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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 in the inside face to accept the carcase top, bottom and back.
 
You’ll notice in Detail a that the rear stile is wider than the front one and that the rabbet is cut deeper than the ¼"-thick back. That extra strip allows you to easily scribe the cabinet to the wall. I considered building some shallow cabinets to go above the window, but decided lights shining on the sink below were more important than the small amount of storage space to be gained. The simple valance shown above bridges the window and connects the two banks of cabinets.
The arched fascia (T) attaches to the 3/4" plywood bottom panel (U) and runner (W).Two cleats (V) attach to the cabinets to provide a mounting surface for the bottom (Detail c). The bottom panel holds two xenon “puck” lights (see page 13) and hides the wiring and ceiling. Once the wall cabinets were installed, I added matching surfacemounted pucks on the cabinets’ underside to brighten up the countertop work areas.
The tall pantry cabinet, to the far right above and detailed in the drawings below, was another extra I added. For starters, it’s 20" deep and that extra depth easily holds cereal boxes and food containers too large to fit in regular 12"-deep cabinets. It also runs from the counter to ceiling (60"). The only way to get that height in stock cabinets was to stack a 42"-cabinet on top of an 18"-high drawer unit.As you’ll see on page 13, this cabinet also contains a built-in cutting board and knife rack in the pullout drawer. Related Articles |
Building Kitchen Cabinets 
