Categories: DIY Projects-Published On: April 19, 2023-

How to Install Metal Cabinet Door Insert

How to Install Metal Cabinet Door Insert

About a year and a half ago, I tore out our useless drop zone and built one to fit our needs. I painted it all a lovely dark shade of green to hide all the dirt from our shoes, and it’s been so nice to have this space for our things. However, the plan was always to add doors to the top section of the built-in, but other things just came up. Well, now it’s finally done and I’m kicking myself for not finishing it sooner.

Adding doors is a very straight forward process, but since I had never cut decorative metal and installed it, I was a little hesitant at first. I’m here to tell you that it’s so easy and I love the way it turned out. The top portion of the built-in is quite high. I can only reach the baskets on the bottom shelf, but the items in the baskets are seasonal so it’s easy to shift them around as needed. Instead of using solid wood doors or glass door inserts, I wanted a decorative metal insert so that our gloves and things could breath, but they’d also be protected from dust.

Jeremy prefers the look of just the bins, but he doesn’t dust or keep the bins organized, so his vote doesn’t count. Just kidding, his vote matters, but I stuck with my original design for the purpose of minimizing the dust. The decorative metal comes in different colors or it can be spray painted. I like the natural bronze just fine and it worked so well with the knobs I selected. The owl knobs weren’t my first choice, but the ring is nice to grab onto and our daughter’s love of owls and birds won me over. There are so many different knobs and pulls to choose from, but making our girl happy is more important.

Like I said, the process is simple, but doing the steps in a certain order definitely helps. Here’s my YouTube video to show the process. I hope the metal inserts inspire you and encourage you to add both style and functionality to your spaces as well. I would love to have some pantry drawers for produce with metal front inserts – it would be so pretty and allow the potatoes and onions to breathe. So many possibilities!

Video tutorial

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Designing and building this new drop zone was one of the best decisions to add functionality to our home. There are a few things I would do differently now, but we all love and use this space daily. Adding doors to protect the top storage stuff was the final step in completing this project and it feels so good to have it done (seeing it daily wasn’t a fun reminder of the incompleteness). So, I hope if anything, this encourages you to finish that thing, or complete a task that’s been on your list – it’s so worth it!

this photo shows the drop zone before it was redesigned.
shot of completed cabinet doors
close up of owl cabinet knobs

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POSTED IN:  DIY Projects

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