Rustic Cabinet Door Styles

Flea Market Style

• A few pieces of old barn wood and a flea market window make a beautiful glass front cabinet to display treasures in a kitchen or family room. Hunt for a window with intact glass but a weathered, chipped and peeling frame. While you're exploring the flea market, keep an eye out for old hinges, hooks or knobs. Build the simplest possible open box, measured so the window can be hinged onto one side and will close over the opening and latch. Fit one or two boards in the box for shelves, Attach the window and the latch or knob and stand the new cabinet up vertically. You've just created instant country charm to hold whatever needs putting away but is too pretty to hide out of sight.

European Country Style

• New cabinet doors can be aged to look wonderfully old and beat-up with some elbow grease and a wire brush. Hardwood cabinet doors are best for this treatment. If the cabinets are already installed and covered in multiple coats of paint, you can strip the doors, leaving traces of the old paint on them in a powdery and streaked realistic finish. This is a tough, messy job, but the end results are classic vintage.

  New cabinets are easier to age. Bleaching the wood and distressing it with a wire brush prepares the doors for very watered down whitewashing and some dry-brushed pale green paint. It's the best of both worlds -- cabinets that function like new but look like a piece of history. White or pale stucco walls and a Terra cotta floor give a Mediterranean flavor to this kitchen.

Prairie Farmhouse Style

• Doors for a homemade, rustic cabinet and hutch unit are easy to assemble from old barn wood. Long unpainted boards are used for the back and sides of the cupboard. All the barn wood will eventually be painted on the cupboard's exterior and left unpainted inside. The hutch has shelves and two salvaged glass paned doors. The bottom cabinet, also fitted with inside shelves, has double doors made of plain boards nailed to a crossbar. The panels are whitewashed and distressed or painted with crackle glaze on their exteriors and left unpainted on the inner, crossbar side. The doors are hinged at either side to the bottom cabinet and fastened closed with a stick of wood, also whitewashed, and screwed loosely to the frame so it can be turned to "lock" the doors.