Carpentry and Woodworking - Making my own panel cabinet doors

I'm planning to build a wardrobe in my bedroom, and I'm going to make the maple doors myself.

I've actually built a prototype door out of cheap birch plywood and poplar boards. My prototype is 23.5" by 23.5". This will be about the size of the smaller doors in the wardrobe, but I will also be making 63" high, 24" wide doors for the full-length parts of it. Here's a drawing of what I did:

http://antunkarlovac.com/stuff/doors.gif

What I want to know is if it's OK to miter cut the boards I used for the border, since it's a very easy approach. All the panelled doors I've seen so far don't have mitered borders - instead the vertical boards are the full height of the door, and they have mortise and tenon joints to attach the horizontal boards. My prototype feels solid (I used wood glue throughout) but I'm wondering if the miter joints may not be strong enough.

Thanks in advance

-Antun

instead the vertical boards are the full height of the door, and they have mortise and tenon joints to attach the horizontal boards

This is called frame and panel or stile and rail construction.

This is best method to build them. Mitered joints with glued end grain are not strong.

Here is a technique for making them with a router.

http://www.diynet.com/diy/hi_tools/article/0,2037,DIY_13936_2868156,00.html

I find it easier to make them with a tablesaw to cut the grooves then the tongues.

Hope this helps.

I definitely wouldn't use mitered rails & stiles for the size of the doors you're planning. They'll almost certainly fail after a while.

Look into a rail & stile cutter set for use in a shaper (or router table). They give you very strong joints since there's lots of glue surface in each joint.

I think I would also use double panels in the long doors. The middle rail adds quite a bit of stiffness and prevents twist.