Make Your Own Cabinet Doors

Figuring the length of the stiles is easy.

Make your own cabinet doors.

For each one you ll need two stiles the vertical parts two rails the horizontal parts and one panel. Cut the door panel insert slightly less than the size you need to allow for wood expansion and contraction. For a base cabinet less than 4 wide you can cut all the parts except the back and toekick from one 3 4 4 8 sheet of plywood or mdf. But the last order i placed took about six weeks to get here and i didn t want to wait that long.

So i decided to make my own diy cabinet doors this time. You can pick any width you want for your cabinet door rails and stiles. To save money i bought a 4 x 8 foot sheet of mdf board from lowe s for approximately 37 00. Then set the table saw blade to cut 3 8 inch deep and 1 2 inch wide cut the same 2 boards while they are laying flat.

Begin assembly of the door. Start by ripping two side pieces to the. I typically use 1 3 boards for mine so they are 2 1 2 wide. Each door is made up of 2 stiles 2 rails and a center panel.

Ordinarily this will be the width of a table saw blade. To make trim for one cabinet door. I contemplated purchasing custom cabinet doors for my hallway cabinets just like the replacement doors i purchased for my kitchen. The exact measurement of each piece depends on the final size of the cabinet door and the final method of building your cabinet doors.

Use a table saw blade to cut a 1 x 2 x 8 1 inch deep and 3 8 inch wide cut 2 boards with the board being vertical. It took about 15 minutes to make each door not including the time it took for the glue to dry. Cut 2 rails the width of the cabinet doors minus 2x the width of the boards 1 3 boards are typically 2 1 2 but it is always a good idea to double check. Simply sand and stain or paint your shaker cabinet door add some awesome cabinet handles and hinges and you are good to go.

Plywood thicknesses vary though so make certain your material thickness measures a true 3 4 or adjust your part dimensions to achieve the final cabinet width. Figuring the length of the rails is more complicated. Cost per door is around 20 you can get about 6 center panels from each sheet of plywood. A flat door panel will usually be made from 25 inch 6 mm plywood the same wood type as the rest of the cabinet.

Next you will use the router to create a groove around the perimeter of the inside of the cabinet doors for the panel to sit inside. Make a list of the parts of your diy shaker cabinet doors before you begin. Take the height of the door you want and add 1 8 in. Make a no fuss case using your tablesaw.