Cabinet Bases

I truly believe that the kitchen is the most important room in any house. I love to cook and I love to eat, both for the joy and creativity of it and for sustenance, and while I am making more compromises than some tiny housers, the kitchen is still a high priority.  Basically, my house is a galley-style kitchen with a bathroom on one end and a bed on the other. Hey, what more does a person need? 

(Actually, there are a lot of different spaces built into the design--storage, dining, living, more storage, multiple levels, that random empty space between the door and the bed...--but the kitchen is a major one in terms of square footage.)

That said, I was concerned about the use of space. I was afraid that once the cabinets were built, they would constrict the space, making the house feel like a narrow hallway from bed to bath. 

Well, the cabinets are built--at least to the point where I can tell how much space they occupy--and I can now answer those concerns...

And the verdict is: It's okay! Because they cover the wheel well boxes, which was dead space for standing, anyway, they only consume about half the usable width that I'd feared they would.  There is plenty of space to work in.

Also, I'm showing my hand, here: no, this post was not written before painting.  Yes, Blogger.com allows you to lie about the publication date. This photo was taken after the double-the-fun two-day intumescent primer extravaganza that I have not yet written about, hence the extremely white walls.

I wrote about needing to get the pine TNG installed before I could paint, but I also needed to get it done before I put in the cabinet bases. It was a lot easier to install the TNG in a nice, flat, unbroken plane than to try to install it around the nooks and crannies of the cabinets.

Rather than building plywood cabinet "carcasses" in the shop and then carrying them in and installing them--or worse, buying premade cabinets!--I decided to build my cabinets in situ. Those wheel wells are a perpetual wrench in the works, and I felt this was the best way to build around them.




I started with pine 1x4. The pieces that are glued and screwed to the wall are there mainly to support the eventual countertop. The pieces on the floor are to lift the bottom of the cabinet off the floor, making space for the oh-so-essential toekick.

I used ripped strips of Douglas fir 2x4 to make ledges to support the--shall we say--"rafters." I confess, figuring out how to elegantly attach those 2x2 horizontal supporting ribs was the subject of a lot of cussing on my part. I tried and failed at several different strategies before going with the very simple, somewhat crude design seen here. It'll all be hidden away, so what does it matter if it's ugly, right?

The front "studs" are Douglas fir 2x4s ripped to 1 3/4" wide. The odd width allows them to support both the "rafters" and the long 2x2 front piece without being as clunky as the full 2x4. I sanded them, since they'll be visible in the final product (and eventually painted). Everything is glued and screwed together, and I'm quite pleased with how sturdy it feels!

I also built the small, lefthand cabinet, which will house pull-out shelves and a combination microwave/convection oven on its countertop. I built it more traditionally, using 3/4" interior plywood, to simplify attaching the pull-out shelf hardware.

The small cabinet received various 1x and 2x supports, which brace the corners and provide nailing for the finish material that will eventually cover it. It also received a 3/4" plywood top, just like the main cabinets:

The small cabinet top is longer than the base by 3" in case I go with the larger, 1.5 cubic-foot model of oven. I couldn't build the base wider because I needed to leave room for the fridge to the right of it.

I plan to build a shelf over this cabinet that is only about half as deep as the countertop, but enclosed on the sides. The oven will sit partially inside this structure, making it not quite an appliance garage... more like an appliance carport.

The real purpose of the shelf is to hide electrical cables and provide a structure on which to build a false wall that will house the main bank of light switches at the entryway. As you can see in this photo, there are cables from the floor level, and in photos above you can see the cables from the ceiling; these will all meet in that false  wall.




The circuit breaker box is a subject for another post, but as you can see, I have installed it in another false wall under the main countertop. Since electrical fires are a thing, I painted its surroundings with a nice, thick coat of intumescent paint. I'll use the space in front of the false wall for storage and have a deep drawer above it.

I used short scraps of pine TNG to create the bottom of the cabinet. That bottom shelf extends just to the outer edge of the 1 3/4" supporting pieces. I may end up filling the beveled joints between boards, or perhaps not; it would be nice to be able to ensure that spilled liquid can't drip down into the inaccessible space under the cabinets!

Looking toward the future of these cabinets...:

• I bought about 18 square feet of unfinished maple flooring at the building salvage store, which I will use to make the countertops. I'm still researching how to seal and finish the surface.
• I plan to use fabric rather than wood for the cabinet doors. I don't want open shelving on the lower level, nor do I want to build and install normal cabinet doors... nor do I want the ruffly, "shabby chic" cabinet skirts like you see on Pinterest. I'm thinking of using flat waxed canvas hung from a curtain rod made from galvanized steel pipe and some arrangement of structural pipe fittings that allows it to swing open and closed. No foo-foo allowed. 
• That little part of the cabinet/countertop that sticks out by the bathroom door will have open shelves, probably. Perhaps for dishes, perhaps to house an electric kettle... who knows!
• For the upper level, I will only have shelves, not upper cabinets. A design priority is to keep the spaces open at eye level as much as possible. 
• One of those shelves will be positioned between the two kitchen windows, and to its underside I will install a kitchen extractor fan.  The fan is rated to pull 220 cubic feet per minute, which is the smallest rating available and still rather preposterously powerful for this small space! It will vent to the outside. 
• The end of the countertop nearest the stairs will have two convertible features:
1. A drop-leaf section at the end, which I can use either as an extension of the workspace or a table for solo dining (the seating will be a stair step).
2. A slide-out tabletop for when I have company. A pair of stools will live in the cabinet underneath.