This TikToker Found a Genius, Mostly Free Way to Completely Change the Look of Their Kitchen Cabinets

What happens when you want to update your kitchen but you’re working with a limited budget and outdated wood cabinets? You could give them a fresh coat of paint and see if that scratches your itch. Or, as one TikToker shows, you can flip them — literally.

“These are our old cabinet doors and we plan to salvage these,” TikTok user Steven of @MachinskiMakeovers says in a February video. “We’re going to be flipping the whole design to save a bunch of money instead of buying new doors. So we’re going to be utilizing [the back] side.”

The backside of these traditional solid wood cabinets actually looks just like shaker-style cabinet doors with the more modern frame and lack of beveling. Steven filled in the holes where the hinges went on the back and drilled new holes on the former front to make the switch.

“Yes I have thought of this as well,” one commenter wrote, adding, “especially [if] it’s great wood — hard work but the money saved.” Another wrote, “I wish I would have thought of that when I redid ours last month.”

Though you could easily sand down and refinish the natural wood of these cabinets, Steven and his wife Kelsey decided to paint the doors instead and add pole wrap detailing.

Steven did have to get a bit craft when it came to reinstalling the doors because the beveled edge on the interior caused a slight gap between the doors and the cabinet frame. “This process involved routing out a mortise (or groove) for the hinge to sit in,” Steven wrote in the caption of a recent Instagram post. “This was the perfect solution!”

Check your cabinets to see if the reverse side could become your brand new doors. It takes a bit of work and fiddling to make them just right, but the money you save will absolutely be worth it!