Cabinet Door Styles (May 19, 2009)

Cabinet doors can be, framed or frameless - neither of which have anything to do with whether the cabinet itself is framed or frameless. Either door can be used on either cabinet type.

The term door style actually refers to the type of panel that is used on the door. There are four major types of door styles: Slab/Flat Panel, Recessed Flat Panel, Raised Panel (Solid), Raised Panel (Veneer). There are countless variations of these basic styles.
(Mullioned, glass, concave, convex, and other specialty doors are discussed in Cabinet Door Styles - Part 2)

Frameless Door (Slab / Flat Panel )

The term slab is most often used to describe wood doors that have the appearance of a solid piece of wood, with no raised or recessed profile.

Due to the nature of wood, these doors are actually made of several pieces of solid stock lumber joined with adhesive, then cut to size. The wood strips used to construct the panel may not all match in graining and color.

Typically, the door's strength comes from the manner in which the pieces of solid wood are reversed as they are glued, providing cupping and warping resistance

Some manufacturers do not use the reverse gluing method.

Instead, wood strips are group together (vertically or horizontally) and reinforced with battens (strips of wood) across the back side, going in the opposite direction of the boards on the front side. Some are made of a single panel with grooves cut to resemble separate boards. A batten door gives a kitchen a rustic country look.

Laminated slab styles are made of a substrate material such as particleboard or flakeboard, then covered with the manufacturer's choice of laminate. Slab door styles may have detailed or plain edge profiles.

Framed Door


The cabinet door frame is like a picture frame. Separate pieces of wood, engineered wood, medium density fiberboard (MDF), or solid hardwood surround a panel in the middle.

The vertical sections of the frame are called stiles, and the horizontal sections are rails. The fame can range anywhere from 1/2" to 3/4" thick.

The rails and stiles are joined together using one of three methods:

Mitered Joint
Mitred doors and drawers have a frame that is joined by a mitre joint at the corners. A mitre joint is a 45¡ã cut on both the stile and the rail. This joint runs diagonally from the inside corner of the frame to the outside corner.

Mitre cut doors are used on doors that have a fancy detail on the stile and rail that would be difficult to form with a Cope & Pattern joint (see below).

Miter joints are also used on inexpensive doors because this type of joint is easy to make.

Tenon & Mortise Joint
A traditional tenon and mortise joint (similar to tongue and groove) is the most common, and provides strength to the joint. Each end of the rail has a tenon (extension), which fits into a pocket (mortise) cut into the side of the stile.

Cope & Pattern Joint
This type of joint is often seen on furniture grade cabinetry.

Cutting tools are used to cut the rails (horizontal) and stiles (vertical) which result in two pieces, each a mirror image of the other.

In addition, a slot is cut into the rail and stile for the center door panel. The shape of the cut allows for a greater glue area, resulting in a stronger joint.

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