I would like to change the design of the doors and drawer fronts on our kitchen island but I’m not sure what type will work best. The island is a plywood box that has cutouts (holes cut out of the plywood) for the drawers and doors. The doors and drawers are both made of a mitered molding that is nailed and glued around a rabbeted piece of 3/4″ plywood, so the mitered molding/frame overlays the cutouts and the plywood fits inside the cutout when the door is closed.
If I make some frame and panel doors and drawer fronts to replace them, should I oversize them to partially overlay the cutouts and use Blum face frame hinges? I’m concerned they will stick out too far since none of the door will seat inside the cutout/island, and if I make inset doors it will be difficult to exactly size the doors and drawers because the cutouts are not square. BTW, we are planning to paint the island so I will likely use poplar rails and stiles and plywood for the insert panel.
Thanks for the feedback,
Brian
Replies
An option that I used was to make the doors half-overlay. The back side of the door edges gets a rabbet, so that about half of the thickness of the door is recessed into the cutout, and the resulting lip of the door edge rests against the outside face of the cabinet. This method gives some wiggle room. If you don't mind partially-exposed hinges, you can get self-closing ones made for this purpose for just a few bucks per pair at most hardware stores. Treat your drawer faces the same way.
Can you post a couple of pics - it would help to visualize your project.
Full overlay doors and drawer fronts shouldn't be a problem if the countertops have enough overhang. If there's enough overhang for the doors/drawer fronts, but not the pulls and knobs, it's pretty easy to do a finger pull profile on them.
Since you're working with out-of-square openings, I would definitely go with overlay doors/drawer fronts and euro hinges. You can make the doors and drawer fronts square, then use the hinge adjustments to "hide" the out-of-square door openings.
Make your drawer boxes so they're flush with the opening, then attach the fronts so they're nice and straight. They may not be perfectly aligned with the drawer boxes, but being a little "off" shouldn't be too noticeable.
If you just gotta go with inset doors and drawers, make them slightly oversized and square, then be ready for quite a bit of hand work to fit them just right.
Edited 3/9/2009 10:09 am by Dave45
Edited 3/9/2009 10:10 am by Dave45
I'm attaching a couple of pics to show the drawers and doors and the plywood arrangement described earlier. After reading your reply I believe the overlay doors and drawer fronts are the way to go. As you can see these drawers and doors are falling apart. The plywood framework for the island is in good shape for painting so new doors and drawers will definitely improve things.
BTW, the countertop is going to be replaced as well so the degree of overhang can be adjusted.
Oh yeah, that's ready for a "facelift". Sorta like Joan Rivers, right? - lolAre you making new drawer boxes, or just new drawer fronts? Are the drawer glides still in good shape?Depending on your level of ambition and skill, new drawer boxes and glides might not be a bad idea.
Yes - I'm going to make new drawer boxes and install new glides; will be a fun project
Is there any issue with using a plywood raised panel, since we are planning on painting them? I haven't made raised panels out of plywood but the glueups of solid boards for them if I also do the other kitchen cabinets would take a while.
If you don't care how they look, you can do raised panels in plywood. The core plys usually come out pretty ugly though. Do an edge profile (roundover, cove, etc.) on some scrap plywood and get back to me, ok. - lolSince you're painting them anyway, try MDF for the panels. No gluing up boards - just cut it to size and run your profile. You'll probably need to do a bit of sanding on the profiles, but that's pretty simple.These vanity doors and drawer fronts have MDF panels with poplar rails and stiles. I primed the profiles before assembly, then primed and painted. Properly primed and painted MDF should last for years.
Great suggestion - have worked with MDF before so will take a look at that
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