Unique Woodworking...
Doors
Choosing doors for your cabinets may be the most important decision you make, since it is generally the cabinets most prominent feature. It is really the 'face' of the cabinet. So, it stands to reason that it should be the best looking part of the cabinets (along with the drawer fronts, which should compliment each other). But before we get into door options, we will go over the doors construction.
Door Construction
Doors are usually made up of 5 main pieces. Upper and lower rails, left and right styles, and the panel. The top and bottom rails have the end shaped to fit into the left and right styles like a jigsaw puzzle piece where a high strength glue will hold it permanently.
The lighter colored wood is the top rail fit into the side rail
The door panel will 'float' inside the styles and rails, meaning it will not be glued in. The reason for this is that the door panel will expand and contract under different condition, such as temperature and humidity. If it were glued or nailed in, it would almost definitely split or crack, or possibly bread the styles and the door would fall apart.
This door has been cut in half to show how the panel can move freely
You may have noticed sometimes cabinet doors will have a rattle or a loose sound when they are shut. That is the sound of the door panel moving around in the styles and rails. Here at Unique Woodworking, we use small specially designed rubber balls called 'Space Balls' that fit into the styles and rails to keep the door panel tight, and they are designed to allow expansion and contraction of the panel without letting it rattle. This gives the door a nice solid sound and feel.
This shows the rail and styles with the rubber "space balls"
Door Options
There are several options that will make up the final door. First is the species of woods that will make up your doors and cabinets as well and the stains and finishes. Then you need to choose the over all look of the door, the type of door panel you want, the profile of the panel, and the edge you would like.
The woods you choose for your doors can be the same as your cabinets, or can be contrasting woods, or anything you in between. There are many combinations to be considered. Then there are many stains that can accent the wood or completely change the color of the wood. Also, we use a hand rubbed finish that comes in glossy or satin.
After you choose the colors and species of the doors and cabinets, you will need to choose the over all look of the door. The two most popular doors are square and cathedral. The cathedral can be a single cathedral at the top or a double cathedral at the top and the bottom. Variations of cathedral doors are the arched, half cathedral, double arch, half arch, double half arch and double half cathedral.
Left shows cathedral doors with raised panels and the right is a square raised panel cherry door
Next you will need to choose the type of door panel you would like and the profile. There are two basic types of door panels, one is flat panel and the other is raised panel. We use solid wood to make our door panels, and we use as large of pieces of wood as we can and hand match each piece to create door panels that are more of a functional work of art than a utility. Most other cabinet shops cut the wood for their raised panel doors into two inch strips and glue them together, then use heavy finishes to hide it. Most cabinet shops use plywood or veneered particle board for their flat panels. We actually prefer to use a raised panel turned over, so the raised part is inside the cabinet. This makes for a nice, solid, heavy door that you can see, hear and feel the quality.
The left is a flat panel walnut with a glossy finish, the right is a raised panel walnut with a satin finish
The left is our flat panel and the right is a poorly made pressed wood flat panel door
There are a few options for the profiles of a raised panel. The most common ones are cove, beveled and ogee.
Left is a cove profile with a back cut and the right is a beveled profile
Left is an ogee profile and the right is a fancy ogee with a small cove at the top
Finally, the door edge. Most common is a round over with a shadow line. You can leave it square or add more details.
Here you can see a round over with a shadow line edge