Kitchen Remodel Blog

[Jefferey Scott]

Hi Guys,

I've started a blog on my kitchen cabinet construction and kitchen remodel which will take place in the fall. I started it mostly for family and friends but thought that some of my friends here on the Creek might be interested in checking it out. It is picture heavy, so if you have dial-up, beware. Feel free to leave comments or questions and I'll try to answer them. So far I just have pictures of the cabinet construction and various tools in my garage shop. If you would like to visit, just click my name in the upper left corner and then click "visit homepage".

Thanks!

[frank shic]

jeffrey, you're doing great!!! hats off to you for tackling the corner base cabinet on your first try! i like your mobile work benches as well :)

[Carl Beckett]

Thanks for posting Jeff!

I have a kitchen remodel on my list, and appreciate some of the first hand details posted here. After having a chance to get a feel for what its going to take - how much time do you think its going to take to do this project? Someone recommended to me to just purchase the cabinets, but do the face frames and doors myself. And finishing can take a fair bit.

If I think about the details I talk myself out of it pretty quick (due to time expectations), so will enjoy watching your progress.

[Jefferey Scott]

jeffrey, you're doing great!!! hats off to you for tackling the corner base cabinet on your first try! i like your mobile work benches as well :)

Thanks Frank! I appreciate the words of encouragement.

[Jefferey Scott]

Thanks for posting Jeff!

I have a kitchen remodel on my list, and appreciate some of the first hand details posted here. After having a chance to get a feel for what its going to take - how much time do you think its going to take to do this project? Someone recommended to me to just purchase the cabinets, but do the face frames and doors myself. And finishing can take a fair bit.

If I think about the details I talk myself out of it pretty quick (due to time expectations), so will enjoy watching your progress.

Hi Carl. I'm estimating it will take six months to construct and finish all the cabinets. That's with me working on weekends and some 3 day weekends as my day job allows. It's a huge project to be sure, but I'm approaching it one day and a time trying not to be in a rush. I get a lot of satisfaction in tackling all phases of the project myself, even if it does take a little longer. But there's nothing wrong with subbing out some of the job. Good luck to you in your project.

[Jim German]

Wow, looks like you're flying through it to me. I'm quite jealous of your lumber prices to, I paid close to twice what you did for my ply and maple.

[Todd Burch]

Jeff, very well written blog, good pictures as well! You are moving faster than me... I'm making cabinets for my dad's house. Actually, for one cabinet, I'm remaking it - it was 3/4" too wide. Ugg! Now, dad has one very nice looking cabinet hanging in his garage. ;)

[frank shic]

my father in law wants new bathroom vanities so i might be joining you two soon!

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Hmmm, what can I say.....


I like using spacers when possible, especially for multiple cabinets using the same dimensions.

Oh, duh..... Smack head with hand. Obvious when you write it down, probably would have missed it.

These are looking great. Looking forward to more. Interested in how you will mount the drawers, I guess I will have to wait and see :-)

I like your wood storage solution (by the way).

Oh, and I like your storage solution with the food containers.

[Sam Layton]

Hi Jefferey,

Your cabinets are looking great. There is a lot of satisfaction in doing them yourself. Looks like you did a good job drawing your plans as well. You are right, that pre-finished ply is nice to work with. Sure saves a lot of work finishing later on. You are doing a fantastic job documenting your progress. Keep the photo's coming.

Great job, Sam

[Jefferey Scott]

@ Jim: I'm lucky that I was able to open an account with a hardwood wholesaler. That's why I'm getting such good prices.

@ Todd: Thanks for the comments! So far I've only made 1 cabinet too wide ( by 1/2") but I think I can squeeze it into the floor plan :)

@ Andrew: I'm using Blum tandem slides with Blumotion. I have decided yet whether I'll shim out the inside of the cabinets to equal the face frames or use the rear hanging brackets to hang the slides. I've got a set of slides coming so that I can play around with them and see.

@ Sam: Thanks for the good words Sam. I'll be documenting the whole process so stay tuned!

[frank shic]

building the cabinet sides flush to the inside of the face frame obviates the need for shimming or support brackets.

[Jefferey Scott]

This is true and I took this into consideration. I wanted to use 1 3/4" stiles on the face frames though and I didn't want them to overhang the sides of the cabinets by 1" on each side so I opted to overhang the inside of the cabinet by 3/4" and the outside of the sides by 1/4" for scribing if needed. I'm not sure this is the best way to be honest. It's my first kitchen so maybe hopefully I will learn as I go along. :)

[Todd Burch]

This is true and I took this into consideration. I wanted to use 1 3/4" stiles on the face frames though and I didn't want them to overhang the sides of the cabinets by 1" on each side so I opted to overhang the inside of the cabinet by 3/4" and the outside of the sides by 1/4" for scribing if needed. I'm not sure this is the best way to be honest. It's my first kitchen so maybe hopefully I will learn as I go along. :)

In a box of drawers, the obvious choice is cabinet box flush with the inside of the face frame. Making the inside of the box wider than the face frame just creates more work for yourself with adding side shims (blocks, really).

For a combo cabinet, (cabinet doors and drawers) or just a cabinet-door box, it makes sense to widen the box as much as you can, while still allowing for scribe. Thus, blocking for drawer hardware (or use of back brackets) is needed.

Now, using my protocol, a drawer box on the end of a run will need additional consideration, of course - you don't want all that silly face frame overhang out there for everyone to see and question. So this, for me, typically means an applied panel to dress up the end anyway, so I stay with two flush inside sides.

Todd

[Jefferey Scott]

In a box of drawers, the obvious choice is cabinet box flush with the inside of the face frame. Making the inside of the box wider than the face frame just creates more work for yourself with adding side shims (blocks, really).

For a combo cabinet, (cabinet doors and drawers) or just a cabinet-door box, it makes sense to widen the box as much as you can, while still allowing for scribe. Thus, blocking for drawer hardware (or use of back brackets) is needed.

Now, using my protocol, a drawer box on the end of a run will need additional consideration, of course - you don't want all that silly face frame overhang out there for everyone to see and question. So this, for me, typically means an applied panel to dress up the end anyway, so I stay with two flush inside sides.

Todd

I have several end run cabinets which I plan a finished panel to apply. Kinda wish I'd built my drawer only bases like you guys suggested now. No worries though, adapt and overcome!

[Jefferey Scott]

Finally posted pictures of the existing kitchen so that the drawings that are posted will make more sense. Brace yourself for one tired, ugly kitchen! It won't be that way for long though!

[Mark Blum]

Nice job with the blog Jeff, and quite timely. I'm just beginning the same project at my house. Plywood and lumber is all on-site and plans are all drawn up. It looks like we are going to have very similar cabinets as well, as I'm going with the same maple and face-frame style, with overlay doors and almost all drawers in the bases. Tandem undermounts for me as well.

I'm aiming for a bit more aggressive schedule than you though. Whether that turns out to work against me remains to be seen.

Good luck with your project. I'll be following along.

[Mark Blum]

Incidentally, I tried to work out the design so the face frames were flush to the cabinet sides, at least for my drawer banks. But since several banks share a partition there was no way for me to make a wide-enough face frame for consistent reveals and have it flush with the sides.

I'll be interested in your testing with the slides, as I still have to determine if I will go with the hanger brackets or blocking on the sides.

What are your plans for finishing?

[Carl Beckett]

I'm aiming for a bit more aggressive schedule than you though. Whether that turns out to work against me remains to be seen.



I will be following you both. Whats your hoped for schedule Mark?

[Mark Blum]

I will be following you both. Whats your hoped for schedule Mark?

I'm aiming to have cabinet construction completed by the end of August.

[Jefferey Scott]

I'll be interested in your testing with the slides, as I still have to determine if I will go with the hanger brackets or blocking on the sides.

What are your plans for finishing?

Hi Mark,

I'm not committed to either method on the drawer slides yet. Blocking would be pretty easy to accomplish. My face frame overlap on the inside of the cabinets is 3/4" give or take a 32nd or so. I would probably use maple and plane it to the needed dimensions. Blum has two kinds of rear hangar brackets, one metal and one plastic. I'm not sure which is easier or better.

As far as finish is concerned we are going with natural maple. I'm going to try to match the color of the prefinished plywood as closely as I can. I am using Target Coatings EM8000 conversion varnish as a topcoat and I also bought some of their water based shellac in amber to try out as a sealer coat and to give the finish some amber tone. I'm going to spray some samples this weekend of the EM8000 with and without the shellac as an undercoat. I'll post the test results on my blog. I also just got my new HVLP gun in so I'm looking forward to trying that out too.

Best of luck with your project and timeline. Keep us informed as you go along.

[frank shic]

jeffrey, those cabinets you're building aer going to be a serious upgrade to the current ones! love the lazy susan on top of the shelving - that'll make it less likely to fail like the ones that have a single post running down the middle.

[Todd Burch]

Hi Mark. Why wouldn't something like this work for you for adjacent banks? A common face frame solves the issue, with a just a bit of dead space between the boxes.

[Mark Blum]

Hi Mark. Why wouldn't something like this work for you for adjacent banks? A common face frame solves the issue, with a just a bit of dead space between the boxes.
Thanks Todd. I did consider such a configuration, but the tradeoffs (extra weight & bulk, extra wood) didn't seem worth it just to have the face frames flush. These adjacent banks will have common face frames, in essence being just one big cabinet.

[Jefferey Scott]

Posted pictures of the finish test panels today. I'm using Target Coatings conversion varnish and shellac. How do you guys like the color/tone and finish schedule?

[frank shic]

looks great, jeff. the shellac definitely warms up the color a bit and that CV should provide a pretty durable finish.

[Mark Blum]

Yep, looks great. I like your schedule and will likely go with a similar plan. I'll probably include a bit of tint in my schedule to go a few shades darker, but not much. All depends on what the wife wants.

[Jefferey Scott]

Yep, looks great. I like your schedule and will likely go with a similar plan. I'll probably include a bit of tint in my schedule to go a few shades darker, but not much. All depends on what the wife wants.

Mark, I was originally going to go with some Transfast dye in water to get a little deeper color. But when we saw what the shellac did to the wood we decided it was as dark as we wanted. I was recommended the Transfast over the Transtint dye because it was supposedly more lightfast FYI. If you do stain I would go with a shellac to lock that layer into the wood before your topcoat. At least that's what I've been told. Be sure to post some pics of your project, I'd like to see them :)

[Jefferey Scott]

looks great, jeff. the shellac definitely warms up the color a bit and that CV should provide a pretty durable finish.

Thanks Frank! This is the first time I've used their CV. I like it. I've used a fair amount of the EM6000 but I chose the CV because it's supposed to be a little more durable and water/liquid resistant. I know it shoots as easy as the 6000.

[Dave Stratos]

Very nice blog with some good detail. Cabinets are coming out great! Thanks for sharing.

[Jefferey Scott]

Thanks for the kind words Dave! I'm looking forward to demo day which isn't too far in the near future.

[ralph blanco]

Give us an update when it's done, would really love to read and see the photos. For sure I would be asking lots of question, hope you don't mind :-)

[Jefferey Scott]

Won't mind at all Ralph. Thanks for looking. I think its important for everyone to realize this is the first time I've remodeled anything this size and scope, so you will get to see my mistakes as well as my victories :-)

[Jefferey Scott]

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to give a quick update to my kitchen project. The cabinets are all in now. The base cabs have been templated for the granite countertops and we are 3 weeks away from installation of them. I have been working on finish electrical and some other small items on my punch list. Next up will be end panels for the end cabinets and a big end panel for the side of the fridge cabinet. Construction of those panels will be much the same as the door and drawer fronts for the cabinets so they will have the same look. Speaking of the doors and drawer fronts, I am having to refinish them due to some conversion varnish dust/overspray settling into the finish as it cured. It looks pretty ugly. I should have wiped off the panels after they were dry to the touch. I wrapped the doors in stretchy plastic without wiping them down first and I think that helped encapsulate the dust as the finish cured. You live and learn. Big mistake on my part though.

Other than that the process has gone really well and I've got a buttload of trim to make now for the finishing touches and a tile backsplash to do after the counters go in.

As always you can click on my name and select Visit Homepage to go to my blog.

Thanks for reading!

[Brad Sperr]

Your kitchen is looking awesome! Just out of curiosity, what is the electrical for in the bank of drawers to the right of the sink in the 4/6 pic?

[Jefferey Scott]

Your kitchen is looking awesome! Just out of curiosity, what is the electrical for in the bank of drawers to the right of the sink in the 4/6 pic?

Thanks Brad! The romex in that drawer unit is for a 12V transformer that will power my LED undercabinet lighting. I'm using custom made lengths of flexible LED strips from InspiredLED.com. The white wire coiled up under the cabinets is for those strips as well. It's 14/2 CL2 speaker wire rated for in-wall use, but works perfect for low voltage applications as well. Those lights will be on a dimmer as well, which is good because they are bright!

[Phil Thien]

Everything looks great.

The steel supports for the counter top bar, they don't deflect if you push down on the ends?

[Jefferey Scott]

Everything looks great.

The steel supports for the counter top bar, they don't deflect if you push down on the ends?

They do flex a slight bit when I walk on the ends of them. But then I weigh 250 lbs so the 2x6 wall they are screwed to has a little give in it with that much weight on it. We can shim any gaps when the granite goes down. I'm really impressed with how strong a structure it is.

[mreza Salav]

They do flex a slight bit when I walk on the ends of them. But then I weigh 250 lbs so the 2x6 wall they are screwed to has a little give in it with that much weight on it. We can shim any gaps when the granite goes down. I'm really impressed with how strong a structure it is.

Your cabinets and all the renovation looks very nice and impressive. I've watched your blog and you've done great work so far.

As for those bars, it's impressive that they can support your weight at the end. I have no doubt about the strength of those steel bars but I'd be a bit worried about the amount of force transfered to the top cap of the 2x6 wall. A 100lb press at the end of of those bars, if they are about 20", would translate to 600lb or so of "pull up" pressure on that cap. Brackets underneath would translate that weight into a downward pressure on the posts instead. Anyway, my wife says I'm an "overkill" type of guy and it sounds you have tested the structure and hopefully it will have no problem holding the top in the long run...

[Jefferey Scott]

mreza,

Thanks for your insight. Here's what I'm working with: Each bar overhangs the 2x6 wall 14 inches. There are 6 of them supporting a 16 inch overhang which will weigh in the neighborhood of 208 lbs. That means that each bar has to hold 35 lbs roughly. Those are the figures I used when sizing the steel for the overhang. I copied a design to some extent from a company online that makes a similar product that is 3/8 inch rather than 1/2 inch thick like I used and is engineered to cantilever over a 2x4 wall. In my mind, I overengineered this, but we will find out in a few short weeks how well they work :-) My wife and I liked the design of this support over a traditional bracket, it's easier on the knees.

I thank you for your thoughts and comments!

[mreza Salav]

You obviously have done your research :-) so should be fine.

[Jefferey Scott]

Hi Guys. Just wanted to give you all an update on my project. It's finished! It's been 4 months since we did the demo and a year now since I began building all of the cabinets. Click on my name in the upper left corner and then click "visit homepage" so go to my reno site. Let me know how you think it came out. This was my first kitchen and while it's not perfect I think it came out ok. Thanks!

[Phil Thien]

That really looks awesome Jeff! And I think your time to completion makes it even more impressive.