Cabinet Question

[Justin Leiwig]

I'm considering turning one of our kitchen cabinets into this:
http://www.workbenchplans.com/plansnow-images/dn1156-closer1.jpg
This is from the Plansnow.com website.

Anyway...The kitchen is Golden Oak, like millions of kitchens out there. I have two questions:

1. Could I take the original doors apart and use the stiles while making longer rails for the door? I don't have raised panel bit set for the router, but I think if I could do this I could just get away with the roman ogee bit since this is what it looks like the door is routered with originally.

2. How do you get the golden oak finish on oak ply from the borg?


Thanks for any help.

[Jim Becker]

I think you are going to have great difficulty taking the existing doors apart as you describe. Modern glues are what they are and there is no way to know exactly what was used. Heat/moisture/vinegar might work if they used Type I or II PVA, but there is no guarantee of that. You'll probably be better served by constructing new doors (or buying new doors from the same manufacturer as your cabinets to match.

As to "golden oak"...that's like saying the "sky is blue". You'll likely need to experiment and test on scrap to determine the finishing regimen that best approximates your existing cabinets, keeping in mind that they likely have changed color over time due to UV exposure, oxidation and...grease/dirt.

[Chip Lindley]

This project depends on your expectations of the doors to even remotely end up matching your other cabinetry, IF the doors can be dissasembled without damage. Warm vinegar OR denatured alcohol are suggested to dissolve PVA wood glue. Your doors may also have dowels or air nails in the joints.

I suggest that one of our benovelent contributors offer to run you off two unfinished raised panel doors, for a very nominal fee (material,shipping) Yes, there IS a Santa!!

Your real assignment, should you choose to accept it, would be to experiment at mixing stain to match your existing cabinetry, not the exact science that matching auto paint is!! Matching stain will make or break your renovation. I use Min-Wax stains with nice results on oak. Start with a light colored stain and darken it in steps, documenting your recipe as it progresses. Remember too, that a stain job darkens after finish is applied!

[Chip Lindley]

What Jim said Too !!

[Justin Leiwig]

Thanks for the advice guys. I figured it would be futile to try and save the doors, and probably save time and money to buy the bit set for future use.

As far as the staining goes, I guess I was more wondering on how to turn red to golden, because when I finished a prebought red oak cabinet for my wife's bathroom the red is much more prominent than the kitchen. I guess I could try white oak, but I don't know if any of the specialty lumber places have white oak plywood.

[Dave Falkenstein]

We have golden oak cabinets in our home. A few years ago we added a new island in the same material, bought from the original manufacturer stained the original color. Well, the color is not a "match". The older cabinets aged with exposure to light and darkened a bit. The newer island cabinets have never caught up with the aging process. I tell my wife that it is wood, and each piece of wood has its own "personality", and the woods will never "match". As long as you stain the new wood in the same color family, the effect is fine. I suspect your existing cabinets are like ours - even the original cabinets look a bit different, one from the other. The new cabinets blend in.

Experiment on some scraps using wood conditioner to prep the plywood for staining. I think that will reduce the redness.

[Grant Morris]

Sorry for swaying this off topic but I am curious what type of hinges the inside swiveling racks use please.

[Michael Weber]

Sorry for swaying this off topic but I am curious what type of hinges the inside swiveling racks use please.

Likely a full length piano hinge. Our new old house has a full height pantry cabinet much like the one the OP wants. It was built professionaly many years ago when a previous owner saw the idea in Southern Living magazine.

[Joe Chritz]

I just built some full extension 33" wide drawers for a pantry to replace one of those.

In practice they aren't as nice as they look from people I have talked to that had them.

You will likely have to rebuild the doors and finish to match. Same with the plywood. Trial and error, mostly error before it matches decent.

Joe

[Justin Leiwig]

Likely a full length piano hinge. Our new old house has a full height pantry cabinet much like the one the OP wants. It was built professionaly many years ago when a previous owner saw the idea in Southern Living magazine.

Yuppers..a Piano Hinge.


I just built some full extension 33" wide drawers for a pantry to replace one of those.

In practice they aren't as nice as they look from people I have talked to that had them.

Drawers would be nice, but then my wife won't be able to see anything in the drawers above the first one! This way she can swing them open to see what's up at the top then "politely ask" me to get them down for her. :D