Herringbone Cabinet Door

[Dylan Wyatt]

I am working on a small cabinet for my parents that will be painted. I am struggling to come up with the best way to build the door that will cover half of the cabinet. Mom is set on having a herringbone pattern for the door. I am thinking about face gluing thin boards to a 1/4" sheet of plywood but not sure if I would have problems with wood movement. Here is the sketch she gave me to go off of so you can see what I am saying. The dimensions are close and the door will have a rail and stile type of frame that is not shown in the picture. I am thinging I will used roughly 2" wide pieces for the pattern. Again, this will be painted with Target Coatings 6500 in a teal then sanded back some to reveal some wood grain (Red Maple) then top coated. The pieces that make up the herringbone will be chamfered an all mating sides to accent the pattern.

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[Derek Cohen]

Hi Dylan

If the cabinet is to be painted, then why not make the herringbone from ply pieces on a ply backing? If it is not to be painted, then I would use veneer on ply.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Dylan Wyatt]

Thanks for the reply. I am leaning more towards maybe a veneer on ply. Mom wants some of the paint sanded back to reveal the wood to make it look "rustic" and the Red Maple I am using has loads of character so I want to make sure things match on the door. See the attached picture showing the wood I am using, I am afraid I could never get a plywood that would look right under the paint. Do you think I could get away with a 3/8" 'veneer' and a 1/4" ply? Thanks again.

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[Tom Bender]

I like Derek's suggestion of making them of ply. It might be nice to give them some depth. Make them 1/4" thick with a chamfer. Finish them before attaching to the backing. For a little more character you could leave a small gap between and show the backing with some bolder color to it, possibly black.

[Jamie Buxton]

Using plywood for the herringbone overlay may give you issues when you chamfer the edges. The chamfer will go past the front layer and into the next layer. I'd use solid lumber.

Usually gluing solid lumber to plywood is asking for trouble. The lumber expands and contracts, and the plywood backer does not. But you should be able to get away with it here. Leave small gaps between the boards -- like use a credit card for spacing. I'd be inclined to use thicker plywood and thinner lumber, so the substrate is thicker to resist any bending from expansion of the herringbone. The herringbone pieces only need to be thick enough to show the chamfer.

[Derek Cohen]

One other suggestion:

You could use solid wood for the panel, which could be made up of glued up sections. Just sand it flush. Then create the herringbone pattern on the panel by scribing the lines with a router v-bit. The solid wood will preserve the edges, and you will not tell it was not a true laid up herringbone under the paint.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[John TenEyck]

One other suggestion:

You could use solid wood for the panel, which could be made up of glued up sections. Just sand it flush. Then create the herringbone pattern on the panel by scribing the lines with a router v-bit. The solid wood will preserve the edges, and you will not tell it was not a true laid up herringbone under the paint.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I have done exactly this ^^.

John

[johnny means]

That design seems inherently problematic to me. Expansion and contraction of the two sides will be at oddswith each other. My prediction would be that the panel would pucker right up the middle. I would only try this as a veneered panel. Alternatively, a more viable solution would be a chevron design done with tongues and groove with a loose spine down the center.

[Jamie Buxton]

Couple more thoughts...

If you make this panel with thick veneer on a substrate, use balanced construction. That is, put the same veneer pattern on the back of the panel as on the front. This balances the forces from expansion and construction, and keeps the panel flat.

Use quartersawn lumber, not flatsawn. Quartersawn expands and contracts about half of what flatsawn does.

Use a low-expansion species like poplar.

[Dave Sabo]

Do you think I could get away with a 3/8" 'veneer' and a 1/4" ply? Thanks again.


Not if you want the door to remain flat !

Jamie's suggestion is going to be best if your design mandate is set in stone. 1/4" veneer , 1/4" MDF , 1/4" veneer will get you where you need to be.

How, or , are you going to finish the edges ? While you're re-sawing or ripping down stock, I'd make up some 1/8" thick edgebanding to wrap the door edge with.

[Rich Aldrich]

I would consider making it out of tongue and grooved lumber. You would probably have to make your own with the router table.

[Carl Beckett]

I would consider making it out of tongue and grooved lumber. You would probably have to make your own with the router table.

I am the first to admit that I am by no means an expert. but this would be my approach.

LOVE the wood you have. Make some strips like flooring (T&G). Make a rail/stile frame. Add the strips like a panel, just an assembly of strips (rabbet the edges to fit into the groove in the R/S). Wood movement is taken care of. Since they are T/G they should not 'fall out'. (It looks like two columns woven on an angle, they should lock together decent)

Maybe.

[johnny means]

Not if you want the door to remain flat !

Jamie's suggestion is going to be best if your design mandate is set in stone. 1/4" veneer , 1/4" MDF , 1/4" veneer will get you where you need to be.

How, or , are you going to finish the edges ? While you're re-sawing or ripping down stock, I'd make up some 1/8" thick edgebanding to wrap the door edge with.

"Veneer" this thick will rip the face off of the MDF as it moves. There's a reason why veneer is thin.

[George Bokros]

I am working on a small cabinet for my parents that will be painted. I am struggling to come up with the best way to build the door that will cover half of the cabinet. Mom is set on having a herringbone pattern for the door. I am thinking about face gluing thin boards to a 1/4" sheet of plywood but not sure if I would have problems with wood movement. Here is the sketch she gave me to go off of so you can see what I am saying. The dimensions are close and the door will have a rail and stile type of frame that is not shown in the picture. I am thinging I will used roughly 2" wide pieces for the pattern. Again, this will be painted with Target Coatings 6500 in a teal then sanded back some to reveal some wood grain (Red Maple) then top coated. The pieces that make up the herringbone will be chamfered an all mating sides to accent the pattern.

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What you have drawn is not a herringbone pattern. I am working on a herring bone pattern for an accent area behind our stove. See attached link to my search.


https://www.google.com/search?client...g+bone+pattern

[lowell holmes]

I would experiment using solid wood. I think it would look better.

[Mark Daily]

If you make that door out of solid lumber, you could attach the pieces to each other using pocket screws where you have end grain running into the long edge of boards. Of course they would be visible from the backside but they could be plugged.

Or just glue all the pieces to each other as laid out.

As previously stated, don’t glue solid wood to plywood. It will eventually fall apart.

[Dylan Wyatt]

Hey All, just wanted to give an update on how I built the door. I decided to go with making a normal panel and using a router to make the herringbone pattern. I got the door assembled this weekend and got everything sprayed. It was time consuming with the layout and router work, but the finished product looks great and I don't have to worry about it self-destructing with the large seasonal swings at my parents lake house. Thanks again for the advice.

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[Mark Daily]

Dylan, thanks for the update. The door looks great- good job!