LESLIE: Mary in New Jersey’s got a kitchen situation. What’s going on over there?
MARY: Hi, I have a thermafoil – white thermafoil kitchen cabinets. I moved into the house a year ago and I spoke with the original owners just before they sold their house to the previous owners that I bought. They said that the cabinets changed colors. I have some doors that are white and I have some doors that are sort of yellowed. And I didn’t know if there was some way of – if you know of some way of either getting them all yellowed or all white; kind of, you know, get them – because I have drawers. I have four drawers in a row. The middle drawer is yellow. I have three drawers that are white.
TOM: You know, we’ve heard this many times before and I don’t think we’ve ever been able to identify a specific solution short of refinishing. It seems to be a condition that’s endemic to a thermafoil type of finish.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) With the thermafoil process, yeah.
TOM: Mm-hmm. Yep.
MARY: OK, so there’s probably nothing that I can do about it? Just …
TOM: I don’t think so because I think that the physical condition of the – the physical material has changed colors. There’s nothing that you can add to it that’s going to bring it back. It’s a function of its exposure to daylight and ultraviolet radiation that leaks in from the sun and it does physically change the color of the foil.
MARY: OK. Because I – it also happened in the bathroom.
TOM: Yep.
MARY: The cabinet that’s in the bathroom, which has no daylight at all and one door is yellowed and one door is white.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. And I think a lot of it also has to do with moisture and in a kitchen situation you’re dealing with a lot of grease and moisture. It just tends to happen over time. It’s just a reaction.
MARY: OK, so I just end up having to replace my kitchen at some point.
TOM: Well, you could possibly replace just the fronts. I mean you could reface the cabinets and you could replace the doors and the drawers. So it doesn’t have to be a total replacement. But of course that’s always an option.
MARY: Right. OK.
Hi I listen to the Money Pit radio show you have on Sat and Sunday nights, when I’m heading in for my night shift, I have kitchen cabinets made by IKea, and I absolutely HATE them, some doors and draws’ are peeling, and some are cracking, looks like they’re made from cardboard, with a plastic coating. I really don’t want to spend a fortune on a new kitchen. Can these doors, and draws be refinished, and if so, what’s the best way to do this. I know I can’t sand them, I’ve used the magic sponge to clean them, and I wore out the plastic, or whatever coating is on what looks like cardboard. Please help!!
Painting a laminate cabinet is a possibility. Speciality paints like this one at The Home Depot have good reviews. That said, you’ll need to repair ay loose laminate first. For that I’d recommend contact cement. Be sure to apply it to both the cabinet and the laminate, let dry, and then press it together.