Thanks for your input. I see those cabinets have a long line of gap that is not too bad. here is a bigger photo of the second picture. The painter said that he might fill the gaps with paint or caulk. I'm worried that the caulk will not last for too long on wood because wood expands and contracts.
I wonder what some people did if they had this problem.

My gaps don't look like your last photo, but I could have sworn I had some subtle gaps. I just went looking for them and they've disappeared! Then I remembered that we have had about 8 inches of rain in the past two days and I'm guessing the humidity has caused stuff to swell and the gaps to disappear. Maybe?

Yeah, that middle one looks a little off but the other ones are sort of the charm of painted wood. Cracks should be there, but not crack-glop-crack-glop. It should be one or the other.

I don't know the solution though.

As others have said the gap between the panel and stiles/rails is necessary for expansion/contraction.
I would try CAREFULLY with a razor blade or credit card, if it will fit to cut through where the paint has bridged the gap.

The other option is a very fine bead of caulk and hope (pray) it gives enough during humidity changes... Chris

This post was edited by ctycdm on Sun, Dec 14, 14 at 0:02

Mine aren't painted, but I definitely SEE the joints and there IS the gap that you have. The difference is the way it looks with paint.

MIL had a white shaker desk made, and I know she wasn't happy with the finish overall. She also had white shaker doors made for the existing cabinets in her old kitchen and they were great. (Different guy).

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Looks more like sloppy painting more than anything

Caulk?

Here is a link that might be useful: see this article

The gap should be continuous. Bad paint job. Do NOT caulk, especially nothing with silicone.

Echoing the NO silicone comments. Reason is that paint will never stick to it, if & when you decide to touch up or repaint.

I'd say paintable caulk is your solution. Caulk will have plenty of flexibility.

Either no gap (primed, calked, primed, painted) or a continuous even gap created by an eased edge on the styles and rails like in the picture posted above. This looks like they just tied to flood in with paint to fill the gap but this is what you get when you attempt that.

The doors are built with the gap for the purpose of allowing stain to get into the gap so that when the panels shrink, bare unstained wood is not revealed. On paint-grade doors this millwork detail becomes a problem for the painter.
I observe in the leftmost pic, of the top rail/stile joint, the rail has shrunk narrower than the top of the stile. Your house is too dry! Humidify, or it's going to get worse in January.
Don't caulk that, it makes more and worse problems down the road. The panel floats and expands/contracts seasonally, so filling that seam is a losing battle unless you can micro-control the temp and humidity year round.
Use a small thin blade to break the paint "webs" between the frame and panel, but without marring the finish. Vac. out the debris.

Agree.....Whatever you do, do NOT caulk cabinet doors!!! It WILL be worse down the road as you go through several heating/cooling seasons! That center panel needs to be free-floating. You'll end up having to cut out the caulk and repaint!

We got custom shaker cabinets too, with paint grade maple and the center panel is MDF since we're either painting them or spraying lacquer. Cabinets came raw. The maker said prime first, caulk the edges and wipe it, so it's a very little amount left on to cover the gaps, then either paint or spray. Worker are caulking as I type this. They showed me a sample door, and you cannot see the caulking after it was wiped. But it'll prevent that gap line after painting.

I don't think a gap at the joint is normal at all (picture #1 on the far left). All of those joints are very tight on all of my doors. I ordered two new doors to use on a previously open cabinet and one arrived with a gap like you have shown; it was considered a defect in manufacturing and was promptly replaced without an issue.

This just happened to us! Almost every cabinet came to us looking like this. We are so upset. It does not match what was in the show room. Our builder didnt tell the cabinet people to NOT put them up and i have a feeling we may be made to feel that this is normal. Ya...No!

What did you end up doing?