There are certain places where having a bit of air flow into a closed cabinet is beneficial. Media cabinetry, laundry rooms and closets often come to mind.

What is the best way to achieve ventilation in closed cabinets? Through the doors!

And why not do that with something visually appealing, intentional and that will enhance the look of your cabinetry.

Options for Cabinet Door Panel Ventilation

There have been products out there available for a long time that would help aid ventilation and give a luxurious and purposeful look to your cabinetry.

Grillework, either wood or metal, even rattan or other woven products, can be used as panels in the cabinet doors. If you have a lot of heat building up in the cabinet from a lot of media equipment, for example, then going this direction can be the most effective with airflow.

There are always beautiful products like this at KBIS, the kitchen and bath show, every year.

Beautiful custom metal panels are used in this custom kitchen display, designed by Richard Anuszkiewicz for Monogram Appliances.

You can even do louvers, which might mean a little more dusting, but do look nice.

Louvered door cabinet on bathroom countertop. Carla Aston, Designer

Some of these options can be expensive and it takes some planning and ordering.

Here are some custom wood grillework panels I had done for an older project of mine. It turned out great, but it defintely took more time to work out.

Custom cabinetry with wood grillework panels at doors.

Have you tried holes in the cabinet doors?

I first saw holes drilled in cabinet doors at the Hotel Emma, designed by the brilliant Roman and Williams. This was a cabinet with a mini fridge in it.

Beautifully detailed custom armoire cabinet | Hotel Emma, Designers: Roman and Williams

Detail of hole pattern drilled into cabinet doors | Hotel Emma, Designers: Roman and Williams

Mini fridge and bar inside armoire cabinet | Hotel Emma, Designers: Roman and Williams

Now, these holes are a little small for a lot of venitilation, so they might have had a cut out at the back of the cabinet too. However, I vowed to remember that detail.

I was obsessed with everything in that hotel and shared a post all about the details and interiors here.

A Laundry Room Needing Ventilation

Back in 2021, I worked on a project that had a laundry room with some new cabinetry. The tall cabinet was going to have a rod for hanging clothes and we needed a little ventilation.

I wanted to create something a little more custom for this project where the homeowners really loved the Art Nouveau style.

I happened to own an antique hall tree that we purchased when we lived in Australia. It is from the Craftsman/Art Nouveau time period.

It has this cool flower detail cut out on the legs that I thought could be easily translated to the cabinet doors of my client’s laundry room.

My antique hall tree with the cut-out detail on the leg.

Here is the finished door cut-out. The ventilation became a custom feature.

Detail - laundry room cabinet door cut out

Laundry room cabinetry | Designer: Carla Aston

In another more recent project, the upstairs game room tv cabinets were replaced. They needed some ventilation there and so we did these larger holes in a diamond pattern.

I think this solution is simple and less expensive than something like metal grillework or custom wood panels.