Best Wood For Cabinet Door Frames

Open grained wood has a rougher look and likely needs filler to look good when painted.

Best wood for cabinet door frames.

Cabinet doors and face frames are often made from solid hardwoods. However some carpenters find that poplar dents easily. Cabinet doors come in a wide variety of styles. Unfortunately it s also the most expensive of the paint grade woods costing about 2 1 2 times the price of soft maple.

The actual dimensions will be 3 4 x 2 1 2 in. There are shaker style cabinet doors flat paneled doors inset doors raised doors and many more. Now mount the doors on your cabinet. Cabinets are built with a mixture of plywood and hardwood solids and both materials matter when choosing what s best.

Learn about 4 types of hinge installation for face frame cabinets. Or 3 4 x 3 1 2 in. Poplar and soft maple are popular for most parts of a cabinet face frames end frames and door panels mostly due to cost and workability. This results in a better and smooth finish especially when the board is painted.

These are just nominal dimensions of course. Plan to use 1 3 or 1 4 hardwood boards for the door s frame. Begin by drilling 1 3 8 holes 1 2 deep with a forstner bit below. Prefabricated or boxed cabinets are built with lower grade thinner materials often overlaid with a wood veneer.

Unfortunately it s also the most expensive of the paint grade woods costing about 2 1 2 times the price of soft maple. The best kitchen cabinets are custom made with high quality materials. Thanks to their adjustability european style hinges make mounting doors as easy as assembling them. If you plan to get the cabinet doors painted we would highly recommend mdf over solid wood.

It s best to build out of tight grain woods to avoid this. Hard maple is the best wood available for paint grade cabinet doors. Store bought wood has very straight and square edges.