Mission Style Cherry Kitchen Cabinets

[Nate Bosscher]

I am making cherry kitchen cabinets for my home and am trying to figure out the best way to produce the doors.

I am planning on using stub tenon construction to join the rails and stiles (7/8" thick) with a 1/2" thick solid wood panel with a 1/4" rabbet around the edges.

The question I have is regarding the stylizing of the doors. I would like them to look like the door pictured below, but I'm not sure how best to attach the interior trim pieces. I could fit them and glue them in after assembling the rest of the door, but I'm worried about gluing them straight to the solid wood panel.

The other option I've though about it is rabbetting the back side of the rails and styles and assembling everything including the interior trim before inserting the panel from the back side. I just don't think that would look as good.

Any thoughts on how to construct this door?

Thanks.

http://www.keystonewood.com/images/door/L-15-4-MIS-804.jpg

[Trent Shirley]

I am no experienced cabinet maker but I would either groove the rails and stiles so the panel can slip into the groove or as you said, rabbit the back to put in the panel.
You can use moulding on the inside to hold the panel in place if using rabbits. If you are only using 1/2" material for the rails/stiles you do not have a whole lot of room for recessing the panel and you may end up making it pretty much flush to the inside.

[Trent Shirley]

Sorry, read your dimensions wrong. Same thing holds true though if the panel is 1/2" and the rails/stiles 7/8". A lot depends on how much reveal you want on the outside of the rails/stiles above the panel.

[Nate Bosscher]

Sorry, I could have explained myself better. The rails and styles are 7/8" thick. I was planning on grooving them and sliding the rabbetted panel into that groove. I am looking for the best way to attach the interior decorative cross pieces to the rails and styles (or the panel). I am thinking those decorative pieces are going to be about 5/16" thick.

[J.R. Rutter]

We have done this type of onlay on solid wood panels with very careful gluing.

Best would be plywood though. If the back is rabbeted to a close tolerance, it is hard to tell that it isn't solid wood (apart from the grain patterns of the veneers). You can sometimes get slip matched veneer panels that look more "natural".

[Alan Schaffter]

Nate, I made similar cabinets from oak for my shop. Since the intermediate rails and stiles were wide, I used stub tenons. The glass doors (even the passage door to my little office) have a single sheet of glass, instead of individual panes, so the mullions are purely decorative, on one side of the glass only, and not structural- I just tightly fit and butt glued them in place. No loose mullions so far after four years.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1414/medium/1-5_Final.jpg

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/8/Backbench-56.JPG

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/SinkUpper-4.jpg

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Backbench-58.JPG

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/medium/OffDoor-10.JPG

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/SinkUpper-2.jpg

[Jeff Monson]

Alan, those are really nice cabinets, especially for a shop! but....could you please clean it up a bit before taking photos, its kind of messy ;)

JK of course, awesome shop!!

[Nate Bosscher]

Thanks! That helps. Those are some beautiful cabinets!

[Nathan Allen]

Those are impressive "shop" cabinets.

Closing in on finishing a kitchen cart using similar technique but the mullions are structural to strengthen the sides and the drawer front. All things considered, unless you need the strength I'd suggest using decorative mullions, much quicker to make one square instead of five.