Desperately Need Carpentry Advice! (CLOSED THREAD)

Bendy_House

ComicGeek said:

This is what we installed a couple of years ago - some made to measure Blum drawers with some expertly cut mdf panelling sheets by our carpenter neighbour.

Now that's just showing off!

I love it. Great detail - the wee 'return' on the curved top of the LH drawer - nice touch :-)

Nice colour too - recall what it's called?

ComicGeek

Bendy_House said:

ComicGeek said:

This is what we installed a couple of years ago - some made to measure Blum drawers with some expertly cut mdf panelling sheets by our carpenter neighbour.

Now that's just showing off!

I love it. Great detail - the wee 'return' on the curved top of the LH drawer - nice touch :-)

Nice colour too - recall what it's called?

I can't take any credit, it was our neighbour who came up with the solution and made it work. The curved top was to stop my little boy from losing an eye!

At the time the made to measure drawers from drawerboxes.co.uk and sheet material were about £150 - I bet that's gone up a lot now.

The colour is French Grey Pale from Little Greene - fantastic paint, we just use the same paint on woodwork and walls, just wipes clean.

Bendy_House

Cheers - not just a design feature, then! Nice colour - just spot on, all of it.

Beverley75

I decided to just go for the MDF and paint it (and pray it doesn't look as tacky).

I asked him to do panelled doors and now my carpenter is asking if I want regular MDF or 2 skin mesh MDF? 

I think he means in order to do a shaker style door he has to do the "2 skin" thing - which will make the door heavier? Do I need to be careful of anything if the doors are heavier. 

We're not doing a bottom frame - the doors will be flush to the ground (to not damage the floor apparently) 

FreeBear

If you are going shaker style, one would normally use a thin sheet in the middle (6-12mm thick) and add strips around the edge for stiffness & strength. This gives you a fairly lightweight door with enough thickness at the edges for hinges and catches.

Beverley75

FreeBear said:

If you are going shaker style, one would normally use a thin sheet in the middle (6-12mm thick) and add strips around the edge for stiffness & strength. This gives you a fairly lightweight door with enough thickness at the edges for hinges and catches.

Okay - thank you 👍

Bendy_House

Beverley75 said:

I decided to just go for the MDF and paint it (acts pay it didn't look as tacky as I think it will!).

I asked him to do panelled doors and now my carpenter is asking if I want regular MDF or 2 skin mesh MDF? 

I think he means in order to do a shaker style door he has to do the "2 skin" thing - which will make the door heavier? Do I need to be careful of anything if the doors are heavier. 

We're not doing a bottom frame - the doors will be flush to the ground (to not damage the floor apparently) 

Not sure what 'mesh' MDF is. But, as FB points out, the simplest way to make shaker-style doors from MDF is to cut a 12mm MDF panel to the size of the actual required door, and glue (PVA) 12mm thick MDF strips ('stiles') to the top, bottom and sides. Bevel the edges to give V-grooves where they join. Plane a small bevel along all outside edges too, to soften the whole effect.

Routing V-grooves vertically down the central panel (before adding the stiles) adds to the 'shaker' effect. Or double-grooves like ComicG has done for a super-special effect.

The door I showed before was made just like this - 12mm MDF for it all, with the stiles in this case being 80mm wide.

Alternatively, if you look at ComicG's example, you'll see there's no 'frame' added, but it's not needed as the double grooves adds all the interest it could need; I think it looks superb. In this case, you'd need to use 18mm or even thicker MDF as a single sheet, and route in these grooves. 18mm would probably do.

Beverley75

Bendy_House said:

Beverley75 said:

I decided to just go for the MDF and paint it (acts pay it didn't look as tacky as I think it will!).

I asked him to do panelled doors and now my carpenter is asking if I want regular MDF or 2 skin mesh MDF? 

I think he means in order to do a shaker style door he has to do the "2 skin" thing - which will make the door heavier? Do I need to be careful of anything if the doors are heavier. 

We're not doing a bottom frame - the doors will be flush to the ground (to not damage the floor apparently) 

Not sure what 'mesh' MDF is. But, as FB points out, the simplest way to make shaker-style doors from MDF is to cut a 12mm MDF panel to the size of the actual required door, and glue (PVA) 12mm thick MDF strips ('stiles') to the top, bottom and sides. Bevel the edges to give V-grooves where they join. Plane a small bevel along all outside edges too, to soften the whole effect.

Routing V-grooves vertically down the central panel (before adding the stiles) adds to the 'shaker' effect. Or double-grooves like ComicG has done for a super-special effect.

The door I showed before was made just like this - 12mm MDF for it all, with the stiles in this case being 80mm wide.

Alternatively, if you look at ComicG's example, you'll see there's no 'frame' added, but it's not needed as the double grooves adds all the interest it could need; I think it looks superb. In this case, you'd need to use 18mm or even thicker MDF as a single sheet, and route in these grooves. 18mm would probably do.

I honestly don't know what I'd do without all of the detailed advice you're all freely offering up! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all of that - I'll pass on to my carpenter what I want done (and sound like an expert 😂) 

Beverley75

Thank you all so, so much for all of your advice and help!

The job is done (in MDF) and looks really smart 😁

(in MDF) 😁



(I'll do a last picture when it's painted) 

Bendy_House

Wow! That was quick! And this guy is neat.

Niiiice job  

I guess the 'obvious' thing to do is have them painted the same colour as that panelled door - a soft white?