Making or Fabricating Glass Cabinet Doors
There are many methods used for making kitchen glass display cabinet doors. For china cupboards you may be fabricating a wood framed style. A wall-unit may be designed with a more contemporary look by having just glass, mounted with special hinges and fabricated with no wood frame at all.
It is possible to remodel existing Formica doors by cutting out the center and adding special decorative trim molding to hold the regular clear, frosted, etched or stained glass in place.
Remodel Formica Kitchen Cabinet Doors to Have Glass
Here’s an excellent video showing how to remodel existing solid kitchen cabinet doors to accept decorative glass. I never knew it was so easy to transform older Formica(or “plastic laminate”) into elegant looking framed doors that have your choice of glass inserted in them. There are only a few steps required for altering kitchen cupboard doors.
1) Measure and mark out the frame size on the door by using the glass as a guide.
2) Cut out the center section that the glass will be inserted into.
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3) Frame the frontside of the cut-out with decorative trim, letting it overhang the opening enough to hold the glass in place.
4) Insert the glass from the backside of the door
5) Cut the back trim molding pieces and apply them so they overhang enough to secure the glass in place.
Glass Cabinet Doors with no Frame
There are special hinges, touch latches and pulls that work specifically with glass cabinet doors which have been designed without a frame. Most of the hardware for these doors are manufactured to work with a ¼” thick piece of material. The hinges are available in a pin style which slides onto the top and bottom of the door or a cup hinge that gets inserted into a hole that is drilled in the glass
How to Make a Glass Cabinet Door with no Frame
1) Choose the style of hinge to be used
2) Determine the size door you need in relation to the hinge style chosen.
3) Place the order with your local glass company. If you’re using a cup hinge that will require a special sized hole to be drilled, you may have to make several calls to various glass cutting shops. Not all fabricators have the special drill bit for drilling the hinges holes in the glass. Make sure to have a hole drilled for the pull or handle too.
4) Attach the hardware and install the glass door onto the cabinet.
5) Special note: Cup hinge doors can be inset or made in an overlay style but the pin style hinge only works with an inset door application.
Another method is to just order the framed glass door form a local cabinet company or Home Depot. As the video demonstrated, it’s easy to remodel Formica doors and this can add elegant beauty to an old kitchen.
Making the doors yourself is an option that we did not explore. Fabricating them would just be a matter of creating a framed style out of whatever material you’re working with. Youtube has plenty of videos explaining how to make glass doors.