Panelled cabinetry for bespoke furniture

A panelled door is built from a frame with a distinct centre panel, rather than a single flat sheet of material. That construction gives the door depth and shadow line before any finish or hardware is added, and it is one of the most versatile ways of detailing fitted furniture, since the proportion, profile and number of panels can be varied to suit almost any room.

We have made this in several forms: Shaker-style doors with a simple flat panel and square-edged frame, more decorative panels with additional moulding, and full hand-painted panelled library walls where cabinetry and wall panelling are designed as a single continuous scheme rather than two separate elements meeting at a joint. Each version reads differently, from the restraint of a plain Shaker front to the formality of a fully panelled room, and the right choice depends on the character the room is aiming for.

Panelling is not confined to doors. Wall panelling can be designed to run either side of a media unit or bookcase, or to line an entire wall behind fitted cabinetry, so the furniture and the room read as one considered scheme rather than a piece of joinery set against an untreated wall. This is one of the more effective ways of making fitted furniture feel integral to a period or traditionally detailed room, since the panelling picks up the language of the architecture around it.

Panelled drawer fronts, most often in a Shaker profile, are frequently paired with panelled doors above or beside them, giving a consistent language across a whole run of cabinetry. Where a client wants a calmer, more contemporary result, a flatter panel with a subtler shadow line can be specified instead, keeping the structure of a panelled door without the more traditional detailing a deep frame and moulding would bring.

Panelled fronts remain straightforward to live with day to day. The recess around a panel is cleaned in the same way as the rest of a painted or timber door, and the added depth of the construction does not affect how doors and drawers operate once fitted. Because the frame and panel are set out and confirmed in drawings before manufacture, a panelled scheme can be extended into an adjoining room at a later date with the original proportions carried through consistently.

The width of the frame around a panel, and the proportion of the panel itself, set the overall character of a door far more than the general description 'panelled' suggests. A narrow frame with a large panel reads calmly and suits a contemporary room, while a wider, more moulded frame gives a more traditional result.

These proportions are set out in drawings during design and checked against the scale of the room, so a panel style chosen from a small sample reads correctly once built at full size.

Where cabinetry sits against a panelled wall, the panel lines, heights and mouldings are set out together so the two read as one scheme rather than a piece of furniture placed in front of separately detailed panelling. This is more involved than specifying a panelled door alone, since it depends on an accurate survey of the wall it will meet.

Panelled doors are usually specified with a visible handle, knob or recessed handle rail rather than a fully handleless front, since the panel detail and a degree of hardware tend to sit well together. Where a handleless result is wanted with panelled cabinetry elsewhere in the room, the two approaches are planned together so the overall scheme still reads coherently.