19th-century look for cabinets … pattern-punched aluminum

Sunset, June, 1988

19th-century look for cabinets...pattern-punched aluminum Reminiscent of 19th-century pierced-tin pie safes, these aluminum-paneled cupboard doors lend a distinctive country flavor to a tract-house kitchen. Owners Pam and Dave Angelo, of Suisun City, California, made the doors themselves--and involved their two children in the simple and inexpensive project. First, they refaced the cupboards with stained knotty pine. Then they made new door frames of pine 1-by-4s, cutting dado grooves in the back sides of the interior edges to receive the aluminum panels. The frames' butt joints were glued and reinforced with pairs of blind dowels. Thin wood strips hold the panels in place. For the pattern-punched panels, the Angelos bought 32-gauge aluminum flashing (a 2- by 20-foot roll costs about $12). They taped cut-to-size panels to scraps of plywood, then taped cardboard templates with pencil-drawn patterns on top of the metal. (Quilting pattern books can be good sources for pattern ideas.) Next, they lightly tapped a file-sharpened 3 1/2-inch (16d) common nail through the template and aluminum at 1/4-inch intervals to make the pattern. The total cost of the project was less than $100.

PHOTO : Tapping nail through taped-down template transfers pattern into aluminum panel

PHOTO : Thin wood strips secure panels to door backs; 5/8-inch woodscrews hold strips

PHOTO : Shiny metal panels in knotty pine frames give remodeled kitchen a rustic look, stand out

PHOTO : against tongue-and-groove pine walls