I moved into a house with older IKEA kitchen cabinets (pre 2015, labeled as “Rationell” design). The thermofoil on 3 of them melted and curled when I ran the adjacent oven cleaning cycle. Because the drawers are that old, IKEA no longer makes replacement drawer fronts that match in size and I believe the color has yellowed a little. There are some independent cabinet makers that advertise replacement IKEA drawer fronts for older cabinets, but I could not seem to find any that were an exact size or edge style match, and the clearance between drawers and between the cabinet holding them was very tight. Also, I was worried the new thermafoil color would not match my existing cabinets. So I decided to see if I could use my existing drawer fronts instead.

First, I removed the fronts from the drawer frames by removing a grey cover on the side of the drawer and turning a Phillips screw underneath which releases the mechanism that holds the frame and drawer front together. Then I took a picture of the drawer latch hardware on the drawer front before removal so I knew exactly how to reattach it. I removed all the hardware, marking the drawers by number with an arrow pointing to the top so I could easily put them back in order and right size up when finished.

Next, I used a heat gun. By slowly moving the gun over the edges and then toward the middle, I was able to pretty easily remove the thermofoil by slipping a putty knive underneath as I heated it, and prying upward. Some broke off in large pieces but all of it separated easily from the wood bases.

I took another drawer that was immediately next to these three with me to Sherwin Williams and got a quart of Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel color-matched to the drawer front. Next, I used 220 grit sand paper to make sure there was no adhesive left on the wood drawer fronts (there was little to no adhesive remaining when the thermofoil came off) then wiped them with a dust free microcloth.

I painted two coats of Sherwin Williams Extreme Bond Primer on with a high end Purdy paint brush, waiting a day in between to make sure they were completely dry and lightly sanding off any imperfections in between with the 220 paper. Then, I used a Purdy White Dove 6 inch mini roller ¾” nap cover and rolled the edges (first) and tops of the drawer fronts. It looked bumpy when I first painted, but the paint is self leveling and leaves a virtually smooth finish when dry. I waiting until the second day and did a second coat. The next day after I felt they had cured sufficiently, I reattached the hardware and snapped the drawer fronts back in place. They matched up GREAT and I didn’t need to worry about re-drilling for hardware or lining up the drawers exactly with the drawer frames. They just fit right back into place. This project turned out much better than I had expected. Oh, I have also ordered a replacement oven door gasket since I suspect the old one was going bad and allowed the high heat to escape and ruin the draw fronts in the first place.

I wanted to share this DIY project with others because I had such a hard time finding the answer myself.