Resizing kitchen cabinet/doors

Need to replace a range hood and most of the ones I'm looking at state that 24" minimum should be left between bottom of hood and stove top. I currently do not have that much space available so I will need to resize the upper cabinet currently in place.

That is the goal but I don't have any of the skills/tools/experience to make it happen so I thought of the easiest way to achieve it and I would like your feedback on the method.

I have watched lots of guys, with shops that would make Norm Abrams flinch, take apart doors and router and shape and bandsaw and all other forms of wood-voodoo to make beautiful smaller versions of the door. I thought, why don't we just cut out what we need to cut out from the middle of the door and dowel them back together? For example, if I have a 24" door that needs to be 20", cut out 4" from the middle and glue the two pieces back together. Thoughts or better solutions? What am I missing? Thanks

 

The easy way would be to remove the doors and resize the cabinet box. Then have a cabinet shop either modify or make new doors to fit the new openings.

If you're lucky, some big box stores carry some standard size door that might fit the size you need, but the style will likely not match.

 

We don't know "anything" about the construction of your cabinets, so it's hard to say based on no information provided. If they are 50 year old home made built in cabinets that is one thing. If they are prefab cabinets or euro cabinets that's another. A picture would be helpful if you want a decent answer.

Add to that, things today are not like in times past. If you are doing this yourself and your time is free that's one thing. But if this is something you are going to hire done, a carpenter would probably just put in a new cabinet that is the right size. You can't rework something in less time than it takes to just make and/or install a cabinet.

Then when you say "I don't have any of the skills/tools/experience to make it happen" it doesn't exactly sound like you are capable of it anyway. I think I'm the one that is missing something here?

 

A couple pictures might help others come up with options for you.

If it is the same width as the cabinets over the stove and there is room above the cabinets then you could just move that cabinet section up, I do not mind this look but many others would find it objectionable.

Also if it is in the center of a cabinet section you could do something totally different. Make the cabinet doors a feature.

I do not know how you could cut the door in half remove 4 inches and then not see this join.
Unless they are painted cabinets then you may be able to hide it.
And as Ironhand said you will need good tools to do this so it is best left to the pros.

 

First, thanks all for offering some advise!

Tolyn: I think I would like to do it, if possible, and shopping it out is the last resort.

Manden: There is a chase built above the cabinets for the fan ducting so I won't be able to raise the cabinet as is. I like your thinking about doing something different but as you can see this particular cabinet is at the end and it has the vertical duct in there so that disqualifies a glass door unless the glass is obscured. Maybe the best avenue to consider.

XSleeper: Following are some pics. Please note they have rotated 90* left. The cabinets are raised panel (second pic) and styles and rails are joined with tongue and groove (first pic). The third pic is one of the back. They are made from oak.

 

That helps.

Sure, if you don't mind your cabinet being cut in half, take the cabinet down from the wall run it through a table saw, cut 4" out of the middle of the cabinet box, then reassemble it. You would need to reinforce it on the inside and outside with a new 1/4" panel to help tie the two cabinet halves back together like a giant patch. Because glue only probably isn't a good idea.

You could do the same thing with the cabinet door, cutting 4" out of the middle of the door... then glue and clamp the two halves together again- if you don't mind the seam down the middle and the way it would make the woodgrain look since it would no longer match.

...if that's what you want to do. And you want to buy the tools to do it. And if you don't make a mistake. This is finish carpentry so you have one shot at it.

You can't disassemble the cabinet doors and recut the rails or the raised panel because you definitely don't have the tools or skills to do that.

Or just get a different cabinet that is shorter and replace it.

 

I understand you want to tackle this project, but with limited tools, skills, or experance it will be difficult to get a good looking result. Even a pro would have a hard time cutting down the doors and making them look good.

Resizing the cabinet box would be fairly straight forward with the simplest of tools. Your doors are a simple design with a full overlay. Just resize the box and get new unfinished oak doors and finish them your self.

 

I doubt cutting the door in half will look very good even if a pro did it.
Getting an unfinished door and trying to match the stain is an art that very few can do properly.
At least I know that I cannot do it.
Even a new stained door from the manufacturer will not match if the cabinets have been up a few years.

I do not know if this will work for you but you could cut the cabinet short enough so that you can use one door on it's side. Perhaps opening upwards.
You could leave the sides longer and then build an open shelf under the cabinet to get the height you need for the hood. Since you will have a door and perhaps some other finished wood you could use that as facing so it looks good.
I would leave the side of the cabinet the length to the top of the hood so it looks good from the left exposed side

If the vent will fit in the cabinet width wise perhaps all you need to do is take the bottom out ,
Mount the fan , use a horizontal door and build in an open shelf.

Hopefully you can get more of those tiles and also tile in up to the bottom of the hood.

 

So my take away is that it can be done but it shouldn't be done so it won't be done. I guess if I was going to paint over all cabinets it would work but I don't know about that. Going to investigate on getting new/different doors that will fit new cabinet size. Thanks for all the good input!!