Need help with door design for this cabinet I'm building

[Michael Drew]

I do not make many cabinet doors. I do not make many cabinets either....

I'm the middle of building a liquor cabinet for my whiskey collection. This will go in my kitchen/dinning area, so I wanted it to look nice and match my existing cherry cabinets. I want to put doors with glass panels on this, similar to what you might see on a display cabinet. I was going to use glass shelves too, but decided to just use 3/4" stock or plywood. I am also installing some LED light strips that will be activated by a motion sensor (still sorting through sensor placement).

I'd like the doors to have a slight overlay, maybe 1/2" or thereabouts. The two openings are roughly 44" high, 34" wide. I am planning to use 3 pocket hinges per door. I think I need "partial overlay" hinges?

I'm also planning to build mulligans. I think that's what they are called? Similar to how this guy on YouTube did it, I think (I have never made these either).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVs62WAcDFs

How wide would you recommend I make the stiles and rails? I'm thinking 3" width to give enough room for the pocket hinge and rabbit for the glass. Is that enough?

I also thought I'd just join the stiles/rails with dominos, seeing how I'm not really building them to accept a floating panel. Or should I use a different technique?

The frame is built from 8/4 cherry, and finished dimensions are 1.5" X 1.5".

20240107_170249.jpg

[jack duren]

How wide are the stiles on the face frame?

I may be over thinking , but your gonna have some big doors..

[Jamie Buxton]

If you're using wood shelves, the LED strips should run vertically along the front of the cabinet. If you put the LEDs at the top, the shelves block light from lower shelves. One way to do it is to use a face frame on the casework, so you can hide the LED strips on the back of it.

[Michael Drew]

How wide are the stiles on the face frame?

I may be over thinking , but your gonna have some big doors..

1.5" frame construction.

Two sets of doors that open on opposing ends, four total. Roughly 17" wide, 43" high. So yah, they are not small doors.

[Michael Drew]

If you're using wood shelves, the LED strips should run vertically along the front of the cabinet. If you put the LEDs at the top, the shelves block light from lower shelves. One way to do it is to use a face frame on the casework, so you can hide the LED strips on the back of it.

I glued in a vertical filler piece machined with a 30 deg angle along the back side of the verticle shelf pin boards. The LED light strip will stick to those. Light passage is why I did not build a solid middle panel.

[Steven Mehl]

perhaps you could use 2 sliding glass doors in each opening rather than two or four outward opening doors.

[Michael Drew]

perhaps you could use 2 sliding glass doors in each opening rather than two or four outward opening doors.

Interesting idea, but no, I want outward swinging doors. I have a wall cabinet with glass pains in my kitchen. It is 42" high, 36" wide. The doors are roughly the same size as what I want to make. They've held up fine their 20 years of life so far, so I'm not concerned about building doors for this cabinet. I was only asking for some tips on how to do it. I'll figure it out, regardless of input here.

[jack duren]

perhaps you could use 2 sliding glass doors in each opening rather than two or four outward opening doors.

Actually not a bad Idea for doors that size..