 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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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...
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Most of the custom features I added to the wall cabinets came about because I couldn’t find anything similar in stock cabinets. For example, I could buy a cabinet with a glass door, but couldn’t find one with a glass end panel.
So, I created a display cabinet by building a paneled end cover frame and installed glass instead of the wood panel — Glass Installation Detail. Unlike the other cabinets, this frame is part of the carcase. So once I assembled the frame, I cut a dado and rabbets...
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New cabinets are one of the most expensive components of a remodeled kitchen so refacing sound, existing cabinets for a fraction of the cost and without the disruption of tearing out existing cabinetry is an excellent alternative for the budget-conscious. This method requires only basic woodworking skills so it is a good option for beginners.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.Paperback: 176 pagesPublisher: Taunton (November 1, 1997)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 1561581976ISBN-13...
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Wall cabinet construction
The basic construction of the wall cabinets is similar to the base units. The ¾"-thick plywood carcase sides (L) are dadoed for the bottom (M), and rabbeted for the top (N) and back (O). The main difference (besides the shallower depth) is the addition of a second nailer (P). While the floor supports the load for base cabinets, wall cabinets must support their own weight plus the weight of what you put in them.With mounting screws driven through the nailers and...
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Building Kitchen Cabinets
