Pantry Remodel – A Murphy Door!!

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I’ve been wanting to build a Murphy door for a long time, I just didn’t know where I would put one, until I started my pantry remodel! Now this might be a little controversial because when installing a Murphy door it does take away from the width of the opening of the door, and my pantry opening is already more narrow than a regular door. But I figured I’d give it a try and worst case I could put the old door back on if it didn’t work out. I wasn’t 100% confident in my ability to build a working Murphy door so I didn’t want to widen the opening and lose the ability to put the old door back on if it didn’t work out.

Here’s a video of the start of the pantry door.

I started by removing the door stop casing, adding a piece of scrap oak to the bottom using pocket holes to give myself something to attach the Murphy door hinges to (I’m using oak because it’s a dense, strong wood and I had some on hand), and building the Murphy door carcass before removing the old door. I didn’t want my cat to get into the pantry and chew her way into her treats or the bread or whatever else she feels like eating in the middle of the night, so I didn’t want the pantry just open for too long.

I built the carcass of the Murphy door out of 3/4in plywood. To figure this out, I had to cut the bottom piece, install the Murphy Door hardware on it in the correct place going by the instructions and onto the piece of oak and test it to see if it would open and shut at the depth and width it was. As you can see it didn’t close.

I trimmed 1/2 off of it and tried again and it fit perfect!

Now I know the depth and width of my door. I chose the depth by thinking about what I wanted to put in the shelf. I ordered some glass jars and it needed to accommodate those with a little wiggle room, plus the 3/4in backing, and the 1/4in of the beadboard I planning on putting in there. I also had to take into consideration that the Murphy door would eat up some space from the entrance to the pantry so I needed it as shallow as I could get it. Every Murphy door is different, so if you plan on building one you have to think through all these things. Mine came out to be 5.5in deep (without the face frame) and 21.5in wide measuring from the outside. The opening of my pantry from the left to right side of the inside of the casing is 24in, which leaves the entrance to the pantry at only 15in, which is very small but we can all still enter if we turn sideways. We aren’t in and out of our pantry ALL THE TIME so this doesn’t really bother us, but now that I know I can successfully build a Murphy door, I may end up widening the opening and building a new one.

With the depth and width figured out, I just needed to figure out the height. I measured from the bottom hinge to the top hinge and that was the height needed for the carcass. There is a little wiggle room with the way the top hinge works. I got the carcass built by cutting the sides, top and bottom, then cutting the back that would fit inset to those. I feel like this would help the door stay square, if that makes sense? Once it was all put together I tried to install it…

…but turns out when I was measuring I accounted for the top and bottom but I forgot I had so I subtracted that from the door and the door ended up being 1.5in too short. The hinge doesn’t allow for THAT much wiggle room! But I had a solution! Instead of rebuilding the door, that would have required me to buy more plywood, I just cut a large shim. I used two pieces of 3/4in plywood, glued them together and screwed them into the top of the casing and reinstalled the top hinge. That made up the difference from the 1.5in short the door was and I didn’t have to rebuild anything!

I got that installed and then had Tylers help getting it all lined up and put into place. It fit perfectly!

As I warned you though, it is pretty narrow!

Once that part was installed I started building the inside of the door. I wanted some texture, so I added beadboard paneling to the back of the top section since it would be showing. I was planning on making an enclosed cabinet at the bottom. I just attached this with my brad nailer and 1/2in brad nails.

Then I added a shelf to separate the top and bottom. I used wood glue and pocket holes on the underneath side to install this one. The pocket holes would be on the inside of the cabinet so they wouldn’t show.

Then I used scrap plywood as spacers on the sides to set the next 3 shelves on to install them. I just installed these 3 with wood glue and 1.25in brad nails shot in from the outside of the door. The bottom one would be holding the biggest jars and I wanted to make sure at least one of the shelves was extra secure to keep it from getting loose so that’s why I used pocket holes on one and not the others.

I got the rest of the shelves installed, I determined the spacing by the jars I bought specifically for this door. I bought some small, medium and large ones. Then I measured for and put together the face frame using wood glue, pocket holes and clamps. My kitchen countertop makes a great work bench! haha

I test fit it onto the door and held it in place while I checked to see if the door would still open when it was attached. Once I was sure the face frame would clear I used my brad nailer and attached it to the door. I had to leave enough room at the bottom for the face frame to clear the piece of oak and hinge at the bottom, enough room at the top for it to clear the hinge and then enough room at the sides for it to clear the casing. There is a lot of thought that goes into building a Murphy door!

I shot a bunch of brad nails in on the left side about door knob height. I don’t plan on not adding a handle and just using the trim for a handle, there is a lip on all the shelves so it’s really easy to use without a handle. Then I couldn’t wait to get the jars I purchased onto the shelves to make sure they fit!

I even opened it and closed it pretty rough to see how stable they were, and shockingly they didn’t move at all! I totally planned on adding some kind of railing in front of them but they seem to fit so well that it doesn’t seem necessary! Also, as you can see in the photo below, at the top left of the door is a black and silver piece of hardware. That is there to keep the door shut, it just makes it to where it won’t just come open on its own, it has to be intentional. That piece comes with the Murphy door hardware. Also, that hardware can hold up to 150lbs and this door is no where close to that.

In the below picture, you can see that I added some trim. This was really difficult to figure out so I don’t have it videoed or pictured. I did removed the header and replace it with a pieces on top thats ripped down to about 4in wide, which allows the face frame and hinge to clear it when opening. Then around the outside of the trim I installed some 1×3 primed pine on their side like I do around my windows, that way when the door was done and closed you wouldn’t be able to see a seam in the trim on the edge, if that makes sense? This project takes a lot of thinking ahead! I just left the original 1×3 trim in place. Then I added another 4in wide piece on top to make the top even with the sides once those were installed.

That header was the easiest part, so I started with that. The next easiest part was the right side because it would be attached to the right part of the frame, not the door itself, so I got that installed. I used a 1×5 primed pine for this. It’s a tighter fit than the left one will be, I did make sure the door would open before nailing it into place

Then for the more difficult part. I cut the left side to leave some clearance where there would be a small gap at the top and the bottom. I held it up in place and shot a couple brad nails in temporarily to see if it would work.

While it opened a little, it drug a little at the bottom once it got about halfway open, so I had to remove it, trim a little off and reinstall it.

Once I trimmed a little off it fit and functioned perfectly! I also left a little gap to the left side so it wouldn’t drag the trim when it gets opened and closed.

And for a little extra stability, I added some screws to the back to hold the trim on really well. I was super excited when it was all put together and functioned properly if you can’t tell!

You can see at the top where I removed the original header, I’ll have to fix that drywall damage.

Even though it wasn’t completely done, I was at a point to where I could get it caulked and painted! It was between Accessible Beige by SW like the rest of my doors and trim or Pewter Green by SW like my cabinets. I did a pole on Facebook and Instagram and it was an overwhelming amount of people who thought it should be green! I was shocked! I thought for sure they’d choose beige! I was originally planning on doing beige, but I ended up going with green, my thought process was that this isn’t supposed to look like a door, it’s supposed to look like a cabinet, and my doors are beige and my cabinets are green, you following? Plus if I’m using the trim as a handle the green won’t show finger prints as well as the beige would.

I got it all painted and I think I definitely made the right call!

I also added a tiny 1/4in by 1/4in square dowel to the top to close in that gap a little more. I had to miter the right side to allow the door to still function.

Once the main part of this was done I started on the doors. I’m using 1×3 primed pine put together with pocket holes.

I wanted to get the frame for the doors built and test fit before putting them together completely and painting them. I was using butt hinges for these and I wanted to use this technique I saw on this Youtube video. I had a chisel set that I got out and figured out where the hinges would go and then started chiseling out the spot on the doors and the cabinet. These weren’t perfect but I’m excited to learn a new skill and get better the next time I do it!

I installed the hinges and put the left door in place, I had to take it off once and trim down the top of the door just a hair with the miter saw for it to fit. I also trimmed the other door down too so they would match. I did this instead of taking them apart and rebuilding them. With the small amount I took off you won’t be able to tell at all. Once it was the right size it fit perfect!

Once I got those installed, I cut down some shelves out of 3/4in plywood for the inside and got those installed with pocket holes on the underneath sides. I used spacers for these shelves like I did for the top ones. Not pictured, I also added edge banding to the fronts so it wouldn’t look like plywood when you open the cabinet. I meant to add it before I installed them but forgot, luckily it wasn’t too hard to add it after.

I took the doors off and added brown board as the center to them like I did in this post and put them back on and this is how we are looking now!

For the empty spot above the doors I ordered some drop down hinges that are typically used for the drawer front in front of your sink. I got a drawer cut down from a piece of 3/4in plywood and used edge banding on the edges to make it look like a solid piece of wood. I installed it and it was too tall so I took it off and just trimmed a little off the top and had to edge band it again.

Once I got the doors painted and installed I couldn’t have been happier with the way this turned out! I used the same pulls and knobs I installed on the rest of my kitchen cabinets. I also added a little decorative trim to the insides of the doors so they wouldn’t just be shaker style. These doors had to be inset or else it wouldn’t allow enough clearance for the door to open.

I know this isn’t exactly building plans to build a Murphy door, but I hope I explained it enough to where you might be able to figure it out on your own. I will try and add the plans to my Etsy shop eventually. This will be a little difficult so I’m not exactly sure if and when that will happen.

What do you think? Is this something you think you could build? Feel free to message me if you have any questions I might be able to help with.

Next up, a few finishing touches and the pantry reveal!!