Building an identical cabinet door

I was hired to build an identical cabinet door as the one provided. For whatever reason, through the process of having a new kitchen installed, the client was left with one of the sink cabinet doors missing. It was my job to build a new door and to match every profile detail of the door as well as the finish and glaze colors.

Lots of set ups

The door was a mitered style door which makes duplication efforts a bit easier. Using around 7 different set ups between the table saw and the router, I was able to match the profiles of the existing door. I added dominos to the miters on the door frame and then glued up the door and panel.

Finish application

After sanding the door, it was time for finish. I sprayed on a coat of vinyl sealer, let it sit, and then scuff sanded. Next up was matching the base color. After the base color is the glaze. However, when you apply the glaze, it stains (adds color to) the base coat, thus changing its color. I found a clean spot on the door without glaze and used that as my color match to tint the base coat to. I then applied the glaze and shot a coat of lacquer to seal in the glaze. The color of the door was close, but not quite right. It seems the glaze didn’t color the door quite enough. I mixed up a slightly toned top coat and sprayed the door again. This tweaked the color enough so that it matches perfectly. I installed the door in the kitchen and you can’t tell which door was replaced.