We have a maple bathroom cabinet that is about 12 years old and is starting to look like it!
The doors are 12-1/4" ×18-3/4" with a 2" frame around the 3/8" inset panel.
She wants the inset panel GONE!
I do not want to disassemble the door as the glue joints are still good and strong.
The simplest approach, but probably the ugliest, is to insert a 3/8" maple veneer panel over the original … ugly!
Another alternative is to build a completely new door but I cannot imagine a non-panel door. Any suggestions?
The last WANT is to refinish the drawers and whatever the doors turn out to be. The cabinet has a very poor lacquer finish and she wants it done with poly. If I poly the drawers and door will that look too different from the frame?
I have questions before I can give relevant answers. Why does she want the panel gone, is it because the finish has deteriorated or because she does not like the panel style of door?
If it's a finish issue, why not just hit it with some paint stripper and refinish it.
Gluing a veneer panel over the existing one will probably not have a professional look to it.
Building a non panel door could be done by edge gluing some maple boards together of the right thickness, a little larger in every dimension than what you need the finished product to be, and then sawing the finished assembly to the correct size.
The poly finish and the lacquer finish shouldn't look too awfully different from each other as long as you get the right gloss, IE Satin, Semi Gloss, or Gloss, but in any event, lacquer is not a good finish for the warm humid environment you find in a bathroom. Case in point, my wife's parents had a dining room set finished with lacquer, and every time I sat in one of the chairs - if I got a little too warm, my shirt stuck to it!
Your wife wants…............. a European door, maybe you could say a German door (In my opinium there is where it started) . If you google (pictures) "kuechen" or "keuken" you will see that most kitchen doors don't have frame doors. With bathroom doors it's the same. And there is something else. You also don't see (85%) solid wood. There still are flat solid wood doors, but you will understand the difficulty, especially in the bathroom. The wood will work and flat will be not flat anymore. So another question to your wife is does see want solid wood doors?
Hello there fellow LJ.
Since you asked for suggestions,,,
plan A set a mirror instead of wood
plan B stainglass panel, but you must find somebody and have a design at least a picture a colour scheme to please everybody.
Plan C raised panel, find some wood with character spalted, tiger, birds eye
Wood working brings us all together, I' m positive the answer is not far.
She dislikes the recessed panel because of the resulting lower horizontal parts of the frame as everything collects on it. She just dislikes horizontal dust collecting surfaces as this project shows, there are virtually none.
I prefer semi-gloss but in this instance gloss might be better!
After all of these comments right now, I am considering a "slab" door, European style.
I am still arguing with myself as to full European, square edges, or modified radiused edges.
The square edged one could be veneer plywood while radiused one would have to be solid wood.
This will have to be one of my summer project, a little unexpected but that's the way it goes!
Instead of using veneer you can also glue wooden strips to the plywood. The strip thickness depents of the radius. Nowedays almost all european furniture is with sharp edges, but a couple of years ago it was mostly with a radius. Beaware that sharp edges need a higher accuracy.
"After all of these comments right now, I am considering a "slab" door, European style.
I am still arguing with myself as to full European, square edges, or modified radiused edges.
The square edged one could be veneer plywood while radiused one would have to be solid wood."
Go with the Slab door, radiused edges and be done with it.
That is what I am condidering at this time Rick.
However, my sources of good lumber are now gone; Southern Lumber, closed after 104 years, Macbeath Hardwoods, moved away and I do not want to go to BORG!
It may have to be a truck trip to Rockler, or online from Woodcraft!
That is what I am condidering at this time Rick.
However, my sources of good lumber are now gone; Southern Lumber, closed after 104 years, Macbeath Hardwoods, moved away and I do not want to go to BORG!
It may have to be a truck trip to Rockler, or online from Woodcraft!
She dislikes the recessed panel because of the resulting lower horizontal parts of the frame as everything collects on it. She just *dislikes horizontal dust collecting surfaces *as this project shows, there are virtually none.
Somewhere I don't get what the problem is. No matter what kind of door you build, you will still have a horizontal surface on the top of the door where dust will collect. Unless you are the one that wants to do the remodel, tell her to live with it. Jerry (in Tucson)
Jerry, the top of the door is recessed under a panel, fake drawer, where the sink takes up that space!
I had a brainstorm last night and I think I have the simple and elegant solution, without going 100% "Ikea" like, but I need a few hours to grind grind this out .... like I stated, it was late last night.
We're just in the process of Finishing a "Previously Uninhabitable Dungeon" (As Her Husband Put It.) In A VERY Upscale Area Of Toronto.
We built the Vanity and went with "Radiused Edges" She MUCH Proffered that to the "Privacy Curtain"
That Sink must have weighed 500 Lbs! When TRYING to take it OUT we broke a Tap Lead. That's when we found out that the FLOOR DRAINS were Totally Useless . OUT They Came Also!
If it were me. For a slab doors and drawer fronts with a little round over I'd get some MDF or Particle, ( I like PB over the MDF for this) some PSA veneer and a little solid maple.
Cut your doors and drawer front 1/2 undersized. Add 1/4 solid maple all the way around to bring them to finish size. Veneer over the whole door and then trim off the excess veneer and round over the front to what you want.up to a tad less that the thickness of the solid maple trim. On the back side I'd just break the edge so it not sharp and won't break off easily. Pay special attention to the hinge edge. Do round this over too much. The type of hinge you use will dictate this.
There are plenty of videos on you-tube how to use PSA veneer. I have use PSA veneer on a few project going back 25 years or more. I believe it would work well for this project. It's a whole lot easier to ship than sheet stock too.
I have been looking at different veneer sources as the concept I am now investigating is a faux panel door with veneer rails/stiles and a venner panel. Cutting the veneer so that the edging applied is part of the face veneer will increase the illusion of a typical rail/stile door.
It should look like a recessed panel door but be totally flat.
I am even considering darkening the inside edges of the rails/stiles with heat to add visual depth.
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