Drawer front design dilemma

[Bas]

I'm building some false drawer fronts for my shop cabinets. I want to make them look like the flat panel doors I made for the upper cabinets.

View image in gallery​

Basic rails & styles, with a quarter inch plywood panel.

Here's the dilemma. For doors, the rails are always in between the stiles, to minimize the end grain showing. But for drawers, that just doesn't look right to me. That's probably because unlike a door, the rails are longer than the stiles on a drawer. So basically, the design I'm thinking about right now is a door rotated 90 degrees. You'll see the end grain of the rails when you look at it from the side, but when you open the drawer and look from above, you'll just see long grain.

My concern is that if I deviate from the standard design when it's all put together, it'll look "off", especially since two of the lower cabinets are drawer-over-doors.

Thoughts?

 

[bobby g]

Hi Bas,

I'd go with the door design. I've seen this done and it looked good to me. FWIW.

bobby g

 

[Canuck]

Hi Bas,

I'd go with the door design. I've seen this done and it looked good to me. FWIW.

bobby g

+1 Bas!

I am assuming that the drawer front rails and stiles will be a wee bit narrower? :icon_scra

(If too much endgrain exposure is an issue, why not use half laps? :widea:......depending on what type of joinery you plan on using. False fronts on the drawer boxes?)

Wayne

 

[Joe Scharle]

I put these in kitchens a couple of times. I think they were Merrilat, but not sure after all this time.

 

[Bas]

So I've decided to go with the collective wisdom here and make the fronts like the picture Joe posted. Just remember that when you make a door the stiles are the longish bits and the rails are short. For a drawer front the rails are the longer parts. But just because they're longer doesn't mean they shouldn't receive (stub) tenons. In fact, if you want to end up with a drawer front like the one in the picture, it is a REALLY good idea to put stub tenons on the rails. Not the stiles. Definitely don't do that. Because you'll be jointing, planing, ripping and crosscutting more material if you do that.

Got that?

BTW, I think I may need to get some more white oak....

 

[Joe Scharle]

Bas, wish I'd been a fly on the wall when you did the (for me) impossible! How you managed to reverse the cope and stick bit set's design is material for another thread.:rotflm::rotflm:

Incidentally, that drawer front should be very strong since the plywood panel and frame can all be glued. Have you seen MLCS's faux bits?