When I step back and look at this cabinet, I can’t help but be amazed that this started with just two Ikea Pax frames stacked side by side. I had a vision for a custom built-in cabinet that looked more like furniture than a mudroom closet. We don’t have a ton of storage space in our home so creating a space for coats, cleaning supplies, extra linens, etc was important to us. I wanted to avoid the mudroom locker look or the open cabinetry hook look – they can look cluttered and messy quickly so I knew I wanted everything tucked behind doors….tall majestic shaker doors to be exact.
This was our first experience building cabinet doors from scratch and we approached this project with cautious optimism. In summary, we’re so happy with the outcome given the circumstances we dealt with. (More on that later)
To make the doors, we followed a Youtube tutorial from Training Hands Academy and it’s excellent! Very clear instructions for both beginners and experienced woodworkers. I suggest starting with that tutorial and then coming back here because I have a few additional notes from our experience.
STEP 1: CUT THE STILES & RAILS
The stiles (vertical boards) run the full length of the door. The rails (horizontal boards) fit between the stiles. We chose to use 1 x 2 1/2” wide pine boards which is within the standard range for shaker door borders.
First determine the length of both the stiles and rails –
For inset cabinetry like mine, measure the opening height of your cabinet frame and subtract 1/4” (which accounts for an 1/8” gap on the top and bottom.). This is the length you should cut 2 boards for your stiles. If your cabinet doors overlay instead of inset, cut your boards at the exact height you want your doors to be.
For the rails, there’s a little more math involved since they sit between the stiles. For inset cabinet doors:
Measure the opening cabinet width
— 1/4” (an 1/8” gap on both sides)
— 5” (the width of 2 stile boards)
+ 3/4” (the length of two tenons)
________
This total is the length at which you need to cut 2 boards that will be the rails.
You should now have 2 stiles and 2 rails.
