My wife says we live in “Ozzie & Harriet’s” house, its typical 1950’s look. The original cabinets are well built boxes of birch plywood with slab doors. The doors are so plain they have no hardware, they are simply beveled on the edges to act as a pull.
My last big job introduced me to a kind of plastic sheet – Lumacite – about 800$ for a 1/4x4x8 sheet – and I was sure to get the left-overs and mis-cuts to take home.
First I made the countertop and island using a Corian bowl mounted under and eliminating the electrical cover-plates by routing directly in the over sized back-splash for a very clean look (modern receptacles) Then the doors looked really bad.
One night I just penciled in on the old doors what looked like appropriate areas to cutout, took the doors down and cleaned up the layout. Then I just cleanly cutout the new openings, routed a 1/4″ inlay in the back and installed the Lumacite with clear silicone adhesive after finishing the carpenter work. Sadly I have used up all the “left-over” Lumacite.