Cupboard Doors for Dummies

louvered shutters used for cabinet doors

If you've ever attempted to build a door – any door, to fit any opening anywhere – you quickly learned that it's not as simple as just sticking up a piece of wood with some hinges and calling it a day. Based, however, on his instructions for one such task, it's pretty obvious that eHowian Guy Gardner is not among those who've ever taken on that particular task. If you need evidence, just take a look at his Sapling.com post, "How do I Make Cheap Cupboard Doors for a Bookcase?" Sapling.com? Really?

Like most of eHow.com's contributors, Gardner seems to have been pretty literal in his interpretation of the task at hand. While the OQ probably wanted to turn a garage-sale bookcase into a shallow cabinet, Guy introduced his post thus:

"If your bookcase is looking a little too cluttered and you would like to clean up the look of your room without having to buy a new bookcase or getting rid of your book collection you can always add cabinet doors."

He also thought that it's "not as difficult as it sounds." How difficult does it sound, Guy? In reality, the difficulty is pretty much dependent on how good you want the finished product to look. Based on these instructions, Gardner pretty much didn't care:

• "...measure the front of the bookcase to determine the length and width needed for the cabinet doors... Measure appropriately. Measure the two pieces of lumber, and mark the area to be cut with a pencil." – Wait, what does "[m]easure appropriately" mean, anyway? and what two pieces of lumber? Inquiring minds want to know...
• "Place the lumber on a work bench and saw off the excess wood with a hand saw or table saw." – Based on that sentence, it's a safe bet that Gardner has never seen a table saw in his life...

Guy continued in this vein, devoting 93 words to installing a pair of knobs and 81 more to adding hinges. He didn't mention a stop for flush doors, but Guy probably thought "flush" only applies to toilets. Given that he devoted a whoppin' 75 words to measuring (probably the most important step in carpentry), his other prose seems somewhat overdone. But what do you expect out of someone so clueless that he thinks all you do is "two pieces of lumber" to make your doors?

No, Guy, that's not how it's done. For one, you're fairly unlikely to find a bookcase narrow enough that "two pieces of lumber" would suffice for doors. For another, the solution would (to be frank) look like crap. There are lots of ways to do this, including such solutions as a pair of "café shutters" or some ¼-inch plywood and a little molding. A craftsman would use a rail and stile panel design, something simply unimaginable for the likes of our Dumbass of the Day.

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DIIY - CABINETS