If you’ve dreamed of building a kitchen full of cabinets, stop dreaming and start building. Here’s what you need to know to get custom results for half what stock cabinets cost.
For many home woodworkers,outfitting a kitchen with handcrafted cabinets is the dream project. Who hasn’t looked at stock cabinets built with particleboard, hotmelt glue and staples and thought, “I could build something a whole lot better than this for half the money.”
And they’re right. By building your own cabinets, you can upgrade materials and construction methods. You’re also not locked into “stock” sizes. The style, look, finish, and features are completely up to you. If you think about it, cabinets are just a bunch of boxes. The only real challenge is the size of such a project. And that’s manageable as long as you know where to get started and how to proceed.
On this site, we’ll walk you through how we built these cabinets and how they compare with stock cabinets purchased from a home center. And hopefully inspire you to consider building your own.
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Cabinets must be set plumb for doors, drawers, and other components to function properly. Cabinets that are not plumb may experience doors or drawers that are uneven, crooked, or appear warped. These may be adjusted to improve appearance.
However, if the cabinet is not plumb, uneven force is placed on the cabinet hardware, components and joining. Properly plumbed cabinets distribute forces evenly to the cabinet components and joining.
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Measuring for your new Kitchen doesn't have to be difficult. All you need is a tape measure, pencil, and the provided floor plan grid. Use the sample grid below as a guide and create a sketch of the room.
1. Start in one corner of the room, select a wall and measure the distance, in inches, of every item on that wall from the corner. Write all measurements on your sketch.
2. Go to the next corner and locate every item on the next wall in relationship to that corner.
3. Continue to measure all around the room, until everything is located, measured, and marked on your sketch. (SEE SAMPLE GRID – including ideas for adjoining Dining Room and Den/Study/Family Room.)
4. Jot down the overall length of walls, height of the room and distance of every item from the floor-like outlets, light switches, and ledges or soffits.
Window & door schedule
• Measure carefully and double check all measurements. Measure from outside of casing to outside of casing.
• Mark direction of the door swing(s) on your sketch and on the grid, on provided floor plan grid.
• Mark exact location of sink, drains, gas lines, electrical outlets and switches on the provided floor plan grid. |
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 All the stock cabinets I looked at had overlay doors. The doors aren’t set into the face frame, but lay completely on top of it.That ¾" thickness sticking out always looks a little clunky to me.
That’s why I decided to use 3/8" inset (sometimes called partial overlay) doors and drawer fronts on my cabinets (see drawings above). They have a 3/8"-thick lip that overlaps the face frame while the rest of the door’s thickness is inset into the opening.
I also wanted raised panel doors. In the past, I’ve cut raised panels on my table saw, but even a sharp blade can leave saw marks and burns, especially in cherry. So I invested in a raised panel router bit. The bit cut smoothly, eliminating most of the sanding.The bit profile I chose cut a flat bevel (Detail a).
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Building Kitchen Cabinets
