[MaryMT]

I'm new here -- trying to do our kitchen on a budget, and IKEA seems to have both price and quality.However, I can't find a door I like. I searched this topic and found a few threads on putting IKEA doors on Mills Pride cabinets. But my question is the opposite -- can you buy doors from another manufacturer and put them on IKEA boxes?What I'm looking for is a painted linen white door. It seems the IKEA painted doors are bright white or gray, and the creams are thermofoil. Although the IKEA thermofoil don't seem as shiny as others I've seen, I've watched my in-laws' thermofoil cabinets turn brown above the coffeemaker.I'd be happy to find unfinished doors and drawer fronts somewhere and paint them myself. I read the warnings about not attempting to paint the IKEA doors....Thanks in advance!

[chabuchie]

One of the finished kitchens in the gallery is Ikea boxes with custom walnut doors, so it should be fine. Ikea will sell you the hinges, so you just have to drill the cup holes yourself, but you'd have to do that anyway.

[BarbaraK]

Hi! I've been asking about this myself. Laurie wrote:"How about the Liljestad mullioned wall cabinets?Â* You could sand them and paint them the color of white that you want.Â* They're solid oak."Also, someone from the gardenweb kitchen forum suggested that Scherr's was one company that would make custom doors for IKEA boxes, and I guess you have to specify that they're for IKEA.I think this option would be beyond our meager budget. Not our "forever" house, so it's OK. But I still do have to think "re-sale" someday...I'm new here too. Welcome! Fun, huh?Barbara

[BarbaraK]

oops. Didn't mean to "shout" - I guess when I cut and pasted that quote I got a different font size inadvertently. Sorry!(gotta try a different browser...)bk

[MollieM]

Hi there. I have thought about doing the same thing myself as I wanted the black door but it is discontinued! I'm in the UK so it may be different for you but check out the cabinet heights very carefully in other places first. Here, everywhere else I've looked sells doors of a standard height and IKEA, on purpose I'm sure, make their doors about half an inch to an inchless tall. This can't be worked around by moving the door up or down, it's too much.

This is probably done for a couple of reasons - firstly so that you will not just buy the cabinets but get doors and everything from then. Plus, when you decide you want a new kitchen and just want to change the doors you will have to go back to them every time unless you want to have them custom made!!

Sneaky but clever!

But, like I say, I'm across the pond so may be a bit different for you.

[MaryMT]

Thank you all! I think I will order a Liljestad door and experiment with painting it. I'll let you know how it turns out.....

[Liz H]

Mollie,

You can also have a custom cabinetmaker make doors for IKEA cabinets. The overall cost may still be less than the cost of comparable cabinets on the market. I may do this for my kitchen. I'm in the process of getting bids for just the doors, and also for fully custom cabinets. When all the bids are in, DH can decide if the cost difference is worth it to get out of assembling the cabinets.

Liz