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Raised Panel Cabinet Doors
Raised Panel Cabinet Doors
What are raised panel cabinet doors? Raised panel cabinet doors are defined as typically being built in 5 pieces. 4 pieces of wood for the frame of the cabinet door, and the 5th piece being the raised panel itself. Raised panel cabinet doors have been around for centuries. Long before the strength of modern woodworking glues and adhesives, doors and cabinet doors were assembled with no glue at all, usually the joints were doweled to hold them together. As we can see from our wonderful historic homes and building this method of cabinet door construction has been tested over time and has proved to be one of the best ways to construct cabinet doors.
The raised panel cabinet door has a center panel that is “raised”. All that means is that the edges of the wood of the panel are cut or raised to fit into the grooves of the cabinet door frame. Historically this “raising” of the cabinet door panel was done by hand usually with a hand plane, sometimes very crudely just to get the panels edges to fit into the grooves of the cabinet door frame. Some early craftsmen placed the back side (flat side) of the raised panel door, out to the showing face of the cabinet or furniture they made, leaving the planed raised panel edge on the inside of the cabinet where no one would see it, exposing only the flat side to the room. As hand planes became more complex actual planes were developed to cut a more consistent raised panel edge where the raised panel could be displayed more proudly, showing off a crisper raised panel detail. Since the advent of large powerful rotary shaping equipment shaping of the raised panel door has become more simplified over the hand plane of yesteryear. Modern shaping equipment is much faster and produces consistent results.
The combinations of raised panel cabinet doors are virtually endless. Doors can be produced as a standard raised panel door, as well as with an arch or cathedral arch top. Raised panel cabinet doors can be made in just about any wood, as well as composite materials such as MDF. Raised panels can be made into wainscoting or cabinet end panels, to give your cabinets a classier appearance. There are additional combinations such as multi-panel cabinet doors, as well as single and multi-panel applied moulding raised panel cabinet doors.
Drawer fronts can also be produced in a raised panel design. One thing to keep in mind that raised panel drawer fronts will have to be tall or high (vertical dimension) enough to allow a full panel without losing the center flat portion of the raised panel. Typically this minimum height is 6" to allow for a aesthetically pleasing front as well as providing a large enough flat area in the center of the panel to place a handle or knob.
