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Building Kitchen Cabinetry - with a twist!

11K views 44 replies 21 participants last post by  ProGreen 
#1 ·
My kitchen sits in the corner of the living room - it's all one big room. I recently finished (mostly) the rebuild of the living room, and have now started on the cabinets. My brother does custom cabinetry for a living, so I've picked his brain a little and jumped into building a new kitchen from the ground up. Anyway, I want MY stuff do be different (and maybe even original!) in design. After looking at hundreds of other designs, I came up with something I haven't seen - I'm going to offset all the drawers from the cabinets so everything 'interlocks' in a unique way.

Here's the living room before:


current:


My conceptualization for the cabinet design (in general):


You can see that the drawers are centered differently over the doors. Since these will have granite (heavy) tops, I will be simply building separate cabinet and drawer boxes - this will make it the strongest (but will use a lot more material). This way I can easily create the offset though. Once all the boxes are built (birch plywood) then I'll build the oak facing for it all (can't wait for that part!).

One of the cabinet boxes:


it'll be all Kreg Jigged together. Inelegant but makes for fast assembly and will be plenty strong (not to mention not visible except inside the cabinets).

I've recently started on a 36" disc (39" cabinet) lazy susan:



this thing is a monster!

I'll be posting more as I go!
 
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#2 ·
You are aware that the tops of the doors will get dinged up on any open drawers they hit? Only takes once or twice to ruin your work.
 
#3 ·
Yeah, my brother said I would have "interference" issues going this route and could result in a nasty 'wedge' situation. I chewed on that for a while. I kicked around ideas for the drawers to auto-lock when a door is open, but to set that up in reverse at the same time would be prohibitively difficult. So I will be doing two things: One - most of the doors will pull straight out on rails. I talked to my wife and told her it would reduce storage but would be novel as well as give easy access to the 'back' of the cabinets which often go unused anyway. She really liked this idea, so I'll go with it. Also, I plan on building a two or three extra doors/drawer faces and tuck them away. The upper cabinets will keep the same theme but won't have any conflicts (drawers) - so they'll hinge as normal... Anyway, there will be 8 lower 'doors' to deal with in this fashion and I very well may set them up to slide out 2 at a time (resulting in about a 28" "drawer" with shelves/racks in each for easier access). I will have a blind corner cabinet that I still haven't decided what to do with however. I can't do another lazy susan because of the way things will be set up...

Good catch btw! I've tried to think this all out but almost have to plan on snafu's since I loathe doing anything 'normal'. Thanks for the observation!
 
#5 · (Edited)
What if, instead of hinging the doors, you made them true open-sided slide-outs? That way you would avoid the issue with doors running into open drawers and vice versa. The way I see it in my mind you would still be able to use the same layout you modeled.

Great project! Keep us updated. :thumbsup:

**edit: Just re-read your post. Looks like you already thought of this! My bad!**
 
#7 · (Edited)
OK got some more stuff done.

Finished (for now) the lazy susan and set into place.
I don't have room in my shop for this stuff - so I'm storing it "in-place" as I go - I can also watch fitment this way AND my wife is able to see progress...






got the first kick base made (3" in 3" up)



test fit it here (also got the drawer boxes made and set in place)

next to the fridge will be the dishwasher and next to that - the sink




a fridge-sized pantry cabinet will go on the end here - THAT is going to be FUN to build!

I have 10 drawer slider-rail sets coming in for the drawers and to see if they will work for the cabinets too. I plan on the pantry having some nifty sliding and swinging parts in it as soon as I figure out what all I want and what to incorporate in...

I plan on completing the base cabinets (faces and drawers/doors) and get them measured for granite tops - then get them ordered. I'll work on the upper cabinets after that. I know I know that installing the upper cabinets would be WAY easier to do first - but we are functioning with NO kitchen right now and time is of the essence. Having a functional bottom is top priority right now...
 
#8 ·
OK, I haven't updated this in a while - so here's where I'm at!

After my last post, I built the sink/dishwasher cabinet. I leveled/attached the bases. Next I built the drawer boxes and drawers.



...built one of the faces:







Made some drawer faces:





Put it together:





Next, had granite tops installed + sink:





(10 image limit reached! - next post!)
 
#9 ·
now...back to the cabinets...made a prototype base drawer and face:











It's all shaping up to look the way I imagined - spiffy!

The way the cabinets slide open actually works well (I was worried!). Having two sets of sliders will give each cabinet a 200lb capacity - should be nice and sturdy. There will be glass installed on each (being cut as I speak). I will be painting the back side of the glass black to match the appliances and sink. I think the glossy aspect of the glass will be cool. After I polyurethane the faces - It's gonna look really great - can't wait!

I've got the new sink fully functional (+ Kohler faucet / soap dispenser) - waiting on the dishwasher to come in - I've got the plumbing ready to hook up too.

Next will be to finish the rest of the lower cabinets...
 
#11 ·
Interesting concept. Not sure I like it particularly but that means nothing. Congratulation on some original thinking. Are you going to mount a second cabinet drawer above the lower one? Seems like kind of wasted space if not. Wouldn't have to be attached to the door front but could be made to slide out seperately after the door was open.
 
#12 ·
I'll probably have some kind of box that will attach on the top of the slider box so the entire volume will be used - I just haven't thought that far ahead yet :no:

My first goal is to just get these suckers built and sliding nice and smooth...

I'll decide what to do with the space after that! :)
 
#13 ·
Leave the bottom drawers open on top and close the side like a regular drawer and you won't have to bend over to see whats in it. Easier to get stuff in and out. You could have one deep drawer attached to the door and two or more shallower drawers above without faces but with a nice handhold in the front. I'd use hardwood for the drawer front/sides and use dovetails or box joints exposed on the front, but that's just me. I put all drawers in my last kitchen (except under the sink and a special cabinet with a spring loaded shelf for my Kitcheaid mixer.) Having all drawers worked out really well.
 
#15 ·
Not my taste but I would say the craftsmanship is great and if you like it, that is the most important thing. I say nice job, I am jealous that I am not capable of doing that !
 
#19 ·
"The Prototype"

Here's where the first base drawer is at:











The light band toward the top of the box (all the way around) is from a lighter grained section of two boards that have been joined at that point - the camera seems to highlight - in person it's not really noticeable/doesn't look bad....

Anyway.... how's it look? I'm surprised at how well/smooth it all still works. I've got some 12" full extension sliders on order - I may or may not install...I'll see what the wifey has to say about it. I've got 5 more lowers like this one still to do. I want some variety on how they're built but I'll do at least one other like this one (maybe 2!). And then a couple other styles. I want something that allows for more volume on at least one - It may end up simply a huge deep box...hmm...
 
#24 ·
OK, the current state as of a few minutes ago:



The 3 doors on the right are the same design with the sliding lower drawers installed. 2 changes I made from the first one: full extension rails + a guard piece of oak that prevents the back slide from scratching the crap out of the neighboring face. The door on the left side is simply one huge as box (for pans and stuff I guess - it's what the wifey wanted).







Next is the waste basket drawer. Today I welded a frame together. It's lightweight and easy to work with. One weird thing I'm doing: it will not slide straight out. Since it's coming from the corner, I want it to come out at a slight angle to ensure it clears the doors the will go under the sink (opposing corner). When it closes, it will be flush with the rest of the doors - pull it open and it will slide out and away from the corner:







I'm forced to notch the faces slightly to clear the rails, but after staining / cleaning them up, I think it'll be fine. You'll never see the corner notch once the face is installed...

It's still all coming together just fine! :thumbsup:
 
#26 ·
I'm still pluggin' away at this!! 3 more pics:


here's a shot when I was fitting the trash cabinet...

And a couple current shots:




...the lazy susan in the left corner: the two corner doors swing open as one...need to get a pic of it opened I suppose.

Anyway, I'll be getting more done on this now that some other things have been completed around here (it never ends! heh heh).
 
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