Building my own Kitchen Cabinets: Questions

[frank shic]

If you don't have a copy of Danny Proulx's book "Making Your Own Kitchen Cabinets," I suggest you get a copy. Build your boxes out of melamine, and use screws and butt joint to assemble them. (with melamine, you have no interior finishing. Only tack them together to verify your dimensions for face frames and doors. Remember that cabinets in the flat take up a lot less room. Build FF, doors, end caps, and drawer boxes. I would probably keep boxes in the flat until just before installation.

this is one of the best books for beginning cabinetmakers just PLEASE don't use slab door and drawer fronts or else you'd be better off just buying the RTA cabs you can find at home depot. have you looked at the ikea kitchen cabinets? they're another great alternative.

[David Giles]

There are plenty of ways to store completed cabinet boxes within a small home. One can become a slightly high coffee table. Four of them plus two interior doors make a nice, flat dining room table. And 6-8 of them plus a mattress make a great bed with accessible storage. A good interior designer can provide even more creative uses for your specific decorating needs.

[Paul Wunder]

Have you thought of making the cases "ready to assemble" using connectors such as Confirmat screws. This method will produce very strong cabinets and significantly reduce the required storage space since each cabinet will simply be a stack of parts until you need to assemble them one at a time for installation Another option would be to buy RTA cabinet cases from IKEA or elsewhere and build your own doors. IKEA makes some high quality, pre-finished cases. A sawmill creek search will find a number of positive discussions using the IKEA method

[Mike Goetzke]

I'm putting the finishing touches on our kitchen (house) remodel. I built all the cabinets in our two car garage. What I did was:


1) take an old cabinet section that was about 7' long and moved it to the adjacent living room to store pots/pans and rest the micro etc. on top.
2) I bought a cheap metal shelf rack for all of the panty items.
3) I cut the countertop that had the sink in it to allow about 2-1/2" of extra counter on each side. I let it sit on the old cabinet till I finished the new ones.
4) Our oven was in a spot so that it could be used throughout the construction.
5) Use our 6' long folding table for bread etc.

I just built the cabinets in phases and stored them in the living room for a short time before installing them. Wasn't the best situation but I was able to afford making the boxes from 3/4" ply and use rough sawn hardwood for the faces/doors. You may look into having someone make the boxes and you make the FF and doors.


I should take a new picture because I'm applying backsplash tile right now:

[Sam Murdoch]

Hi Jeff, I too have space problems with my garage shop and storage for a full complement of kitchen cabinets will not wotk for me either. I'm in the planning stage of building my cabinets and in figuring out how best to deal with this, I just decided to build a section of boxes, doors and shelves at a time, install them and then start building another section and so forth. I'm going to end up with more of a modular type of cabinets but, that is something I can live with.

Terry - you might be the perfect candidate for these (Jeff too) - http://www.cabinotch.com/ I don't know the cost, but I'm guessing that they could be competitive when factoring the logistics, time, material and general household upheaval involved with building your own kitchen. I have NOT used these but not because of quality or money but because I don't build in such a modular fashion. I prefer attaching a fully assembled face frame to an entire run of cabinets rather than to each box or I build frameless. These cabinotch cabinets look like a good product though.

Meanwhile once you set up in your shop you can focus on the process, including set ups of your machines, to build just drawers or just doors without distractions. Building one cabinet with its own doors and/or drawers at a time will invariably lead to a lot of starts and stops of production that will result in mistakes (at the worst) or not quite right and inconsistent results (at the least). It is very difficult to stay focused when you are constantly needing to break down your set ups before you have truly completed one process.

[Paul Johnstone]

Hi I am doing a kitchen remodel right now too.
There's only minor changes to the layout (a pantry was ripped out and will be replaced with cabinets to gain more counter space).
Also the soffit above the cabinents was over 2' deep. That was changed to about 7"
I cut out the pantry, took down all the uppers, did the drywall work and put the uppers back in.
Right now, I am just building one cabinet at a time, and replacing the exisiting cabinets.
With the lowers, I will be able to reuse most of the existing countertop temporarily until all lowers are finished (then new countertop will be installed)
Not much storage is lost this way, and the mess is minimal.
For a hobbyist, I really recommend this way. A lot less stressful than ripping everything out and having no kitchen for an extended period of time.

Edit: Mike G, your kitchen looks awesome.. I hope mine comes out that good. Thanks for the pictures.

[Matt Meiser]

I did exactly what you propose. We actually used a "Mobile Attic" unit not a "PODS" unit and the Mobile Attic was a lot better constructed. The twist to my experience was that I was actually building my parents' kitchen for their house about 10 miles away. When the cabinets were complete and the contractor doing the remodel--it was a complete gut of the space with doors, windows, plumbing, and electrical moving--was ready to turn the space over to me for installation, we had the unit picked up and delivered to their house right outside the back door. It worked like a charm.

[Steve Griffin]

Rather than rent, how about purchase a small used trailer? Use it to acquire your materials, store materials, make dump runs and then stage cabinets. After the project, either keep it or sell it for about the same you bought it for.

[Neal Daughtry]

Check this out, this fellow explains how to build cabinets plain and simple. http://www.twistedknotwoodshop.com/CabinetMaking101.htm
It's how I build cabinets now and its quick, easy and the carcasses are strong. I build the faceframes flush with the carcass to enable sliding shelves to be easily installed.

[Jefferey Scott]

Rather than rent, how about purchase a small used trailer? Use it to acquire your materials, store materials, make dump runs and then stage cabinets. After the project, either keep it or sell it for about the same you bought it for.

Steve, thats a very good idea. I currently own a 5x8 enclosed trailer but maybe I could trade up for a larger one. If not the rental charges aren't all that bad for a container and I would still be way ahead budget wise.

Jeff

[Jefferey Scott]

How many of you guys build your face frames wider than the cabinet box? Is it really necessary to do it this way. I know I've seen it a lot, is it common practice?

[Matt Meiser]

I did. It helps account for any unevenness at the walls--your boxes can be slightly closer or further apart at the back without a gap between at the front. I used prefinished ply and pocket hole screws on the outside faces of the boxes. Attaching them was easy after they were finished--just glue, screw, and a damp sponge to quickly clean up any squeezout.

[frank shic]

How many of you guys build your face frames wider than the cabinet box? Is it really necessary to do it this way. I know I've seen it a lot, is it common practice?

on base cabinets i always build the cabinet sides to be flush with the face frame to make drawer slide installation easier. on upper cabinets i usually build them flush as well so that stuff doesn't get trapped behind the edge of the face frame. doing it this way gives you room to scribe as well.

[Troy Turner]

Jeff - Any chance of borrowing a friends garage

So you mentioned storage and the such, can you get a month to month on an actual storage unit? Sounds like you have a trailer to transport. They'd be secure, out of the way and if your budget allows, get a climate controlled one. Just some thoughts to throw at 'cha.

[Jim Matthews]

I have to wonder if there is a Craigslist advert to help you on your way...

If you bought the casework, and made new face frames/doors/drawer fronts to suit your decor you could spend time on the fun parts
and sub out the tedious cut and paste work to a manufacturer. Building with plywood can be satisfying, but it's the same steps again and again.