Ship-themed Cabinet Doors With Porthole

My grandmother has an enclosed deck which is decorated with an old wooden ship motif (see pictures). She asked me to build her some shelves to organize her crafting supplies, etc., with doors. She didn't specify what the doors should look like, so I took it upon myself to try to match them to the existing motif. Here, I'll show you how I went about it.

Required:

1. Circular Saw
2. Miter Saw
3. Jigsaw
4. Drill, bits, regular and pan-head screws
5. Wire wheel
6. Black acrylic paint and a small brush
7. Metallic spraypaint
8. Cedar-tone wood stain, paint roller, paint tray, large brush
9. Metal hardware (handles, hinges)
10. Glass or plexiglass panel
11. Wood boards of various sizes
12. Wood Glue
13. Long Rubber Bands

Optional:

1. Biscuit joiner
2. Pocket hole jig
3. Handplane
4. Second color of wood stain
5. Wooden hole plugs
6. Planer / jointer / table saw
7. Acrylic paint (various colors)

NOTE! If you have some prior experience with woodworking, you probably already know how to go about steps 1 through 4, and you should skip to step 5. That is the step where I explain my process for giving the wood a weathered effect. Frankly, everything prior to step 5 is easier to figure out yourself by looking at the pictures and being creative.

Since everyone's space will be different, you need to take measurements of the place you will be putting this door. Then, I recommend using a free modelling program like Sketchup to plan your cutlist in virtual space (or, just use a pencil and paper like the good ol' days).

In my case, the door needed to be about 76" high and 45.5" wide. I planned it so that I wouldn't have to rip any of the boards to a different width, but you may have to.

Once you have the length and width of the doors, get the measurements of the lumber you plan to use and figure out how many of each board you will need. Once you have drawn or modelled your plan, write a list of all the pieces you will need (for example, a column labelled "1x4s" under which you write the lengths and how many pieces you need of each length, i.e. 2pcs: 22.5"L, 4pcs: 37.75"L, etc.)

This step and step 2 are pretty much going to mingle fluidly - you need to plan to know what to buy, and you need to have an idea of what you will buy so you can plan.

Lumber

Since the theme we are going for is a wooden ship that has seen years of use, we can get away with using cheap wood. In fact, it will make our job easier in this case.

I recommend Menards (genuine unpaid opinion) because they have the best prices of all such retailers, and that is before you take into account the 11% rebate that they offer almost all year.

The project requires standard pine 1x4s for the frame and 1x6 cedar dog-ear fence pickets for the vertical slats and middle horizontal brace. It will also require standard pine 1x2s for the frame of the porthole. [Optionally, you can replace the pine 1x4s and 1x2s with cedar of the same dimensions. The cedar boards sold at Menards are almost always surfaced on 3 sides only - meaning that one side is left rough, which is what we are going for here. Using cedar with a rough side will be slightly more expensive, but it will lessen the amount of roughening that you have to do to the wood later.]

In my case, I needed 1 of the 1x2s, 8 of the fence pickets, and 3 of the 1x4s to make a nearly floor-to-ceiling door. Your door may be significantly smaller, in which case you may want to use 1x4 fence pickets instead (to maintain a pleasing proportion).

NOTE! The above sizes are known as "nominal" sizes - they aren't accurate. There is a historical reason for this, but suffice to say that you always need to check the "actual" size of your lumber. For example, a 2x4 is actually 1.5"x3.5". The "actual" size is usually listed on the product page.

Hardware

Also, you will need screws with heads that stay protruding from the surface (often called pan-head or washer-head screws) with a shaft length of 1" or 1.25" (either will work). You might even find some with the heads already painted black. If you have a pocket hole jig, the screws you use for that ought to be perfect.

Get hinges of the appropriate size to hold your door, and if they will be visible make sure they are either black or copper in color. Same for your door handle. [I had the idea to use a dock cleat for the handle, but decided against it because I only had silver and it wouldn't have matched.]

Coloring

You will need textured metal spraypaint in either copper or dark gray for the porthole frame, a small bottle of black acrylic craft paint for the screw heads, and a can of cedar stain (or two cans, one darker and one lighter). The reason for two stain colors is for contrast between the two coats.

Glass/Acrylic Pane

I'm not sure where to get glass/acrylic panes that cost less than an arm, a leg, and your firstborn. I got mine cheap from a flower shop that closed (they used them as shelves). Just remember: acrylic/plexiglass is easily scratched and prohibitously expensive (for some reason). Glass is actually relatively much less expensive and usually scratch resistant (plus, it doesn't break as easily as you think).

The Main Body of the Door

Now we can finally move on to the part that I can actually guide you through. Regardless of where you are putting the door and how big it is, you need to cut all the pieces. Follow your cutlist until you have all of the pieces cut (in my case, 7 vertical slats, 2 long frame sides, 2 short frame sides, and 1 horizontal brace).

NOTE! I learned the hard way that you need to joint the edges of all these pieces. Even though we're after a rustic, weathered look, you'll thank yourself for making sure all the pieces fit together correctly. If you don't know what jointing is, it's when you make sure that the edges of the boards are straight and parallel to one another. You can do this with either a table saw or a jointer, but you are more likely to have a table saw if you didn't know what jointing is. No worries, that's what YouTube is for!

Also, if you have a handplane, now is the time to take a few passes across the corners of your fence pickets to make the boundary between each board stand out. You could use sandpaper or a router instead, or just forego this part in favor of a cleaner look.

The Porthole Frame

In order to make the porthole frame, you need to make 12 segments on the miter saw out of your 1x2s. In my case, I made each segment 4" long, which resulted in a suitable frame to cover the edges of the 14" diameter hole for my 14" diameter pane of glass. If you have a square pane instead of round, you will still cut a round hole, but the pane will have to be attached to the back of the door rather than set inside the hole. I hate math - you have to figure out for yourself how long to make your segments. I just fiddled with it in Sketchup.

Regardless of how long you make the segments, each piece needs to have a 15 degree miter cut on both sides. The easiest way to do this is to set up a stop block on the miter saw at your desired length, set the saw to 15 degrees, then cut one end off your 1x2. From there, flip the 1x2 over, slide it up to the stop block, cut, then repeat until you have 12 segments.

NOTE! There is a hard-to-explain trick to making sure all your segments come together even if your miter saw isn't perfectly tuned. It involves marking one side of the 1x2 all the way down its length with a pencil before cutting your segments. That way, when you assemble the segments, as long as you alternate between mark-side-up and mark-side-down, they will all fit perfectly. Watch this for a better explanation.

The Main Body of the Door

Method 1: If you have a biscuit joiner...

Cut biscuit holes on both edges of each end of your vertical fence pickets and on one edge of each end of your vertical frame pieces (you could even use dowels or dominoes if you prefer... just not in the biscuit holes. Make appropriately-shaped holes, obviously). Just line the side of the biscuit joiner guide-plate up with the end of the board so you don't have to worry about measuring. If you have a biscuit joiner, you probably don't need me to tell you how it works (YouTube!). Follow this method up with methods 2 and/or 3.

Method 2: If you have a pocket hole jig...

Use pocket hole screws to affix the fence pickets together, making sure the holes are on the back of the door. You will also use pocket screws to attach the horizontal frame pieces to the vertical ones.

Method 3: If you have glue and some kind of clamps...

If you don't have a biscuit joiner or pocket hole jig, just make sure all the boards are jointed and glue them together edge to edge. Ensure good glue coverage with a brush (I recommend cleanable silicone brushes). To gaurantee a good bond, use bar clamps or wedges to squeze the boards together. If you don't have bar clamps or a wedge setup, don't have big enough clamps, or don't have enough, you can do what I did and make do with bungee cords. Of course, I don't recommend this, because you will probably end up wrestling with the tension as the bungees try to fold all your boards together. If push comes to shove, you technically don't even need clamping pressure (though it is always highly recommended). You can simply apply the glue, rub the two surfaces together, then press them together and make sure nothing disturbs the boards until the glue is dry. Wood glue is much stronger than the wood itself, so it will be strong enough to hold the boards together as long as you have good glue coverage.

Finally, regardless of which of the above method(s) you used, place the horizontal brace on the door and screw it into place. Use two screws for each vertical slat. You can also use glue for extra strength prior to putting the screws in.

Porthole Frame

Using the tip mentioned in step 3, arrange your segments into a circle (or, rather, a dodecahedron, as it were). Apply glue to one edge at a time and rub the adjoining edges together before pressing them into place. When you have all of them glued and placed together, take a long rubber band or two and stretch them around the ring of segments to hold them together while the glue dries.

Porthole Placement

After everything is dry, remove the rubber bands, spraypaint the porthole frame with metallic paint and let it dry again, and position the porthole frame on the door. I wanted mine in the center of the top half of the door, so I measured and placed the frame accordingly. Then, trace the inside of the porthole frame with a pencil and remove the frame.

Method 1: Round glass pane...

Somehow or another, be it with a compass or string or sketching or what have you, draw a circle which is slightly larger than the traced shape and the same size as your pane (hopefully you are reading this ahead so you can plan the size of the segments in the first place). Cut out the circle with a jigsaw (drill a hole so you have a place to start the cut).

Method 2: Square glass pane...

Cut out the traced shape with a jigsaw (drill a hole so you have a place to start the cut).

You can now glue the porthole frame in place. For added support and effect, put a screw through the center of each segment.

Use the Wire Brush

If you used all cedar with rough-sawn sides, you don't need to use the wire brush yet. If you used pine or anything which is too nice and smooth, use the wire brush to roughen up the entire surface of the door.

Stain the Surface Sloppily

Using a paint roller, apply a layer of stain to the entire door (excluding the porthole frame, which you've already painted). The trick here is to abandon perfectionism and purposefully apply the stain in a shoddy, inconsistent manner. I found that the best approach was to not apply much pressure to the roller as you use it.

If you are using two different stain colors, this layer should be the darker of the two.

Use the Wire Brush Again

Remember how fun it was to painstakingly roughen the whole surface of your door? Yeah... time to do it again. This time, pay attention to the grain pattern of the wood (especially if you used pine). Don't take all the stain off! Just brush until you notice that the grain pattern is starting to stand out.

Stain the Surface Thouroughly

Now it's time to stain the whole surface (using the lighter of the two stains, if applicable). This time, use a brush, and cover the surface thoroughly like you normally would. Hopefully, the two layers of stain will work together to give the effect that the wood has seen many years of use, weather, and refinishing.

Paint the Screws

Using a small brush and your black acrylic paint, carefully paint the exposed screw heads black. This gives the effect of old, cast-iron bolts.

Attach the Hardware

Attach the hinges and door handle using the included screws.

Affix the Glass

Method 1: Round glass pane...

Fit your pane into the hole you cut for it. Use either silicone or a series of nails to sandwich the pane behind the frame.

Method 2: Square glass pane...

Your pane should be slightly larger than the hole you cut in the door.

Optional: Paint a scene...

Using acrylic paint (or whatever you find sticks best to glass), you could paint a scene on the back of the glass so that it looks like you are seeing, say, a lighthouse out the window. If you want to go this route from the beginning, you can save yourself some effort and money by replacing the glass/plexiglass pane with a bit of masonite or quarter-inch plywood (and then paint the scene on the front of it).