Kitchen with Walnut "Accents"

[Seb85]

Hi All,

I've been lurking around the forum for about a year now but so far have always found the answers that I wanted without posting!

I'm creating a kitchen for my house and my GF and I have decided to go for Euro style cabinets with flat, handpainted doors with a draw pull mould at the top. So far so good- I have created this wth MDF in the past and will do so for this project.

The thing I need help with is that we have decided to create a section of full height cupboards with the doors in American Black Walnut as an accent in the room. I had in mind the use of bookmatched solid timber with the grain running straight from floor to ceiling with cuts where required for doors or drawers etc. The draw pull mould could then be easily routed into the top. My concern is that without a frame around the doors, they will be more likely to cup or twist. Should I be looking at

a) creating a frame around the door but using a raised panel such that the front of the door is flat or
b) using a veneered MDF panel for stability.

The problem with option a is that the grain will then not run continuously through the full height of the cupboards, the problem with b is that i can't route the draw pull in the top.

Any views or comments would be appreciated- if I'm going to the effort and expense of making this from matched timber, I want it to go right first time!

Thanks in advance

Seb

 

[RobinBHM]

The conventional way, would be to lip up plain mdf or plywood boards cut to size, with a bigger lipping where the pulls will be machined.

The lippings are then flushed and the boards veneered.

Of course this requires the skills and tools to cut, tape and press the veneer....

Bookmatched solid is not really possible and a slab door in solid timber not really stable.

Have you thought about push to open door catches that mean you wont require any edge machining?

 

[Seb85]

Robin,

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't considrered doing the veneer myself and currently don't have any facilities for doing it- I only do this as a hobby. Just to check I've understood your method- I would make the door from plain MDF, apply a hardwood edge- perhaps 18mm square to the two sides and bottom. I would apply a larger edging to the top- probably 44 x 18. I would then veneer both sides of the door over the hardwood edges too. After this, I would then do the drawer pull route to the top of the door.

The thing I'm not sure about is the visible line between the end of the veneer sheet and solid wood for the drawer pull since the grain will change direction at this point. What do you think? We definitely don't want the push to open doors as they then won't match the rest of the kitchen.

It would be an interesting challenge to do it- I seem to remember someone in the projects section making up a veneering press. I'll run a search and have a look

Seb

 

[Bluekingfisher]

From what I think you are contemplating i.e veneering, then the matching ends may not need to be an issue?

From you description, once you have applied the edge banding to the MDF boards it will need to be flushed trim with the MDF panel so not to create a proud edge where the timber lip and MDF meet. From there you apply your veneer over the wole board, including the edge banding and trim.

You could of course apply a matched veneer tape to the edges (other than the one in need of a routed profile)

 

[will1983]

***** Post removed by member *****

 

[Seb85]

I think I'm going to make up an example door to see how much of an issue having the draw pull grain running in a different direction is. The easiest option would be to buy in pre veneered mdf boards, apply an edge band to the three non routed edges, apply a hardwood strip to the routed edge and then carry out the route. It may be that this produces an acceptable result and I am worrying over nothing.

Thanks again for all the replies- I'll post an update when I've made the sample door.

Seb