Cabinet Doors

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Cabinet Door styles:

Raised Panel Cope and Stick Doors:

(Many other raised panel cope and stick cabinet door styles are available, finished or unfinished. Use as new cabinet doors or replacement cabinet doors.).

Solid Panel Miter Cabinet Door Styles:

(Many other raised panel cope and stick cabinet door styles are available, finished or unfinished. Use as new cabinet doors or replacement cabinet doors.)

Plywood Panel Applied Moulding Door Styles:

(Many other plywood panel applied moulding cabinet door are available, finished or unfinished. Use as new cabinet doors or replacement cabinet doors.)

Mullion Cabinet Door Style Options:

(Many other mullion cabinet door styles are available finished or unfinished. Use as new cabinet doors or replacement cabinet doors.)

Learn the Vocabulary of Cabinet Doors

Cabinet Door Types:

1-piece (Slab) Doors

There are essentially two categories of wood doors that are used today on most cabinetry, though there are several variations on each and a couple of niche door styles that don't neatly fit into either category. The easier category to define is a 1-piece slab which is essentially a single piece of wood with no ornamentation other than perhaps a detail along the outside edges. In actuality, most slab doors are made of several pieces of wood glued and joined together to provide stability, though all the wood grain is going in the same direction. Solid wood slab doors will probably warp or twist over time unless they are supported, usually by horizontal batten strips that are glued and screwed across the back. Edgebanded plywood slab doors (made of ¾" thick plywood with a matching veneer edgeband glued on to cover the rough plywood edges) have become popular alternatives for contemporary cabinets.

5-piece (Rail, Stile, Panel) Doors

Most doors, however, are in the 5-piece category. The 5 pieces are the top, the bottom, the left side, the right side and the center panel. The horizontal pieces, the top and bottom, are called rails. The vertical pieces, left and right, are called stiles. (Why "stiles" and not "styles"? It's a tradition handed down by the premier tradition of Amish and Mennonite craftsmen that has been carried on by most fine craftsmen to this day.) The rails and stiles combined make up the frame.

Unfortunately, there is some confusion caused by these terms. Traditionally styled cabinets also have frames (or face-frames) made up of rails and stiles. Always make sure you're clear whether you're talking about the cabinet face or the door when using these terms.

Common Cabinet Door Construction Joints:

There are many different ways to theoretically join a rail and stile together to form a corner of a door (or face frame). Dowels and biscuits can sometimes be used when making cabinet frames because they have the cabinet box to provide extra support. However, these are not the best option for doors.

The most sturdy connection between stiles and rails for doors is called a cope-and-stick (or mortise-and-tenon) joint. With this connection, a slot (known as a cope or mortise) is routed into the area of the stile that meets the rail and a tab (stick or tenon) is routed out of the end of the rail. The tab is glued and inserted into the slot. Most cabinetmakers will also insert tiny pins from the back of the door into the joint to hold it more firmly in place.

The downside to this type of joint is that it doesn't allow for some of the more decorative, shaped frames that can be very attractive. On these frames, the rails and stiles are processed through a machine called a molder or shaper to create ridges, grooves and beads that can really look stunning. This has to be done before the door is constructed.

Because of this shaping, the rails and stiles won't fit together in the cope-and-stick configuration. The only option is a mitered joint: both the rail and stile are cut at a 45-degree angle so that the beads and grooves align perfectly. Now, a lesser-skilled craftsman would be left with the option of simply gluing or inserting a flat biscuit with the glue to hold the pieces together. With use, and with the natural expansion and contraction of wood, this solution won't hold up. Today's top cabinetmakers instead use special ridged splines (along with extra strong glue) to hold the pieces together. Even so, mitered joints are more likely to develop seams if they are left in an environment where humidity is allowed to change significantly. This can be a concern for painted doors, in particular, so keep this in mind when shopping. (If you have a climate-controlled home with good air conditioning, it will rarely result in an issue.)

Finding Value when Buying Cabinet Doors Online

What does it cost? Am I getting a good deal? Are the doors any good? What are the risks? What don’t I know?

These are the questions that a typical – and wise – consumer will ask before making the decision to purchase cabinet doors online. Frankly, these same questions apply even if buying them in a local store.

I’ll throw in a couple more questions that consumers should ask before purchasing any cabinetry product or other wood product: Where are they made? Who is making them? Where does the wood come from?

In this series of articles, we will address these issues and try to help you get the answers necessary to make a wise buying decision. In this article, we’ll talk primarily about cost.

When shopping for cabinet doors, prices range all over the place, from quite inexpensive to quite expensive. This is true whether buying online or in retail stores. The thing that is fairly unique about cabinet doors is that price is not a great indicator of quality. Some of the least expensive cabinet door products are the best made and some of the more expensive are pretty low quality. But also, there are inexpensive junky doors and expensive doors that are excellent. Price alone just does not tell you what you think it would.

So let’s think about the factors that go into the cost and price of a cabinet door:

- Cost of wood

- Cost of transporting raw wood

- Production labor costs

- Design style

- Available tooling

- Sales and marketing costs

- Freight

- Producer’s mark-up

- Sales commission (or mark-up)

I don’t proclaim to be an expert on raw material procurement, but there are a couple principles that I understand to be true: (1) There are a limited number of providers of wood; (2) Quality of wood sourced in North America (US and Canada) is generally a higher quality and consistency than imported woods; (3) Better pricing is available to companies that buy more. If you’re with me on that, then it stands to reason that companies with lower cost of wood either import lower-grade lumber or they have a larger operation. Since many of these cabinetry companies are privately owned, it’s hard to find solid data on how big they are or where they source their wood. But, you can look for clues in the number of species being offered and in lead-times for large orders. It also doesn’t hurt to ask.

Labor is more expensive in the US than it is overseas. Craftsmanship on these products is also still much better when made in the US or, in most cases, Canada. Pay the extra few bucks for American-made products. You can do this to be patriotic if you wish, but the real reason is that you’ll get a better product.

While simple shaker doors or basic raised panel doors are still very popular and may be exactly what you’re looking for, an offering of multiple mitered and applied molding doors indicates an investment in tooling and equipment that indicates the company has been around for a while and plans to be around when you decide to add on to your kitchen. Now, if you’re looking for a simple door, you don’t want to pay the cost of a complex door. Be wary of the “one price fits all” operations. Either they have a very limited selection or they don’t really know how to make the variety of doors that you may want. If you’re looking for a complex door, understand that there is labor and tooling involved to get it right. Don’t necessarily go for the low-cost solution or a sale price unless all the other factors indicate that the company is reputable.

(Which reminds me of another point: Avoid cabinet companies that run sales. Sales typically mean that they have a high markup which they’re willing to sacrifice temporarily or that they have an inventory backlog. In the woodworking trade, neither is a great sign.)

Freight charges can drive a consumer crazy. Online companies that ship across the country are going to all choose from among the same set of competitively-priced carriers. The ones who ship more will get somewhat better pricing. Some companies mark-up freight costs to increase profits, some build the freight costs into their pricing. (There’s no such thing as “free shipping”, even though my company and others advertise it. It’s either built in to the product cost or it’s not.) Understand what the shipping cost is before you do anything else. In some cases, the shipping cost can exceed the price of the products! If you can’t find the answer easily, go somewhere else. (Our site has a price comparison chart for leading online retailers that shows you how varied it can be.)

Everyone deserves to make a profit. You want a company to be profitable so that they’ll be in business the next time you want to buy. But the closer the seller is to the producer, the better since there’ll be fewer parties taking profits.

Deciding on What You Want When You Buy Cabinet Doors Online

In our last article we discussed the costs that go into producing and purchasing cabinet doors that you would buy online (or anywhere else). To recap, we found that the cost to you can range all over the place and that paying the most doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re getting the most. Sales mark-up, cost of shipping, economies of scale and other factors all play a significant role in cost without having any impact on the quality.

In this article we’ll layout some of the style decisions you have to weigh before you even consider which vendor to use.

The first place to start is to decide what it is you really want – or, at least, what you think you want. Before all is said and done, you may find that you can’t afford exactly what you really want, but by starting there you can work your way to similar options that may be less expensive. You may go into this process with a few different options, and that’s ok.

(Of course, if you’re trying to match existing doors, then ‘what you want’ is going to be identical to ‘what you need’. The biggest style decision in this case would be to choose whether to order them unfinished or try to match your existing finish.)

If you don’t yet know what you want, this is the time to browse around anywhere you can: look online and in stores and look at friends’ kitchens or magazine photos. Read up on the various wood species – some have more grain (like oak) or more of a red tone (like cherry) and some may have color limitations (such as maple not working well with dark stains). Consider whether you want arched cabinet doors (which will rule out mitered door styles) or if you want glass doors with or without mullions. (Mullions are dividers which turn the glass into multiple “lites”, like panes on a traditional window.) Think about whether you have very large doors or very small doors which could make a particular style unwieldy, or if you have lazy-susan or bi-fold doors that have specialty hinge considerations. And, while it may be hard to decide on a color without samples, give some thought as to whether you want a dark or light finish (which may depend on the size of the room) and whether you might want to add a glaze to highlight the beads and grooves of a decorative door.

There’s one very important factor that should play a role in your decision that some people don’t consider until too late: What is the climate in the particular room where the cabinet doors are going? Most people live in a reasonably well controlled environment these days with air conditioning and heating to keep the temperature and humidity within a reasonable range. However, if these cabinet doors are going in a beach house, for example, which will be closed for part of the year or placed in a room next to a wood-burning stove that dries the air excessively, then you have to factor that in. Cope-and-stick (also known as mortise-and-tenon) joints are better suited to changing conditions than mitered joints. MDF or plywood panels are less likely to expand and contract than wood panels (though well-made 5-piece doors are designed to handle a certain amount of expansion and contraction). Stained finishes, if done properly, are less likely to highlight expansion seams than painted finishes.

Ultimately, take your time, do some research and think this through. You are likely to be living with these cabinet doors for a long time and they will be a not insignificant investment. The more you know upfront, the better you’ll be able to choose the right doors – and the right provider.

Measuring for Half-Inch Overlay Replacement Cabinet Doors

In our prior article we discussed the difference between frameless and face-framed cabinets, and then briefly touched on overlay options for face-framed cabinets. As mentioned there, the two most common overlay options are ½" overlay and 1-1/4" overlay. Here we'll discuss ½" overlay which is probably the most popular and certainly the easiest.

There are a few advantages to using ½" overlay over most of the other choices:

- Doors are smaller and therefore a bit less expensive.

- In corners or other tight areas, you can sometimes get away with less of a filler or no filler. (Note: With larger overlays, you can accomplish the same thing by shrinking the overlay on just the one side of a given door, but that takes more forethought and sometimes requires purchasing a couple different hinge sizes.)

- In small spaces like bathrooms, these smaller doors require less clearance to open.

- It's easier to calculate the sizes.

Let's say you have an upper cabinet that has a single door. For sake of the example, let's say the cabinet size is 18"w x 36"h. (This cabinet is commonly called a W1836.) For determining the door size, however, the cabinet size is not the important measurement: Theopening size is the key. I think the definition is obvious, but the opening is the part of the frame through which you can reach into the cabinet. (Some cabinets have multiple openings, but we'll talk about that later. We'll assume this cabinet has only one.) In mostcases, the opening size on this cabinet will be 3" less than the width of the cabinet and 3" less than the height of the cabinet. This is because the left, right, top and bottom framing pieces (calledrails for the horizontal pieces and stiles for the vertical pieces) on most standard cabinets are each 1-1/2" wide. However, don't assume anything! Measure the opening!

After you measure the opening, let's say you find it to be the standard size: 15"w x 33" h. To size the door for that cabinet with a ½" overlay, you'll need to make the door ½" bigger than the opening on each of the four sides: left, right, top and bottom. Combining these measurements, you'll see that the door needs to be 1" bigger than the opening width and 1" bigger than the opening height, or 16"w x 34"h. Pretty easy!

Moving on to a standard door/drawer base cabinet where you have a drawer opening directly above a door opening with a rail (horizontal framing piece) in between, the measurements are the same, assuming the rail is the typical 1-1/2" wide (or at least 1-1/4" wide). Since there's room to fit the ½" overlay from the door and the ½" overlay on the drawer front on that rail and still have room to spare, this will work fine.

The one tricky scenario comes when you have a pair of doors covering a single opening. For example, you may have a 30"w x 36"h wall cabinet with only one opening (commonly, W3036BD or W3036BUTT). The two doors are known as "butt doors" because they (sort of) butt together in the middle. In reality, we would typically leave a 1/8" gap between the doors to keep them from rubbing. So, when you measure the opening and find it to be 27"w x 33"h, you start with the same calculation which makes the combined door size 28"w x 34"h. Since each door will be half the width, divide the width by two making them 14"w x 34"h. Then, to allow for the 1/8" gap, subtract 1/16" from each door. This gives you a final door size of 13-15/16"w x 34"h. (If your door maker doesn't accurately size doors to the nearest 1/16", then find another door maker!)

Regardless of your overlay choice, always be aware of obstacles - walls, corners, appliances, molding, etc. - that could prevent a door or drawer from opening properly. If you encounter any such obstacles, you may have to resize the door or drawer front accordingly.

Cabinet Doors - Measuring for 1-1/4 Inch Overlay Replacement Doors

The two most common overlay options for cabinet doors on face-framed cabinets are ½" overlay and 1-1/4" overlay. Here we'll discuss 1-1/4" overlay which is a bit more complicated than the ½" overlay option.

Even with the complexities, the 1-1/4" overlay option has grown in popularity in recent years. There are a few reasons for this:

- It feeds off of the contemporary styling of frameless cabinets while maintaining the traditional face-framed look.

- The larger door and drawer front sizes allow room for a raised panel on all but the smallest of drawers.

- The larger sizes bring more focus to the doors. This is especially important with the increased popularity of mitered and applied molding doors, allowing this level of custom detailing to stand out more.

We'll start the sizing discussion with a simple 18"w x 36"h wall cabinet. Again, this is pretty simple. Measure the opening (always!!). You'll probably find it sized at 15"w x 33"h. The 1-1/4" overlay requires you to add that amount to the four sides (left and right stiles, top and bottom rails), adding 2-1/2" to the width and adding 2-1/2" to the height. The size of the door becomes 17-1/2"w x 35-1/2"h.

If we use a wider wall cabinet, say 30"w x 36"h with a single opening covered by a pair of doors, then the routine starts the same way. Calculate the total door size (29-1/2"w x 35-1/2"w), divide the width by two (now 14-3/4"w) and subtract 1/16" from the width of each so that the doors don't rub. The size is 14-11/16"w x 35-1/2"h.

The trickier part comes when the cabinet has multiple openings with a shared rail (horizontal) or stile (vertical) between them. Common examples would be a door/drawer base cabinet, a two-opening-two-door wall cabinet, or a 3-drawer base, but there are many other permutations. In these situations, you cannot have a 1-1/4" overlay on the shared rail orstile because the doors or drawers would overlap each other! Instead, the typical solution is this: Use a 1-1/4" overlay on any side of the door or drawer that does not meet up with another door or drawer on that same rail or stile, but use a ½" overlay on the sides with a shared rail or stile. So, on a typical door/drawer cabinet, the top of the door would get a ½" overlay, the bottom of the drawer front would get a ½" overlay, and all the other sides would get a 1-1/4" overlay. So the calculation for the width in this example is (opening-width + 2-1/2") and the height is (opening-height + 1-3/4").

Really, it's not all that complex, but it is usually a good idea to draw out each multiple-opening cabinet on graph paper and write down each overlay along with the opening sizes. After it's drawn, calculate the sizes. (On our website, we have a tool that does this for you.)

The principles are the same for other large overlay options, but the actual measurements depend on the size of the overlay and the size of the cabinet frame. In general, you'll use the full overlay size wherever you can fit it. When two doors or drawer fronts share the railor stile, decide how much of a gap you want to see between the adjacent doors and drawers. Subtract the gap from the frame size, then divide the rest by two to get the overlay for that side. (When trying to go for the biggest overlay possible, make sure you understand the hinge requirements! Most face-frame hinges need 1/4" of clearance.)

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