Rustic Cabinet Doors
Designing the Doors
When we met, he brought a sample of his current, French provincial style, cabinet doors he was wanted to replace. His plan was to keep the cabinet boxes and face frames and apply new, rustic looking doors. The doors would copy the old overlay design and be painted an olive green color.
I explained to him that I preferred to build my doors in a “Style and Rail” or “Frame and Panel” method with a floating door panel. This method allows the door panel to fit into groves along the door-frame.
Frame and panel construction, a method developed hundreds of years ago, deals well with the expansion and contraction that seasonal humidity has on solid wood cabinetry.
“Clearly there MUST be a cheaper, faster way?”
After some back and forth discussion, on door construction as well as the time / cost involved to make the doors traditionally, he asked me if I would glue strips a door blank. This way the door would appear to have a solid panel and faux frame and panel look.
After some thought I told him could do that a lot faster and with less machine set up than a frame and panel door. My only reservation with this idea is the doors will be susceptible to cupping and movement. He told me he didn’t care and we agreed to start and keep this project to 16 hours labor.
My client wanted to use pine and wanted me to incorporate the saw kerfs in the doors design. Rough sawn pine is used for many homeowner projects such as siding on sheds, fencing, birdhouses, and bat houses and we thought it was the perfect choice for this project.
