Painted/Stained Wood Drawer Fronts

[Kyle Kaldor]

Has anyone had any experience building and finishing a cabinet door/drawer front with painted frame and a stained wood panel? I'm wondering how I would go about doing this.

Door Painted & Wood.JPG

Thanks in advance,
Kyle

[Sam Murdoch]

Finish your panels completely before assembly into the frame. After assembly - carefully apply painters tape along the perimeter of the panel - then tape a piece of news print or paper bag or the like, cut to fit smaller than the size of the panel - about 1/2" in all around. You will then tape the paper to the first strip of tape. Finally spray or paint your frames as needed. Ideally the inside edges of the frames will be sanded ahead of assembly. You would still need to lightly sand between coats of paint but the tooling marks at least will have been eliminated. Finish the frames to your liking.

[Jim Becker]

As an alternative to Sam's approach, you can also construct the frames such that the panels are removable from the back, finish them separately and then assemble before applying them to the actual drawer boxes.

[Kyle Kaldor]

Jim, that's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?! I like it because I won't have to worry about any paint bleeding under the tape.

[Jim Becker]

For an applied front, there is more flexibility in construction because there will not be any significant stresses on the frame/panel joint. And there's zero masking this way. (And if the panel moves seasonally, there will also be no finish gap) Just remember that when you fasten it to the drawer, do so to the thicker frame material...