Embedding Art In A Cabinet Door Panel
I love it when the days job is something more than a the same old thing. Today’s project was interesting and fun. We were to rebuild cabinet doors that hid a t.v. these were not ordinary cabinet door, these doors had cabinet door art embedded in them in lieu of wood panels.
The previous doors had started to fail for two reasons:
1. Each cabinet door only had two hinges. these hinges opened to 270 degrees and a lot of weight and stress was put on them.
2. The door were made of Medium Density fiberboard and the screws in this MDF materials did not hold as well as if it were wood.
I decided on a different approach. I was going to make new doors out of wood and use a piano hinge for strength and stability.
Once the home owner approved my approach I cut poplar plugs and glued strips to fill in the hinge holes and pad out the cabinet side for the piano hinge to be mounted. [photo below.]
Plugs sanded flush and filler strip installed.
Cabinet Door Art
I selected nickel finish piano hinges to match hardware in the room. The piano hinge was cut to size and mounted to the doors.
Piano hinges are known for their strength. The hinge consists of two leaves and is available in various shapes and sizes. Piano hinges typically open a full 270°
Piano hinges provide support along the entire edge of hinged panels for maximum strength, smooth swinging action, and long lasting performance. the piano hinge provides load bearing points from end to end, making them a perfect choice for kitchen cabinets, pantries, furniture, heavy lids and doors and more.
The doors were made out of 5/8″ poplar solid wood in the shop and primed prior to fitting. My carpenter friend George Gussler fitting a cabinet door and checking that the door reveals match.
Door installed. The hole through the door will accept an art canvas. A second “backing” panel will hole the art in place.
If you click to enlarge this photo you will see that where the wood panel is supposed to go the art canvas will go. A second relief was dadoed out of the door back to accommodate the 1/4″ backing panel.
Both doors installed and ready for the painter. A local painter, William Cooper , was brought in to make these doors look like the surrounding finish which was professionally spray painted in place.
Once fitted the doors were removed and brought to the painter to be re-primed and painted. they were re-installed and painted again in place. A fresh coat was added to the mantle and front woodwork for everything to color match.
I was concerned that the piano hinge would look unsightly. It turned out to be almost invisible from the front view and low profile on the side views.
Both Cabinet Door Art canvases ready for reinstall.
Installing the art backing that holds the canvas in the door.
One door complete, one to go.
The art went back according to plan and looked great.
The photo below shows the bead that holds the art from falling out.
Finished! Too bad there wasn’t a fire burning in the fireplace for this picture!
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