This week I decided I needed to get on with building my cabinet doors for my fireplace built-ins. The problem I faced was that I didn’t want to go and buy a router, so I finally discovered a tutorial from Ana White, for her “Easy Frame and Panel Doors“. This was perfect for what I was wanting to accomplish and I already had a Kreg Jig score! For this project you will need:
1/2″ hardwood plywood cut down to size
1×3 boards – I used poplar because I am painting mine.
Kreg Jig – if you don’t have one, buy one! Best purchase I have made. There are SO many things you can use this for!
1″ pocket hole screws
1 1/4″ pocket hole screws
Drill – love my Ryobi impact driver
First measure the opening of your cabinets. I decided that I wanted mine to overlap the frame, instead of setting inside the frame. Here is how I found my measurements:
1 – Take your measurements for the width of the opening and add 1″ to them so that there is a 1/2″ overlap on both sides.
2 – If you are doing a double door like mine, you will need to divide by 2 and then subtract 1/16 of an inch this will allow a space for in between the doors, if you are only doing one door skip that step.
Here is the math for my doors:
26 3/8″ + 1″ = 27 3/8″
27 3/8″ divided by 2 = 13 11/16″
13 11/16″ – 1/16″ = 13 5/8″
13 5/8” is my width measurement for each door
Take note that both sides of my built ins were off by about an inch, so the left side of my fireplace has a little bit bigger doors than the right side of the fireplace. Make sure you measure EACH opening to get precise measurements for each door!
Now onto the height. This is much easier ;). I knew I wanted mine about 3/4 of an inch above the opening of the frame. Since it will be sitting 1/16 of an inch above my baseboard, there was no need to overlap it on the bottom. So I just added about 3/4 of an inch to the 27 11/16″ making it close to 28 1/2″ in height and voila you have the height of your doors :). If everything on your cabinets are level, this will be the same for every door.
Now onto building the doors!
When I purchase my lumber I have Lowes cut my plywood sheets for me so that all I have to cut when I get home are the poplar boards. This saves SO much time! But if you want to cut your own pieces go for it! To get the measurements for these pieces take your door measurements and subtract 5 from the height and width.
Per the example above my plywood pieces were cut to the following measurements:
8 5/8″ x 23 1/2″
Then cut the poplar boards. For the top/bottom pieces of the door panels cut the the EXACT width of the plywood, so 8 5/8″.
The side pieces should be cut to 28 1/2″.
Use your handy Kreg Jig and drill 1/2″ pocket holes on all sides of the middle plywood piece. I did 2 on the top and 3 on the sides.
After those are all done, drill 3/4″ pocket holes on each side of the top/bottom pieces.
Now you are ready for assembly.
Take your plywood piece and use your right angle Kreg Jig clamp to clamp it to one of the top pieces. If you don’t have the clamp, get someone to help you hold it in place. I built one door without it and it was horrible ha! It made this part SO much easier using this clamp!!
Attach the top and bottom pieces using 1″ pocket screws.
After that is done, attach the sides by FIRST attaching the top pieces to the sides with the 1 1/4″ pocket screws into the top and bottom, THEN use the 1″ pocket screws to attach the plywood to the side pieces. I have found that doing it in that order is the easiest. Do this by keeping all of boards flush on the BACK of the cabinet. This will give you the look of shaker style doors
There you have it! Next up will be all of the finish work for the doors and attaching them to your cabinets!
no comments