Cabinet Doors for Displays and/or Storage or Both!

[Jim Hampton]

I'm planning and designing new cabinets for my home office. I will be building these cabinets myself, but I want to use the upper doors as display for knives, WWII memorabilia, even pictures, and the inside for small items like computer parts, cables, and tools. I've used conventional hinges and european hinges in the past on regular doors, but I'm looking for advice on both hardware and construction of doors of this type. I'm concerned about alignment, weight, and any other things I need to be aware of in making these and installing them. Piano style hinges come to mind, but I'm looking for ideas. I've done something similar in my shop, but these need to be a little more refined. My office is 16x24 and my plans are for most, if not all, of the upper cabinets to have doors of this type. Any advice is welcomed.

[Yonak Hawkins]

I'm planning to do something similar with my kitchen cabinet doors. That is, to have lighted areas at the (unreachable) top of the cabinets for display. My original thought was to have single strength glass panes as top panels in the doors, but the more I think about it, I believe I will have separate doors for the top, to keep the dust out. They will have the same hardware as all the doors.

I believe, even if you had full doors with glass top panels, if you use single strength glass, weight wouldn't be an issue.

[Jerry Miner]

To clarify-- are you thinking of the door as a sort of shadow box, like a small glass-front cabinet that swings open to reveal the hidden stuff behind the door? So the door has substantial thickness, with glass front, solid back, and display contents?

Piano hinges would work, as would decent butt hinges. For more concealment of the hinges, you could use a pivot hinge, or even a Soss or Tectus hinge.

[Mike Wilkins]

I have made display cabinets in the past for my dad. He was a plain clothes policeman doing drug cases for many years. He would often give demos and lectures at schools/churches and used the cases for showing drug samples/apparatus/etc.
These cases were about 5 inches deep with hinged doors & locks, and used piano hinges, which work great for large doors.
That is what I would use.