How to update wardrobe doors?

[newtoreno]

  

 

 

Hello, 

we have big old built in cupboard wardrobe doors. We don’t want to spend much money as we rent the house out, but they are an old yellow/beige colour and the lining  on the doors is coming off. Ideally I would take them out, but they seem to be built into the walls and it’s a bit too big of a job. Is there some form of covering I could put over the doors to make them look nicer? I thought about wallpaper but I don’t think I can cover the current covering as it’s bunching up in the corners. See photo. The metal around the outside does not look like it can be painted either. They are very tall and go to the roof so not able to just replace either. 

thanks! 

[JacobZ]

Hi @newtoreno,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, and thank you for your question.

It looks like you have vinyl-covered wardrobe doors, and the corner is peeling slightly.

There are options for sliding wardrobe doors that could be used to replace them, however, they would be more expensive than a repair.

It seems like painting or covering them with wallpaper are your best options, however, you would need to peel back and remove the vinyl to get a perfect finish.

Start by removing the doors from the track. This is likely done by lifting them so that the bottom of the door is clear of the track, then angling the bottom out from the wardrobe and dropping them down and out of the top track.

Once they are off the tracks, you can work on removing the vinyl. This can be done by cutting and peeling the vinyl away from the subsurface. A utility knife will be useful to cut the vinyl coating. You may be lucky that you can get a good purchase and peel the vinyl away easily, but if not, a heat gun will certainly help. Just be very careful and wear gloves, as they will get surprisingly hot.

When the vinyl has been removed, you can then either paint them with a primer followed by enamel paint or apply wallpaper to them.

Let me know what you think, and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob