Finishing Cabinet Sides

[brian c miller]

So I bought an entire kitchen worth of Rutt Cabinets out of a home... Everything seems to be in good condtion and the price was too good to pass-up.
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The cabinets are solid plywood boxes, beaded face frames with mason's mitre, insert doors are raised panels.
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The plan is to reconfigure them to fit our space. As luck would have it, it's actually a pretty good fit.

The issue is that when originally installed very few of the cabinets have finished sides.
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Any idea on how to go about adding side panels?

My first thought was to simply sand flat, veneer, and atempt to match the stain... what do you guys & gals think?

[Prashun Patel]

My first thought is to make frame and panel finished ends.

[Pat Barry]

Do you have a cabinet that has a finished end already?The reason being I would try to duplicate it. My thought on reading Prashuns advice was that you might need a new front face frame as well to make it look correct, other wise his frame and panel idea is a good one, but I think keeping the style of the original end is more important

[Mark Bolton]

The problem may likely be that any applied solution is going to look goofy with no face frame over hang. If you had enough on the unfinished ends and didnt mind the look of a 1/4" ply panel that would be the simplest option. You may do a little investigating as to the feasibility of removing the existing end and replacing it with a solid panel which would be the best looking.

An off the cuff option if you do have a bit of face frame overhang may be to route a window in the existing sides leaving a narrow flange around the entire perimeter then make frame and panel ends with a corresponding rabbet which would cover the flange. May save you the hassle of taking apart glue joints and fasteners and would also leave the carcass intact for the most part.

[scott vroom]

Applied end panels. Don't worry that the EP's will sit proud of the FF, big box store cabinets are often designed this way and it looks fine to most folks.

[Bill White]

I'm for the applied end panels as well.
Bill

[Sam Murdoch]

I'd like to see which cabinets need finished ends once you have them in a layout for your kitchen. There might be room for some creative blend of paneled ends and some other unknown out of the box option. If you are a traditionalist however and really want it to look store bought (so to speak) I would not hesitate to just go for making FE that match as perfectly as possible to the original cabinetry. Just saying that there might be other ways that are not conventional, but fun and effective and will look good too.

[john bateman]

Have you thought of contacting the manufacturer or a dealer for them? They might be able to supply a couple panels that would be more likely to match style and color than something homemade. Maybe even a scribing filler strip for the face frame so you could extend it a little.

[brian c miller]

There are one or two with finished ends. On the Island they have end panel with exposed long grain on the panel

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Some of the others look like they just have a veneer that was stained to match.

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There is about a 1/16" overhang on most of the face frames so I could butt the veneer to the back of the face frame (no exposed veneered edge) and match the stain.

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I did call the manufacturer, apparently they are very nice cabinet 2 finished ends with matched stain was about about as much as I paid for the rest of the kitchen.

So, it sounds like making a finished end is the way to go?

[brian c miller]

Also, I have a few "extra" cabinets that I won't be using.

I have thought about using them in the basement as fancy laundry cabinets or workshop cabinets... but I could simply steal the door and us them as end panels. I'll have to trim a few put for the most part the extra doors are close (+/- 1/2") or where I'd Like to make finished ends.

Thoughts?