Huge Mistake...Need some advice

[Mike Seals]

Remodeling my kitchen, all the cabinets are finished and I ordered doors and they all look and fit great. One cabinet I made I call the pantry, holds cans and large goods. Some how in my train of thought I ordered the drawer fronts for the pantry too wide. Should have been 24" and some how I entered 25". These are milled doors, raised panel. I don't have time to reorder, leaving for Australia in less than two weeks.

So my question, any one have a good idea or trick to shortening the drawer fronts? Design ideas, good way to hide my mistake. And just as an FYI, the wood is a rustic hickory.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Remodeling my kitchen, all the cabinets are finished and I ordered doors and they all look and fit great. One cabinet I made I call the pantry, holds cans and large goods. Some how in my train of thought I ordered the drawer fronts for the pantry too wide. Should have been 24" and some how I entered 25". These are milled doors, raised panel. I don't have time to reorder, leaving for Australia in less than two weeks.

So my question, any one have a good idea or trick to shortening the drawer fronts? Design ideas, good way to hide my mistake. And just as an FYI, the wood is a rustic hickory.

Cut them down on the table saw; split the difference to each side. That one cabinet will look slightly odd - the stiles will be different width that all the other drawers, but with the entire unit that way, it will blend in.

[Jim Becker]

If they are not pre-finished, than Kent's suggestion is about the only thing I can think of. That said, you may be able to place your cuts to best hide the joint in the panel field, but the rails top and bottom are going to have a clearly identifiable joint in them. Keeping the door flat is also going to be a challenge. So...and I know you don't want to hear it, but...the best long term solution is to order another door that is sized appropriately and finish/install it when you return from your travels. YOU will see those joints every day even if most folks wouldn't notice and I know for me, it would drive me absolutely crazy... ;)

[John TenEyck]

If they are unfinished you could either heat or steam apart the stile/rail joints on one side, pull out the panel, cut down the rails and re-mill the panel, and then glue it back together. That will work even if the stiles/rails are cope and stick, even if you don't have those cutters, except you would have to cut the molded portion on both pieces at 45 degrees so they will fit back together properly. Then use a loose tenon to join the stile/rail back together. If you have the right panel raising bit, just cut off an inch and remold it and you're good to go. If you don't have the right bit you could rip one inch out of the panel and glue it back together.

The joint will look like this when done: 296554 296553


If the doors are already finished the process still works (only the second process for the panels), you just have to work very carefully.

[Peter Quinn]

Don't have time? There is no real elegant way to whack 1" off the width of a drawer front, it will stick out like a sore thumb to the trained eye, order the new drawer fronts, put temporary knobs on the drawer boxes to make it work or hack the wrong ones in for the present, but order the new drawer fronts. In the scope of the kitchen it's peanuts. If you said you were moving to Australia and were closing on the house next week my answer would be the same....order the new drawer fronts. A good kitchen may last 25+ years....you have time.

[Larry Browning]

I guess I am really confused about what these drawer fronts look like. Most drawer fronts are solid wood with some sort of milled profile all the way around the edge, while the doors are frames with raised panel inserts filling the frame. So if these are regular solid wood fronts and you don't want to mess up the ends, why not just cut an inch out of the middle of the drawer front (or maybe close to one end or the other might be less noticable) and glue it back together? The drawer front will mount to the drawer anyway, so there is little chance of the joint failing.
Or am I completely misunderstanding the problem?

[eugene thomas]

He stated raised panel drawer front in his entry........

[John Coloccia]

What are the hinges like? Euro hinges or are they mounted to the face? If they're mounted to the face, maybe you can just mount them an inch further apart from each other, and maybe it won't look too goofy when they're closed? I don't know what the configuration is, and what it looks like, but you could also potentially just glue the doors together and just hinge it from one side. Depending on exactly what everything looks/fits like, maybe that works too. If you think about it, you could probably take 1/2" off the inside of each door, join them, and then only have 1" to deal with. Depending on the hinge configuration, you could possibly take up 1/2" of that there, and everything would probably look OK.

[Chris Padilla]

Route the back of the raised panel such that you can remove the inserted board in one piece.

Cut down the rail in a "I think I can hide the cut line best here" point. Hint...the cut line could be on a diagonal or even right next to the stile.

[Larry Browning]

He stated raised panel drawer front in his entry........

He said "These are milled doors, raised panel." I did not make the connection that he was using milled doors as drawer fronts. I though it odd that he felt the need to tell us about the doors when he was talking about drawers. It seems odd to me that you would use doors as drawer fronts. Big drawers I guess????
I knew I was confused, just needed someone to dumb it down for me!

[John Coloccia]

He said "These are milled doors, raised panel." I did not make the connection that he was using milled doors as drawer fronts. I though it odd that he felt the need to tell us about the doors when he was talking about drawers. It seems odd to me that you would use doors as drawer fronts. Big drawers I guess????
I knew I was confused, just needed someone to dumb it down for me!

I was confused too. I thought the doors were too big.

[Mike Seals]

He said "These are milled doors, raised panel." I did not make the connection that he was using milled doors as drawer fronts. I though it odd that he felt the need to tell us about the doors when he was talking about drawers. It seems odd to me that you would use doors as drawer fronts. Big drawers I guess????
I knew I was confused, just needed someone to dumb it down for me!

Sorry for the confusion, drawer fronts. I may have come up with a solution. Split them down the middle. Make a piece in the center thats the same width as the raised panel, then match the outer edges and it should look like I planned it that way. Six drawer fronts, two 11" tall and four 7" tall. Order new is not an option, I do not plan on returning to this house once I leave....off to Oz for as long as I can....

[Matthew Hills]

Is it a frame&panel construction, or just a solid drawer front with an edge profile and raised field? And I assume that these are mounted on a drawer box, rather than serving as the front of the box?

I was going to suggest a scarf cut at one edge of the raised field.

Matt

[Kent A Bathurst]

Mike - if you have a solution you like, then by all means go for it.

OTOH - you may be worrying about details that would bug you, were you going to live there. The next resident / owner will certainly not use the same critical eye, and will be very happy either way.

Get out easy and fast, is my advice.......................

[Larry Browning]

+1 to what Kent said. It sound to me this is just a cosmetic issue. Right? You are leaving the country for good. The new owners will probably not even notice the difference for at least several months, maybe even never. Pick your battles my friend. This one is probably not worth the effort.