red Oak Wall Cabinets With Domino Splines
Clients reach out to us with requests for custom pieces, things they can’t pull off a shelf at the big box store. This set of three red oak wall cabinets was one of those. Each cabinet measures 24 by 24 by 10 inches and is built to hang on the wall using a French cleat system, with a blue shelf set inside to break up the grain. Custom work like this is most of what we do, so here’s how the set came together.
The cabinets are built with mitered corners, which keeps the wood looking continuous around the outside with no visible end grain. A miter looks great, but it has a weakness. Two long-grain faces meeting at 45 degrees give you a good amount of glue surface, but glue alone doesn’t stop a corner from wanting to open up over time. We wanted something mechanical in there, so for this set we tried a new technique: splines cut with a Festool Domino joiner.
The Domino cuts matching mortises into both sides of each corner, and a walnut spline sits across the joint to lock the two pieces together. We ran several along each corner. The result is a row of small rounded walnut inserts that show on the outside of the box. This was a new technique for us, and turned out well. Not only does it add the detail that a typical spline would, but it’s also curved which is something you rarely see in a spline.
The glue-up was the fiddly part. Each box is a lot of pieces held at tight angles, so we used dominos in the mitered joints, their intended purposes, to keep things lined up while the clamps went on. Clamp pressure on a miter can make things go wonky, so great care was taken when setting each clamp. This time Mike did the glue up for all three boxes. Next time, the old adage “many hands make light work” will guide our glue-up — Mike was a ball of stress and nerves for the entire glue up process.
The client chose Rubio Monocoat for the finish since the cabinets will be exposed to some moisture from time to time when they are used as tables. The set took about two weeks to finish once we sourced the rough lumber from our local supplier. The cabinets are now hanging in a client’s home in Brooklyn, NY along with several other items we’ve made for this client.
If you have a cabinet, shelf, or set of pieces in mind that you can’t find anywhere else, reach out through our contact page and tell us what you’re picturing. We’ll tell you honestly whether we can build it.
