Farmhouse kitchens are all the rage right now. Before ice boxes and refrigerators, pie safes were used to store not only pies, but also meat, bread, and other perishables, to keep them safe from vermin and insects. The doors, and usually the sides,were ventilated either by tin panels with punched holes or screens.
When I built a small pantry for myself, I wanted to create an old pie safe look. I came across some pie safe tin panels made in the old-fashioned way in an on-line hardware store and I knew I had found the right pieces! The technique I’m about to share can be applied to almost any existing cabinet door; all it takes is a little wood molding.
Measure the cabinet door(s) and choose the tin panels that fit best. The ones I used were vertical panels 10”x14” in size. I had a single large and very plain wood cabinet door to work with, so I picked out 4 panels.
Remove the cabinet doors and lay them flat. Lay the tin panels over the top of the wood. I just played with the layout until I liked the spacing between the panels. Then I took down the measurements in between the panels and around the edge. I didn’t want to cut holes in the door for the tin panels so I opted to lay them on top of the wood instead. This gives the same look of a pie safe without the ventilation component.
With the pieces laid out and my measurements taken, off I went to the local building supply to buy the trim I needed. I picked up some thin wood molding that I had the building supply store cut down to the width and depth that I needed. The trim pieces wound up being 1 1/2 ” wide and 3″ wide, with 5/8″ depth.
