Vertical wood grain on face frame rails?

[Roger Jensen]

I built a long, narrow pull-out pantry that fits between our refrigerator and wall (I need spacing so the refrigerator doors wood open fully). The dimensions are 8 1/2 inches wide by 8 ft tall.

Since the pull-outs themselves are only 5 1/2 inches wide, I am going to make them with a solid face (and not have rails and stiles).

While at my favorite wood store yesterday I found a beautiful piece of cherry that I could use for the entire cabinet, face frames and drawer fronts. I thought it would be cool to have all of the wood on the cabinet matched.

My question is about the face frame rails. On the rest of my cabinets all of the rails have horizontal grain, and i had planned to do the same for this piece. However, since I am going to be matching the grain on the face frames and pullouts should I have vertical grain on the rails? I don't want to do something weird for this cabinet, I imagine in would look OK with normal rail grain.

Thanks for your advice,

Roger

[Jamie Buxton]

I'd build it with horizontal grain on the rails.

Cheap cabinet doors are sometimes built with a technique in which a single-piece MDF substrate has recesses milled or molded into it to emulate raised panels or the like. Then the MDF is skinned with a layer of wood-grain vinyl which conforms to the recesses. Just like your proposed door, the grain on the rails runs vertical. It shouts "Cheap" at me. Your door is going to be real wood, so it won't be quite the same effect as cheap vinyl. But I'd be afraid of seeing that anyhow.

[Roger Jensen]

Thanks Jamie. That is what I was afraid of.

BTW - I see you're in Redwood City. I'm in Mt. View. The wood store I alluded to is MacBeath Hardwood in So SF. Do you use them, or do you have any other wood stores you like in the area?

Thanks again,

Roger

[Jamie Buxton]

Thanks Jamie. That is what I was afraid of.

BTW - I see you're in Redwood City. I'm in Mt. View. The wood store I alluded to is MacBeath Hardwood in So SF. Do you use them, or do you have any other wood stores you like in the area?

Thanks again,

Roger

MacBeath is one of my favorite candy stores. They have a yard in San Jose, which might be more convenient for you. Another good source is PALS. (http://www.earthsourcewood.com/) Like MacBeath, they have yards in SF, SJ, and Emeryville.

[Roger Jensen]

I get my sheetgoods from the San Jose store, but they have pretty limited hardwood selection. It is usually worth the drive to SF to get a better good selection. They got a new shipment of cherry this week, so I got everything I needed for my kitchen. I heard they have a good selection in Berkeley as well. I was getting worried, their stock was getting low and picked over. Finding nice cherry can be a challenge.

[Chris Matthews]

With vertical grain you risk the chance that the piece will split along the grain lines (ie, your rails will have little strength). If you are wanting the piece to look like a solid piece of cherry you could glue a piece of horizontal grain (any wood would do) to the back of each piece of vertical grain rail to give it strength. Your next worry would be wood movement but your piece is pretty small and that should not be a problem.

I also think that horizontal grain would look better - it gives it a bit of a "picture frame" look and looks like real furniture.