Rail and Stile Aesthetics

[tim walker]

Building a glass cabinet door for a piece. It is approx 5 ft tall and 27" wide. It will have a glass center.

What dimensions are aesthetically appealling? My plan was 3" on the stiles and 3.5" on the rails.

And I have the same question on some raised panel doors to go above the glass doors. These will be 27 " wide and approx 16" tall.

Thanks all and happy turkey day.

Tim in Houston

[Steve Cox]

The aesthetics are entirely up to you. A couple of points to consider: If you make your stiles 6" wide (combined) you will take up nearly 25% of the width of that glass door with wood. Things can get hidden behind that easily. That much glass is heavy. You might want to make the bottom rail thicker and use M & T joinery to hold it over the long haul. Your best bet is to mock it up using cardboard or thin ply. Either of those are cheap and easy as opposed to looking at a "mistake" for however long you have it.

[Ted Shrader]

Tim -

Aesthetics, as Steve says, are entirely up to you. But since you asked for recomendations :), I would make the bottom rail wider, as you suggest, but keep the top the same width as the stiles. The only time I would consider a wider top rail is when it has a curve in it. The wider rail at the bottom visually anchors the door.

Regards,
Ted

[Mark Singer]

Tim,

Try to make a drawing to scale of the cabinet. If possible make a carboard mock-up. I think it will help. 3" may be a bit heavy

[Jim Becker]

It's all about proportion. 3" might be perfect for one project and way too big for another. In general, that's a bit wide for most styles. Mark has good advice...prototype and mock up something like this to find out what works best.

[Bob Smalser]

By all means draw it to scale as Mark suggests. I've regretted not doing that many times when something comes out clunkier than I had in mind.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594265/74075148.jpg

These are 30-year-old, 14X30 doors with 1.5" stiles, a 1.75" bottom rail, and a 4" top rail.

[Steve Cox]

Seeing Bob's post reminded me of one other thing. If you have a face frame and inset doors that will affect the proportions one way as opposed to a frameless or even face frame construction with an overlay door. Mock it up you won't regret it.

[Terre Hooks]

I built an entertainment center where the main center portion is 7' tall, 50" wide. I used 6" rail on the bottom, 2" rails in the middle and 3" for the top. I used 3" stiles and I think it turned out great.