# Cabinet facings



## Wolfmont (Jan 29, 2012)

I don't know if this is the correct forum area, but if not, Admin, please move to the right one and let me know.

I am putting facings on an unusual cabinet that already is framed in. The facings are to be of oak (not that it matters, really) and the opening is wider than it is high.

My question: Is there a reason, other than convention, for the side facings to be continuous from top to bottom and the cross facings to butt into these facings? To me, this looks funny given the dimensions of the cabinet, but I know that every cabinet I have seen, and every rail-and-stile door I have seen, has the sides going fully from top to bottom, and the cross pieces butting against them. But all of these I have seen have had horizontal members that are shorter than the vertical members. I haven't found one yet where the horizontal members are, uninterrupted, longer across than the vertical members.

Anyone have any input on this?


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## kKirk (Jan 14, 2015)

A picture might help, but in general you want to hide the end grain of the face frame. On a typical cabinet with an exposed finished end, the vertical piece will hide the endgrain of the horizontal piece. Then the cabinet top or countertop hides the endgrain of the vertical piece. On a door you have a similar situation where the endgrain of the vertical piece (stile) will not be as noticeable if the horizontal piece (rail) butts into it.


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## Wolfmont (Jan 29, 2012)

Yep, I am aware that you want to hide the end grain. That's not an issue.

It's a funny sort of situation, really. There will be no exposed endgrain at all. The ends of the horizontal pieces run up UNDER a larger piece of molding that wraps around the corner of the cabinet.

And there is no countertop or cabinet top. The cabinet runs from floor to ceiling.

As a practical matter, either way works (horizontal longer or vertical longer) but when I look at it, it looks funny to me for the shorter vertical pieces to have the longer horizontal pieces butting into them.


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## Pezking7p (Nov 17, 2013)

Do you have a picture?

It sounds like an issue of proportion. It's important the break the space up in to more proportioned spaces.

Take a look at this bank of cabinets. Notice how the end cabinets are divided into two doors to keep the door frames proportioned to the panels and the opening size. Notice that the cabinet above the microwave is wider than it is tall, but the double doors, tall handles, and beaded panels all add to the vertical dimension of the doors and the cabinet appears very normally proportioned.

Again, I have no idea if this is applicable to your situation and I mostly want to sound like a designer and show off my cabinets. But it sounds like it might help you.


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## kKirk (Jan 14, 2015)

Sounds like you've got a good head scratcher. Like Dan mentions break up the space into parts or you can embrace it being horizontal and emphasize that. Sounds like you can do either with the face frame, so do what you feel is right and 'let the dogs bark´


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

One way to make the full length stiles look okay is to divide the space vertically, by running one or more stiles from the rails dividing up the face. The center stiles would butt up against the rails, but the rails would butt up against the side stiles. Wow, that's easier to picture than it is to describe. Hope that makes sense.


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## Wolfmont (Jan 29, 2012)

The situation is this: First of all, understand that my wife NEVER EVER wants anything to be standard. So, our house (which we are building mostly with our own four hands) has a lot of unusual stuff. Case in point-we have a large cooking hob (not a conventional stove) that is made of concrete poured in place, sitting on a frame of wood 2×4s and 18-ga steel studs. It is surrounded by an outer covering of stone from our property, installed by my wife, and in a large open arch over the top. There are four dual-outlet receptacles around the perimeter, where we will plug in, as needed: induction cookers, an electric griddle, a conventional cooker, crock pots, etc.

Now back to the cabinet. It is actually a wide columnar contrivance that goes from floor to ceiling. In the top is a storage cabinet with an arched, medieval-looking door. Oh, and it is faced on one whole side, and around that top cabinet, with more of the rock.

There are corner moldings that go top to bottom, wrapping around the corners and 5" on a side. These terminate top and bottom in larger, thicker blocks that also wrap around the corners.

Beneath the top cabinet there is an open space that extends across the column, to house a microwave. Next down, there is another open space that will house a large convection oven. Finally, at the bottom is a standard wall-mount oven.

So, you see, there can't be any separators going up in the middle of the spaces to make things look balanced. I have it all framed in, corner moldings in place, and am just putting in the face framing. I'm telling her that it would be better to have the cross members go side to side, and butt the uprights into them in between, on each level. She disagrees. Now, I probably will give in just to save my sanity, but to me, it just doesn't LOOK right to have it that way.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

Okay, as a married guy, I understand where you're coming from. All I can say is, "GIVE IN." You'll be glad you did. My wife and I have done pretty well on our house projects, and have been able to work collaboratively, each of us giving a little. But it's also important to know when to not stake your whole well being, as an individual and as a couple, on an aesthetic issue like yours. Even if you should win, your triumph might be a pyhrric victory.


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