How Trim Frameless Bookshelves

[Tony Filippone]

Planning on going frameless for a builtin cabinet (four doors, now drawers) with builtin bookshelves on top of it. The cabinets and bookcases aren't an issue - there are lots of online resources for those.

My question is how folks trim the units to the wall and ceiling. With face frames, the answer is relatively easy. But, with a frameless design, it's not clear how. Anyone have example pictures or ideas? I've searched and searched, but most frameless searches end up with kitchen cabinets, not builtins!

[Jamie Buxton]

One answer is that you don't trim the cabinet to the wall. Take good measurements, build the cabinet. Set it in place. Done. Yes, you get small gaps to the walls. So what?

A different answer is the same as above, but you add scribe molding. That is, thin molding which pin-nails to the front of the cabinets and covers the gap to the walls. As you're installing it, you may want to trim it a bit so that it covers the gap, but it doesn't overlap the cabinet side into the cabinet opening.

And a third possibility is that you add scribe material to the side of the cabinet while you're building it. At install time, you trim that to fit the wall. Looks cleaner than nailing molding on the front.

[Gene Davis]

As much as I like and use frameless cabinetry, I would never think of doing open-front cabs without faceframes. As you have realized, there is no way to handle the butt-to-wall details.

[Dave Kirby]

As much as I like and use frameless cabinetry, I would never think of doing open-front cabs without faceframes. As you have realized, there is no way to handle the butt-to-wall details.

^^^THIS x10^^^!

[Phil Thien]

I found this:

http://quickscribesystems.com/

I've seen cabinets where a black scribe strip was added to the sides, it was held-back about an inch or so. It looked nice.

[Ethan Melad]

I do something similar to the link above - basically mill a solid scribe strip and attach with screws through the cabinet. This will set the strip at the front edge of the cabinet, 3/4" behind the plane of the doors. Alternately (my preferred method), mill an L-shaped strip so the face of the scribe strip becomes flush with the doors. Lastly, you could rabbet a reveal on the scribe strip (at the wall edge) to create a consistent shadow line if you don't feel that a tight scribe is possible.