Apparently I’m on a cabinet kick lately! When we redid our laundry room cabinets, I was actually a little shocked that we were able to pull it off.
The process was way easier than we expected, and they turned out so good! It was a learning process, but one I’m so happy we took on.
When I started to transform the window seat on the landing between our floors, I didn’t have a full plan in place. But I knew I wanted to carve out the centers of the middle cabinet doors to add caning.
And the bottom shelves on either side of the seat looked like they were supposed to have doors on them.
So one think we knew we wanted to do was to create our own doors for them! This time though, instead of adding plywood to the center of the door frames, I wanted to use cane webbing.
I have been loving the natural cane and rattan look lately, but cane can be a little pricey.
For a project this size though, it would be totally worth it.
I used a jig saw to carve out the centers of the small doors to add my caning, and I love how they turned out!
So it was time to jump into creating my own cane doors for the others!
DIY CABINET DOORS WITH CANE WEBBING – THE ON-TREND LOOK YOU CAN CREATE YOURSELF
Let’s start with a quick materials list, shall we?
Here is what we used…
- 1×3 select pine boards
- Pocket hole screws
- Primer
- Svelte Sage scrub-resistant paint by Sherwin Williams
- Hinges
- Cane webbing
And here are the tools we used…
- HART Tools miter saw
- HART Tools power drill
- HART Tools driver
- Pocket hole jig
- Hinge jig
- Staple gun
- Paintbrush
- C Clamps
- Right angle clamps
- Level
- Tape measure
- Painting tarps
- HART Tools vac for easy cleanup
** Just a note to always make sure you take safety precautions when using power tools! Especially goggles and gloves, and a mask when needed.
For us, we had all the tools and lots of the other materials on hand, so the doors were basically the cost of wood, cane, and hinges!
What might add up is if you need a lot of tools to complete this project! If that’s the case, consider renting some of the tools you won’t use often.
STEP 1: MEASURE & CUT YOUR WOOD
We measured around where our cabinets would be and checked to see what our hinges required. Our hinges had a 3/4″ overlay, so we had to make sure our wood would lay over the existing builtin by 3/4″ as well.
Then, we cut our wood accordingly with a miter saw.
We chose to make the longest pieces of the frame on the doors and drawers go the full length of the frame, where the shorter pieces would connect the longer pieces. (This is hard to explain, so just take a look at the pictures!)
Measure twice, cut once!
STEP 2: DRILL YOUR POCKET HOLES
Next, begin putting together your frames! Grab all 4 pieces for one cabinet door or drawer, your power drill, pocket screws, and a pocket hole jig. You’ll probably also want some clamps here! We used our C clamps and right angle clamps for this step (right angle clamps are lifesavers for this project!).
Grab your shorter pieces of wood and flip them over to the back (where the wood isn’t so smooth and perfect).
Measure the thickness of your wood and make sure you use the right setting on the jig. Then use a pocket hole drill bit and set it to the right wood thickness.
Clamp your jig to your wood with a C clamp so it doesn’t move…
Then use the hole in the jig as your guide, and drill two pocket holes per side of the small pieces of wood for the doors, and one per side for the drawers.
The point of this is to hide your hardware! Then you can use a pocket hole plug to fill in the hole when you’re done if you’d like. Simply sand it down, paint it, and you’re good to go!
STEP 3: PUT YOUR FRAME TOGETHER
Grab all 4 pieces of your frame.
Use a right-angle clamp to make sure your angles are perfect and a C clamp to make sure your boards don’t move.
Again, make sure all your imperfect sides of the wood are facing the back!
We used our HART Tools driver and pocket hole screws to place the screws in the pocket holes on all four sides to secure the frame into place!
STEP 4: ATTACH YOUR HINGES
We purchased some hinges we knew would work well with our hinge jig.
Using a hinge jig, we measured where our hinges needed to go and set our jig accordingly.
For this step, use your instructions for both the jig and your hinges! Your hinge instructions will share the overlay, depth, and other necessary measurements to ensure you install your hinges properly.
We then used two clamps to secure it to the door (sharing what this looked like on our last project because I forgot to take a picture this time!), grabbed our HART drill to attach to the hinge jig bit, and carved out the holes for the hinges!
Once your holes are carved out, there are two pilot hole guides on either side of your hinge jig. Use a small bit to drill your pilot holes for your hinge screws!
You’ll repeat this on the top and bottom of the back side of each door.
Then, simply screw in your hinges to the back of your doors!
STEP 5: PRIME & PAINT
Prime your wood frames with 1 coat of primer and sealer. I used the Bull’s Eye brand, but any primer would do! Let it dry for about 30 minutes, then grab your paint!
I used Svelte Sage by Sherwin Williams for these. Such a beautiful sage green! I added 2 coats, and since I was just painting two frames for my cabinets, I used a soft paintbrush to do the job instead of a sprayer.
I allowed them to dry while I began soaking my cane!
STEP 6: INSTALL YOUR CANE WEBBING
Cane is very stiff and hard to work with as is. I soak mine in a bath of warm water for 30 minutes to an hour or until it’s nice and flexible!
Then allow it to drip dry for a few minutes (but you’ll want to work with it while it’s still wet!), and cut it down to the sizes you need with some scissors.
Once it’s cut, it’s time to install it on your cabinet frames! Flip your frames over to the back and lay out your caning.
Grab your staple gun (if you don’t have one, I’ve also used hot glue and it worked as well! It was just messier and a little more time consuming).
Using your staple gun, stretch the cane across your frame to tighten it (don’t worry if it’s a little loose as it will tighten as it dries), then use your staple gun to secure it around all four corners.
Then secure it with staples along the sides as well. I used quite a few to make sure it held closely with the frame.
Then use some scissors to trim down the excess, flip them over, and get ready to install!
STEP 7: INSTALL
Now it’s time to install! Hold up your doors with the hinges extended and measure exactly where you want your doors attached. Mark where you’ll screw your hinges in and make sure to keep it consistent for all your doors!
Using a small bit in your drill, drill pilot holes for your screws where you made your marks
Then grab the screws your hinges came with and use them to screw in your hinges!
Most hinges are a little adjustable, so you can loosen or tighten the additional screws on the hinges if you need them to move a little up, down, right, or left.
Once you’ve made your adjustments, check with a level to make sure your cabinets are sitting straight, then step back and admire your work!
You’ll be amazed at how the caning really elevates your cabinets. It completely transformed the look and feel of our window seat, and it was actually pretty easy!
What do you think?
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