If you attempt to remove it there will be a gap between the doors when they are closed. You can put on a t-astical on the back of one of the doors to close up the gap if you think you can stain something close enough to match.

Thanks, its funny when you are looking at these things how much different you look at things. I just had dinner at my brothers place and I was checking out his cabinets. He does not have this piece nor is there anything on the door. Yet there doesn't seem to be a gap either. How would this be accomplished?

Your brother probably has full overlay cabinet doors. They are a more expensive design. I believe you would either need to install new cabinets, specifying frameless, full overlay, or you would need to have new cabinet doors made to achieve this look on your current cabinets.

I removed the stile from the middle of my builder's cabinet above the fridge, making it a bookshelf for cookbooks, and have had no problems. Of course they are "stick-built" units from the 1950's and solid 3/4" pine and that probably helps. I don't think I would do it with a base cabinet and I sure wouldn't do it with particleboard cabinets...but depending on how wide the wall cabinet is and what you're putting in it, you might be able to get away with it. I would only do it in a case where you are planning to remove the doors and leave the shelves open.

thanks, yes I had another look this morning (like I said, weird what you start paying attention to when renovating - that could be a whole discussion of its own, think I will start it). I am looking at the uppers and the strip seems to be a support point for the shelves. I never thought about it until my mother came over and commented on it.

Is there a way to add extra support to base or upper cabinets if I remove the center bar and change the front doors of the cabinets . Also can support be added to the back of the doors of the cabinets. I just had granite counters installed and would now like to change the front of my cabinets . I have solid oak cabinets in excellent condition

From December 2012

i have cabinets surrounding my refrigerator one long closet on each side of fridge and 1 short one 30 in. wide on top. refrigerator fits snug...30 inch. wide. I want to go with a larger fridge possibly 36 inches wide which will leave a 3 gap on each side of cabinets on top of fridge...how can i order a strip that will hide the gap and somehow attach to the cabinets...trying to google it but don't know what search words to use

Susan, Did you ever solve your kitchen cabinets dilemma? I have the same issue... have tried lots of things to cover up the builder's grade cabinets, but I realize that I really need to address this wood-strip-in-the-middle-of-the-cabinet issue.

Thanks!

We had the same problem in our old house, solid oak cabinets but they had that center strip.... I really wanted to get rid of it but as others have said it would weaken the actual cabinets that are attached to the wall so we got larger cabinet doors that cover the strip altogether and it produces the look you want..... We painted it all white because I didn't want stained wood and bought the new doors in white to ... It looked like a brand new kitchen and just buying new doors wasn't as expensive as buying new cabinets.

Hi @Susan Mladenovich and @Roz David, i know this is an old conversation but wanted to ask if you have resolved this issue back then? I have the exact same problem in my builders’ cabinet. Thanks!

@catalynn, can you share where you got the doors from? did you hire a contractor or it was easy to do it yourself? Thanks!

A stile in the center of a larger cabinet (either wall cabinet or base cabinet) does not mean a cabinet is a "builder" cabinet with the implication that it is somehow lower quality. In our opinion, a face frame cabinet is much more sturdy construction than a frameless cabinet. We are professional remodelers rather than new home builders, and we take our bowed and broken frameless cabinets all the time with their doors and shelfs drooping and hinges half off. While some people love them, I wouldn't have frameless cabinets in my home. If existing framed cabinet boxes are still in good shape, the best option is to purchase new doors that will overlay most of the face frame and repaint the boxes to match. While some people do this themselves, few can actually paint cabinetry well. We suggest hiring a professional for this upgrade. We use a local company to make cabinet doors and we have also used Walzcraft doors and they have been good quality and worked very well.

@Brickwood Builders, Inc., thanks for your feedback. in addition to the look, the center stile is blocking us from installing pull out shelves, we also have to tilt some items to have them fit in the wide shelves.