upper cabinet project - q1 - hinges

[Bob Cooper]

Starting the design of the upper cabinet for a built in. I just finished the bottom after a long delay. i built all the cabinets in the house (my first cabinet build) and just now am getting around to finishing this project. The wood is tigerwood -- left over from the deck. There are many firsts here for me -- cocks bead, pretty new to inset doors, never done glass shelves, etc. I'm likely going to have several questions as i go thru this so i'm calling this on "q1"

In case it's not obvious -- door panels will be glass (1/8") and the shelves will be glass. I'm showing stiles/rails at 1.5". The glass shelves are not shown in the sketchup attached. Two glass shelves i think. The biggest span is only 27". Also there's a solid shelf between the two cabinet sections. The back will be veneered plywood.

My question is one of hinges. I'm not 100% i'll continue the cocks bead up on this top section but i should to keep the look consistent. But that seems to complicate the hinge selection even more. The only hinges i've ever used are euro cup style hinges and given the glass fronts i'm not sure that will look right. Also notice that the cocks bead sits proud of the front of the fraceframe/doors.

I'm leaning to using the Soss hinges. Is that a good selection? Seems like with jig it's pretty doable but boy, there is zero adjustability. I suppose i could also use normal butt/barrel hinges as well but whatever i use i think i'd like them hidden as they are hidden in the lower cabinet.

Also if you look at the upper portion i'm currently thinking that that center section will lift up -- not sure what hinge to use there.

Currently thinking the "side lights" will be non-operable but i suppose those could be doors as well.

[Lisa Starr]

From a woman's point of view, I feel the two cabinets need to echo each other. Matching stile and rail widths, cocks bead, inset doors. The bottom one is beautiful, so help it shine with the top cabinet. Depending on what you'll be keeping in the upper cabinet, all 4 doors probably need to be operable. Reaching past the items in front of the center doors and around and behind the fixed door would be very inconvenient. I don't have any input on the hinges.

[glenn bradley]

Woman's point of view or not I agree that for built-ins you want things to look like they belong to each other. I would follow the same build dimensional relationships and details as the lower.

[Jamie Buxton]

If your stiles are only 1.5" wide, and if the backside of the stile is rabbeted to receive glass, you may not have room for euro hinges.

[Bob Cooper]

Ok thanks and I agree I’ll try and make them match - I need to go measure the lower stiles and rails. All that said what would you use for hinges. That’s where I’m kind of stumped.

[Dave Sabo]

Beaded inset cabinets are the top of the heap when it comes to difficulty. That lack of adjustability is the reason they take so much time and cost so dear compared to other styles. Cabinet makers will "fit" each door to the opening , shaving a bit here and there to make the reveal consistent on each one.

You can do the same with a SOSS hinge.

If you modify your design a bit (ok, quite a bit) you could use these, which are adjustable. I doubt they'll save you any time though.

https://www.salice.com/us/en/product...oncealed-hinge

[Bob Cooper]

those are very cool hinges -- the salice ones -- but they do not seem to be made to work with inset doors. Also almost seems like you have to have a cnc to cut those mortices.

[Dave Sabo]

those are very cool hinges -- the salice ones -- but they do not seem to be made to work with inset doors. Also almost seems like you have to have a cnc to cut those mortices.

Natively , they are not off the shelf compatible with inset doors. But , like I said, if you wanted to modify your design, there's no reason you can't make a frameless carcass and then add a frame around it to enclose the door. They can be installed with a router without much trouble.

What you're really looking for doesn't exist. At some point ya just gotta suck it up and do some labor intensive work if you want inset cabinetry and not look at big clunky euro hinges.