rounded as they would be if the frame was 'routered' as you put it after assembly. If you look at the top rail of the door, you will probably see the shape of the moulding profile cut into the end grain of the rails.

You cannot make up a 'blank' door and then have this moulding applied.

Actually on second reading, what you seem to be suggesting is that he get some flush panel doors made up and then have the moulding shape cut into them with a CNC router, which is similar to the way they make the MDF cores for those vacuum formed vinyl doors in cheap kitchens. I'm not sure that would work out any cheaper and I reckon it would stand out like dog's bollocks. The drawer fronts have been made the same way, so they're not going to match anything.

Hi Shubes,

I was searching for door makers under Yellow Pages, but couldn't find any. I came across this site though. http://www.acclaimwardrobes.com.au/

No idea if they're any good but no harm asking. If you click the link "door" they do make joinery cabinet doors. Don't know about limed finish - if they don't have that, ask if they supply bare unfinished doors.

I don't know any joinery door manufacturers, but those would be the most direct source.

If you happen to find any or call the above link, let us know how their pricing, etc went. Cheers.

when i did kitchens my company ordered timber doors from tudor doors and it looks like the exact same profile and moulding that we used to get from them. http://www.tudordoors.com.au/

That's a good lead. I might try them out for a future project! Ta

Well I have an update on the doors. After hitting the Yellow Pages and calling places at random, I found this local mob here in Bayswater, Vic:

http://www.finertimberdoors.com.au

I dropped in to their show-room, and they sell solid timber - Tassie Oak / Vic Ash doors with profiles that are 'close' to an identical match to mine. So I've bitten the bullet and ordered the doors I require to complete the kitchen (7 in total) which are costing me about $50 each (raw). Even though it's not a 100% match, I think I'll get away with it.

Once they're made, I'll do a trial fit to make sure I got the measurements correct... then it will be time to match up the lime-wash finish.

I'll post more photos when I get my new doors back, meant to be 10 working days.

Ok here are some pics of the new doors. These pics really do not do them justice - the flash has made everything look pretty horrible actually... in real life, they look a treat, and blend in with the existing doors very well... even as they currently are (still raw)...

Anyway, the pics will give you a good idea:















The next step is to match up the lime-wash finish somehow. I'm also going to fit brand new door handles all-round to help bring the kitchen up a notch. I'm very happy with the new benchtop. Still have to make kick-panels, and get a floor down. Then things should be looking a lot nicer.

Looking really good!

u may need to take the new door and take it to a fench polisher to lime wash the rest of the raw doors it might help to take a door off that has the lime wash already done so they can match it.