Wood movement & doors question

[Greg Magone]

I am looking at making a Jewelry Armoire as seen in Woodsmith #106 (I believe).

The plans call out using edged plywood for the doors on the armoire. Plywood is not my favorite to use and I feel the cabinet would look a little dated or out of style if I used it. My preference is solid wood. However, I'm concerned that edged solid wood doors will have problems with movement.

Rail and style construction is typically used to allow for wood movement. The doors are narrow (about 7" and 9" wide) and that seems to be too narrow for rail and style construction with the standard rail/style and raised panel bits that I have.

Any suggestions? I can make them out of plywood as the plans call, use rail and style with a flat panel (not raised panel), or make them out of solid wood, either ignoring wood movement or using a special technique.

Thanks!

(I attached a picture of a finished version of what I will be making below.)

[Russ Boyd]

My opinion would be the plywood will be fine. By your description, they will be so small that it would not be noticeable to anyone but you. Be sure to do the staining so as to not have the ply lighter than the wood. I would think that an armoire would look fine with the flat panel doors.

[Peter Quinn]

If you go with raised panels in a rail and stile set up you could do a flat panel, plywood or solid wood, or you could use a large cove bit to act as a raised panel, running the cove to the back (shaker style) for flat panel and the cove to the front if you prefer to see it. I don't think my smallest raised panel profile would render its full effect on a panel that small but I know the cove bit will.

[Josiah Bartlett]

With a panel that narrow you don't need to bother making it full thickness- a 1/4" thick piece will not only save you money but it will be plenty strong and you won't need to bother raising the panel. Alternately you could use a single solid piece of wood and just allow enough gap at the hinges to take up the expansion. If you acclimate the wood to your intended climate before you build it and use a dimensionally stable wood specie, you shouldn't have much of an issue.