kitchen cabinet doors with "bolection" molding

[jim mills]

Thinking about coming up with a kitchen cabinet door design utilizing a bolection moulding. Never done any before. Good idea or bad? How do I select a "style" for my mold? I could make the mould, but will probably just have it made. looking for input.

PanelCupbMendotDtail4a500.jpg

[Martin Wasner]

Did my last personal house with a moulding wrapped around the inside of a shaker style door. I liked it. Most of the moulding I purchased, but some I made myself with a magic moulder head on the shaper. I needed some odd heights for the coffered ceiling, some paneling, and the interior doors, that's why I made myself. Kind of a pain in the rear, but I'd probably do it again. I just used a partial plant moulding for mine.

[Mel Fulks]

I've always liked them, have one ready to replace old front door exterior casing. Today they seem to be used thick side
out and and thin side in. In earlier times they were used either way ,easy to find photos. If the kitchen cabinets doors are
going to have the too typical many size doors,just use the bolection mould to accent some symmetry ,and make the other
doors plainer.

[jim mills]

Ok, so i am going to call the millwork shop on monday, but im not sure what to ask For. i have a molding chart that has some "panel molding", but no bolection molding. Not sure i am rven using the correct terminology

[Martin Wasner]

I've never heard of bolection molding. New word for me.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolection

[Jerry Miner]

Bolection molding is a molding that sits proud of the surface. Panel mold is what I think you want. It is often---but not always-- rabbeted to allow the panel and frame to be in different planes, as in your pic.

The two terms are somewhat interchangeable, but bolection always sits somewhat proud of the surface, panel mold may or may not.

[Mel Fulks]

The origin of "bolection" ,according to Oxford English Dictionary is unknown, but it's generally any moulding that is thicker on one side, and a rather thick example of moulding .

[Carroll Courtney]

I love the look,but it adds alot of weight to the doors so good hinges will be needed.Us being an open window family our house gets alittle more dusty which means that molding of that detail may collect dust more than basic molding

[Peter Quinn]

It's quite a bit more work than basic cope and stick. Some profiles can be assembled as a picture frame then glued on to the face of the door frame, some can be toe nailed back into the frame with a bit of glue to hold, larger molding may require a stepped rabbited frame with a plywood spline glued into the panel groove and the molding nailed and or glued to the spline so the panel can still float. They are very elegant, I prefer the look for a library or formal room, in my kitchen moldings proud of the door would officially be designated "crap catchers" as they form a shelf for every bit of anything that falls. A simple panel mold may get you the look you desire without the shelf effect proud of the door to act as grease/juice/tomato sauce/dust/everything catcher. Of course everybody is different and some people enjoy spending every waking moment cleaning kitchen moldings...might make a nice accent for parts of tenkitchen furthest from the range.

[Martin Wasner]

But it look so good in a kitchen.

[Jim Dwight]

I made the doors to a storage area under the stairs and the furnace room from my old shop in the previous house. They had a frame of planned down construction lumber and a center panel of mdf. To dress them up, I made a molding like you are talking about. I had to work out the profile to cover the transition between the 1 3/8 frame and the 1/2 inch panel. I only put them on the outside of the doors. It was kind of fun, I had the time. I made the moldings on my router table out of scraps.

[jim mills]

Nice Martin. Did you do those? Do you have a close up of the molding? Thanks!

[Martin Wasner]

Nice Martin. Did you do those? Do you have a close up of the molding? Thanks!

Yep, that's my old house.
That's probably about the closest picture I've got of it.

[Martin Wasner]

I had to run out to the shop, grind down and repaint the back side of a door I made for a little medicine cabinet. It's just stupid, I couldn't use a normal euro hinge, so I had to mortise in a couple of free swinging hinges. When I painted the door, it made the door thick enough that it'd bind on a frame behind the front frame. Stupid.

Anyway, I grabbed a picture of the three mouldings that I used, and one of the sample door I made for a job years ago that I copied and ran in my old house.

From left
L- Made for interior doors, and panels on the coffered ceiling. For the interior doors because there was a 1/2" on the face that the round over had to protrude past on the three panel doors that I had bought. I did the thicker version on the coffered ceiling just to make it pop a bit more.

C- My version of the one on the right. My cutter wasn't exact, but close enough. I had to do a short run to wrap the inside of some cabinet doors, and some paneled openings that were in the house. I would've used the stuff I got from the place I get all my trim from, but I ran out, and didn't want to order more.

R- What I purchased from my trim supplier. Its a partial plant moulding. The original symmetrical. I had them run it without the scoop and no little ledge on one side. So it just has the scoop, little ledge, and the round over.




The sample door I made:



When I originally did this, I just bought the plant moulding, and hacked off what I needed to. When I redid all the cabinets in my old house, I think I bought something like 400', and the extra $50 or so it cost to have them run something special was pretty well diluted over the run.


There's a zillion different profiles you can run. You can wrap just about anything around the opening of a shaker style door. Peter is correct though, it creates a lot of work. You have to build the entire door to the point it is ready for finishing, then add the moulding. I used three chop saws when I did it just so I wasn't constantly changing things around. I would rough cut them to length, maybe an inch long. Then I would cut all of one mitre, then come back and cut the last mitre trimming it to length. It helps to have a compound saw cutting the final mitre, as it is nice to be able to relieve the mitre a little bit so the face touches first. If you do it perfectly, it takes a little tap with a mallet to get the last piece in. I glued all of my pieces in with regular wood glue, and pinned them in with a few 1" micro pins. Works well, takes a while though.

[jim mills]

Thanks again. Really helps, and gives me some ideas. Is the molding glued to the panel, or just the edge of the door?