Homemade kitchen fronts for Ikea kitchen from Multiplex Okoumé, by Noni

Description of Noni

I made handleless kitchen fronts for our kitchen from waterproof Oukomé plywood. I chose waterproof Oukomé, because we don't have to worry as much about messes in the kitchen, but also because of the beautiful grain and warm red color of the wood. First I designed the kitchen and noted all the dimensions of the fronts (these are in the product description at Ikea). At TOSIZE.ie I had the doors and fronts sawn and rounded at the front, 4mm.

How I made this project

I used a router to first milled away approximately 2.0 cm of each front. It took some time to figure out which depth I had to mill per plank. The planks are of good quality, but the layers of plywood may not be exactly the same thickness here and there. Naturally, you want to mill down to the same layer across the entire line. Then I milled the hollow in it with a handle cutter. I had never used a router before. I bought one through Marktplaats and the handle cutter in particular was essential. Since my wood was 18mm thick, I had to go with the smallest handle cutter. If you have 20 mm wood, you can go for a deeper groove, which I think is a bit more pleasant to use. I ordered the rest pieces and practiced on them with the cutter until I got the hang of it. I was also able to test the testers of different colors of hard wax oil, so that I knew exactly what the color would be. I drilled holes at the back of all the fronts with a wood drill so that I could mount the drawer. I milled holes for the doors so that the hinge fits. Then everything was sanded nice and smooth, the edges and the top. I used sandpaper sponges for this, coarse, fine and very fine. Finally, I varnished everything with Osmo Hardwax oil, color Larch and mounted the fronts.

Dimensions of my DIY project

See cutting list.