• Home
  • About
    • Personal Posts
  • Privacy
  • Shop
    • My Account
    • Checkout
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
Sawdust Girl®

Sawdust Girl®

Renovation, cabinet building and woodworking plans and tutorials. Build like a Girl®

  • My Home
    • Clinton TN House
      • Clinton TN House in Progress
    • Maryville TN House
      • Maryville TN House Tour – Completed Rooms
      • Maryville TN House in Progress
        • Basement
        • Basement Storage Closet
        • Bedroom Office
        • Craft Room
        • Dining Room
        • Entry
        • Garage
        • Guest Bedroom
        • Hallway
        • Jack and Jill Bathroom
        • Kitchen
        • Kitchen Entry
        • Laundry Room
        • Library
        • Living Room
        • Loft
        • Madison’s Room
        • Master Bedroom
        • Master Closet
        • Pantry
        • Porch
        • Powder Room
        • Wes’ Office
    • Illinois House
    • Calderwood Cottage
  • My Workshop
    • Clinton Workshop
  • Build & Breakfast
  • Cabinet Making 101
    • Cabinets
    • Doors
    • Drawers
  • Projects and Plans
    • Countertops
    • Beds
    • Benches
    • Bookshelves
    • Desks
    • Gift Ideas
    • Holiday
      • Christmas
      • Halloween
    • Home Accessories
    • Kids
    • Kitchen Cabinets
    • Lockers
    • Nightstands
    • Organization accessories
    • Recipes
    • Sewing
    • Tables
    • Vanities
    • Wardrobes
    • Woodworking
      • Wood Finishing
    • Workshop
    • Workshop Storage and Organization
  • Remodeling 101
    • Baseboard and Trim
    • crown molding
    • Demolition
    • Door and Window Casings
    • Door Installation
    • Drywall
    • Electrical work
    • Flooring
    • Home Maintenance
    • Painting
    • Plumbing
    • Resources
    • Safety
    • Tile
    • Wall and Ceiling Treatments
  • Sawdust Squad
  • The Sawdust Diaries
    • Andrea
    • Ava D.
    • Beckie F.
    • Cara C.
    • Courtney B
    • Fawn T.
    • Jenn D.
    • Kelly C.
    • Kristy K.
    • Lara T.
    • Malisa B.
    • Marnie D.
    • Robin C.
    • Val F.
  • Tools
    • Products
    • Tool Reviews & Overviews
    • Inspiration & Ideas

How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

All Posts, Cabinet Making 101, Cabinets, Free Plans, Kitchen Cabinets

In the last posts I explained three methods for building cabinets and basic techniques for cabinet building.  This post applies to building and attaching a cabinet face frame which is the next step to building a cabinet.  There are several methods I use to ATTACH the face frame but I generally always BUILD the face frame with pocket hole screws.

How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

Build Faceframe

  • I generally always build my face frames out of 1×2 poplar when painting.  If staining your piece you want to match your face frame wood as closely as possible to your carcass lumber.
  • I use wood glue and my K5 Kreg jig set for 3/4″ material and use 1 1/4″ coarse thread pocket hole screws.  EASY!  Make sure you clamp down the pieces as you drive your screws.

How to build a faceframe

*The important thing to know about using pocket hole screws when working with wood is you want to DRILL the holes INTO the END GRAIN and DRIVE the screw into the CROSS GRAIN.  It will hold better and be less likely to split.

End grain = grain runs in the direction of the pocket hole you are drilling.

Cross grain =  screws drives in perpendicular to – or across the grain.

build and attach a cabinet faceframe

 

Attach Faceframe

There are several ways to approach attaching the face frame.

How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

 

Glue and Nails

If I’m painting my face frames I don’t mind using filler to hide nail holes and it’s quick and easy to use only glue and nails to attach a face frame.  I’m talking finish nailers NO bigger than 16 gauge.  18 is preferred IMO.

Wood glue is VERY strong and it’s a suitable method. It’s not the strongest joint so if possible, I like to sure it up with fasteners of one sort or another.  BUT, in some situations, I don’t want visible pocket holes (and I don’t want to plug, trim, sand and patch a bunch of pocket holes either) and on built-in pieces where the face frame is huge and would be impossible to build as a unit and then install with biscuits this is how I do it.

 

Pocket hole screws on the outside of cabinet.

  • Wood glue
  • pocket hole screws

If your cabinet sides are not visible and you used the wood screw or pocket hole method to build your cabinet, you can use pocket hole screws to attach your face frame.  It’s fast and secure.  Apply some wood glue and drive your screws into the pocket hole.

How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

Pocket hole screws on the inside of cabinet.

  • Wood glue
  • pocket hole screws

If your cabinet sides will be visible and you took the extra time and effort to hide your fasteners, you most likely don’t want a bunch of pocket holes drilled in the side of your cabinet.  This is great if you are putting drawers in your cabinet because the pocket holes will not be seen at all.

How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

Invisible joinery with biscuits

  • Wood glue
  • biscuits

Using a biscuit joiner will hold the face frame on securely without any visible fasteners at all.How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

Hiding fasteners with false side panel

I generally go with pocket holes on the outside of the cabinet or nails (I use wood glue in all methods) and if I’m going to see one or both sides of a cabinet I size my face frame 1/2″ too wide so I have an extra 1/4″ hanging over each side that will hide my false panel after I attach it, which I usually do with caulk.

How to build and attach a cabinet faceframe

how to build and attach a cabinet face frame

Get all my cabinet building tips in one place in my Cabinet Building 101 eBook.  You can download it and keep it on hand!

$9.99Add to cart

Cabinet Building 101 eBook

January 22, 2019 · 19 Comments

« How to Build a Cabinet with Dado Joints
Kitchen Island with Hidden Cabinet Doors »

Comments

  1. Nancy says

    January 22, 2014 at 5:32 pm

    Great tutorial!

    One question…if you have several cabinets in a row, do you double the width of the vertical pieces to cover the faces of two cabinets that are butted up against each other?

    Reply
    • Sandra says

      January 23, 2014 at 8:37 am

      When I’m building kitchen or bath single cabinets, I put a face frame on each one separately and then attach the cabinets together.

      Reply
  2. angela says

    January 22, 2014 at 10:48 pm

    These are really helpful thank you for posting. It is really hard to find clear and concise instructions on cabinet building that doesn’t require fancy methods. I hope you will be posting more!!

    Reply
    • Sandra says

      January 23, 2014 at 8:38 am

      Thanks Angela.

      Reply
  3. Paul says

    January 23, 2014 at 5:54 am

    What size timber did you use for the face frame? Love your work mate really easy to follow.

    Reply
    • Sandra says

      January 23, 2014 at 8:36 am

      1×2 Paul. Thanks.

      Reply
  4. JulieW says

    January 23, 2014 at 10:30 am

    I’ve been having problems with the face frames for my cabinets. My Kreg Jig doesn’t drill into the poplar as well as it does into white wood and if I try to screw into the pocket hole it splits the wood. My Kreg Jig is calibrated properly and I have a new drill bit so why is it splitting before I can get half the screw in?

    Reply
    • Carl Liebno says

      January 23, 2014 at 2:13 pm

      Julie Are you using the right size drill bit for your screws

      Reply
      • JulieW says

        January 23, 2014 at 4:29 pm

        Thank you for replying Carl but are you asking if I’m using the correct screw that correlates with the Kreg Jig? That answer is no. Simply because I live in BFE and the nearest big box is over 30 miles away and they are always out of those particular screws. My local hardware store only carries the basic screw. So I am using a 1.5″ wood screw because that’s what I can get.

        Reply
        • Carl Liebno says

          January 23, 2014 at 4:52 pm

          Hi Julie
          Got your reply. Maybe try a #6×1 1/2 course drywall screw. In building a lot of my shelves and stuff that is all I use. Let me know how that works

        • shells says

          January 25, 2014 at 4:16 pm

          Just chiming in with a thought Julie, Kreg screws are self tapping so that no pre-drilling is required, that’s why they don’t split the wood. If I use Kreg or Spax screws I don’t predrill (regardless if I’m using a kreg jig or not), but if I don’t predrill with regular wood screws they will almost always split the wood. If you don’t have a Kreg screw supplier near-by, Home depot offer free shipping with orders over $45 and I think you can get them on amazon as well.

    • Sandra says

      January 23, 2014 at 6:25 pm

      I would try a fine thread screw if it’s splitting. 1 1/4″ long for 3/4″ material. Try dipping your screws in soft wax before you drive them in. Let me know if this solves the problem.

      Reply
  5. shells says

    January 23, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    Great tutorials!! I was wondering though why you seem to favor face frame rather than frameless construction for the cabinet carcases. Is it just a personal preference, or for aesthetic or structural reasons?

    Reply
    • Sandra says

      January 23, 2014 at 6:23 pm

      It’s both structural and aesthetic.

      Reply
  6. Carl Liebno says

    January 23, 2014 at 2:10 pm

    Hi Sandra
    Thank you for all of the posts. they are really helpful. Hope that you are feeling better after your surgery. Take it easy and let everything heal up before you go back to work.

    Reply
  7. Mike says

    February 18, 2014 at 12:36 am

    Long time viewer, first time commenter. Love your site and I’m in the process of doing a master closet built-in. Just curious to know how you would handle face frames for cabinets butted up against each other in a built in. Also, if you attach the face frames to each cabinet individually, I assume the frame and side of the cabinet are flush? You don’t talk about measurements in this post.
    Thanks in advance for any help on this.

    Reply
  8. Michael Hua says

    August 9, 2018 at 10:10 am

    Hi Sandra,
    I built my built in wardrobe cabinet face frame out of 1/2″ MDF wood due to the space I had left available before hitting a light switch (the “not perfectly straight walls behind the wardrobe” got me. now I’m struggling to find the right self closing, hidden hinges that I can attach to my 1/2″ MDF frames. Do you know what hinges will work for my issue? Thanks in advance for the help.

    Reply
    • Sandra says

      August 10, 2018 at 10:05 am

      I would not attach hinges to the 1/2″ mdf faceframe. Are you doing inset doors? Assuming that a regular thickness faceframe was going to hit the light switch, an overlay door would hit that switch. If doing inset doors, that’s an easy fix. Block out behind the faceframe so the block is flush with the faceframe. Then you can use frameless hinges that you attach to the wall of the cabinet. (You might be able to do that same thing for overlay doors but I’ve never done it…so I’m not sure.)

      Reply
  9. Andrew says

    October 14, 2019 at 6:01 pm

    Once you have the face frame cabinets assembled. Assuming all the edges are flush . How do you deal with hinges ? I want to use concealed European soft close but always found I had to double up the stock on the edges to use regular inset hinges. ? The face frame concealed hinges that exist from Blum leave a 1/8” gap on the hinge side. So my question is how do you get your doors flush with concealed hinges ?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

New Post email notification signup

You Subscribed!

Legal Stuff

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Disclosure

Recent Posts

  • Lodge Update – Floors, Cabinets, Countertops, and Appliances
  • Lodge Kitchen Cabinet Progress
  • Halloween Mad Gab – Halloween Party Ideas
  • Concrete Backsplash or Vertical Wall Treatment
  • Building and Installing a Giant Faux Beam on the Ceiling

Disclaimer:

Although it is my intention to provide accurate plans and clear instructions, not all plans have been tried and tested. Using plans or information found on SawdustGirl.com indicates that you agree with the Terms of Use policy and will accept full responsibility for the process and outcome of any project you attempt. All plans are for private use only. Plans and information published on SawdustGirl.com may not be reproduced, republished or distributed in any manner without written permission from Sandra Powell, Sawdust Girl. Actual projects built using Sawdust Girl plans may be published on your own site without instructions or "tutorial" as long as you provide a link to my original post with full post title or "SawdustGirl.com" as link title.

Copyright © 2022 · anchored theme by <a target="_blank"