Making Panel Cupboard Doors

With all of the upper cabinets for my kitchen made and installed i moved on to making the cabinet doors.

Making panel cupboard doors.

To build a square door the stiles and rails must all be exactly the same length with perfectly square ends. These are simple shaker style cabinet doors and are not very expensive to make but i warn you they are a little time consuming. Frame and panel doors add class to any project but they don t have to add a lot of assembly time. Cut parts to length.

You should consider the need for speed of construction durability ease of cleanup and maintenance step 2 pick the correct material to fit your doors. Mark the back of each board so your dado lines up when you assemble your doors. There are two basic types of cabinet doors slab and flat panel most often chosen. And while i was at it i needed to make two doors for a cabinet i have been working on for a friend.

Frames use 3 4 thick stock with 1 4 panels in various materials and veneers a general purpose saw blade will do the job although. Hold each door in place on the cabinet level it with a torpedo level and attach the hinges to the cabinet. I recently showed you all the beginning of my laundry room remodel. How to make shaker cabinet doors project directions.

1 2 of the panel will slide into the dado on all sides. How to build cabinet doors if you cut your dado 1 2 deep it s easy to figure out the math for your doors just add 1 to the width and length of the panel. Step 1 choose which door to make. To finish the cabinets doors i simply applied a coat of general latex primer then lightly sanded with 220 grit sandpaper once it was dry.

Total cut depth will be 1 2. Most slab doors are made of plywood. I used three coats of paint to get good coverage and sanded between each coat. If you are using spring loaded cabinet hinges you will need to drill insets for them with a 1 inch or larger spade bit.

The style i picked is a simple frame and panel with the frame made from solid maple. But i still had to make shaker cabinet doors for the big cabinet that i built. Use mdf medium density fiberboard on a painted or a covered surface for a wood grain look 1 x research sourcestep 3 use solid wood for a door when you make a panel door. Here are all of the rough cut parts for the eleven doors i ll need.

Using the straightforward process detailed here you can crank out great looking doors for many applications including furniture cabinets and built ins. The process at least. Check out the build article for more details. Position the hinges on the edges of the door panels and drive the screws to hold them in place.