Unfinished Shaker Cabinet Doors
Unfinished Shaker Cabinet Doors
Here we have our Unfinished Shaker cabinet door. The Shaker cabinet door is and has been for the last several years a very popular door style. Its clean and simple lines tie in well with a modern contemporary look. The modern Shaker cabinet door has been simplified from its original design from the Shaker era. Original Shaker doors found on furniture and built-ins from the Shaker communities had raised panel backs, typically done with hand planes to taper the center panel into the groove of the door frame. This raised panel could only be seen on the back side of the door leaving the front of the door a simple flat panel. There were variations on this design throughout the Shaker community such as doors had mid rails and mid stiles splitting the doors into numerous paneled sections.
The modern Shaker cabinet door has a simple tongue and groove construction, encapsulating the center panel. Modern unfinished Shaker cabinet doors can be built with a raised panel back allowing the front face to be a flat panel, but this is rarely ever done as most homeowners like the same simple look on the back as the front side. So typically a ¼ inch panel is used as the center panel of the door. Solid wood Shaker cabinet doors can also be constructed utilizing a solid wood center panel which usually ends up being anywhere from ½” to 3/8” thick. In this instance the center panel is rabbeted on the back side to fit in the groove of the door frame. This solid wood panel ends up being flush with the stiles and rails of the back side of the door. Using a solid wood panel on Shaker cabinet door is ideal for those who do not prefer composite wood materials such as MDF or veneered plywood that are commonly used for inset style cabinet door panels.
In addition to being a preference for some, the utilization of a solid wood center panel for Shaker cabinet doors allows for the best possible grain and wood color match between the stiles and rails and the center panel. This is a true advantage when using a clear finish or a stained wood finish. Although composite and plywood center panel materials have an incredibly long service life a properly built solid wood center panel Shaker cabinet door will last equally as long. Some of the Shaker furniture that still stands today is a testament to the enduring design of this style of cabinet door.
Variations of Shaker Cabinet Doors
There are numerous variations of the unfinished Shaker cabinet door that should be mentioned. The widths of the stiles and rails can be widened also, standard widths are usually 2” to 2 ½” wide. Some prefer 3”-4” wide stiles and rails. Another modification is widening just the top and bottom rails, which gives another interesting aspect to these styles of cabinet doors. Raised panels can also be built in the Shaker style, as well as bead board and vee groove panels can also be constructed. No matter what variation of Shaker cabinet door you decide to go with, the possibilities are virtually endless and you’re only limited by your imagination.
Shaker cabinet doors that you can paint
A lot of homeowners ask quite often, how can I remodeled the look of my kitchen cabinets and do it very affordably and still maintain a contemporary look? Well one of the simplest methods of achieving a contemporary look in doing it very affordably is to go with a shaker style kitchen cabinet door and simply paint it. As a homeowner you will have several options when purchasing custom shaker cabinet doors for your kitchen remodeling project. The ultra-low-cost method is to purchase a shaker cabinet door that has a wood frame and an affordable MDF center panel and tackle the painting yourself. The other option is to purchase your shaker doors already painted. Acme cabinet doors offers several options unfinished, painted, and primed. Purchasing your shaker cabinet doors already primed will save you considerable amount of time and prep work this is a good option for some homeowners. During a lot of my kitchen remodeling projects we would order our shaker cabinet doors already painted which made for the quickest installation. For projects like that all we would have to do is simply paint the cabinet boxes and attach the new doors. In just about all of these applications we had the cabinet door hinges pre-bored as well as installed brand-new hinges. For contractors and handymen the prepainted option seems to be the fastest way to go. But some homeowners like to save the extra money and don’t mind spending a day or two priming and painting their brand-new shaker cabinet doors. By doing it this way you will save the maximum amount of money as well as you can take as much time as you need to complete the project. There shaker style cabinet door has a very contemporary look and due to its popularity and widespread usage it does not seem to be going away anytime soon. I have predicted that this look will be around for quite some time. It is a bit more intricate over a plain slab cabinet door and has a very modern feel with the right hardware combination. So whether you choose an unfinished shaker cabinet door or one that’s prepainted you will have to take a bit of time to find out which type of cabinet door will work for your application. With either option you can be rest assured that you will be saving a tremendous amount of money over having to hire a kitchen refacing company or a contractor to do the work.