Another Kitchen Cabinet Question

[Larry Fox]

I am getting to the point in my kitchen cabinet project where I am beginning to build the actual boxes. For wall cabinets, I would like to do something a little different with the underside of the bottoms. However, before I did it I wanted to solicit the opinions of others to see if there might be a reason I might not want to do this.

When you look at the underside of a run of wall cabinets, you typically see the ends of the plywood, the mounting cleats, etc. For my cabinets I am considering closing this space in with a piece of ply the length of the entire run. The way I thought I would do it is to;

- Cut a dado in the back of the face frame about ¼” from the bottom.
- Rabbet the front of the bottom mounting cleat.
- Cut the cabinet sides 1” short on the bottom
- Cut a dado in the back of the end panels at either end of the run.

At this point, I will have a slot all the way around on the inside bottom to receive the plywood. Pop it into the groove and fasten with screws or something. This will allow the piece of ply to be removed should the need arise.

I thought about under-cabinet lighting and I found some puck-style lights that can be recessed into a piece of ¾” ply without drilling all the way through.

Does this sound like a good approach or am I overlooking some reason why I should not do this?

Thanks in advance for your time . . .

Larry

[Jim Becker]

I think this would be a nice finishing touch if it meets your needs. Considerations would need to be made relative to under-cabinet lighting as the normal cabinet construction tends to hide the fixtures. If you recess them into your false bottom, you'll need to make arrangements for cooling them properly.

[Lars Thomas]

I would only do that if the ply ends REALLY bugs you. It might be easier to cut your sides an 1/8" short and edge band them.

[Larry Fox]

Jim, I thought about cooling the lights and the ones that I am looking at (link below) seem to indicate that they can be recessed straight into something 3/4" thick without drilling through. There is a store fairly near me that has them displayed in various configurations and I am going to swing by (between coats of finish :) ) on Saturday to take a look at them. I am not looking for task lighting as much as something I can leave on (and dim) at night so the room is not completely dark in case kids need something in the middle of the night - a fancy nightlight of sorts.

http://www.seagulllighting.com/Ambiance®-Lighting-9485-298.html

Lars, I thought of doing just that but part of the problem is that the cabinets are cherry and the ply I am using for the boxes is pre-finished maple. I didn't see a good way to edge band to get around that and that is when the "false bottom" idea occured to me. In my typical fashion, I am making things way more complicated for myself than they need to be.

[Jim Chilenski]

Larry,

One suggestion that I considered doing was to add a trim moulding along the bottom edge of the cabinets across the front and any exposed sides that return back to a wall. Make the strip out of 3/4" x 1 1/2" material that matches the front of your cabinets and create a bull nose or other edge treatment on the 3/4" side that will show. On the top of the back side create a rabbet which will cover the edge of the plywood, (1/2" or less in thickness), that you intend to add to the bottom of the cabinets. Where you have a cabinet that has both a front and side exposed add a piece of this moulding along the bottom of the side that returns to the wall, mitering the corner where it meets the front piece of moulding.

Attach the moulding to the bottom front edge of the cabinets with wood screws and use matching plugs to cover the screw holes.

Slip the front edge of the plywood into the rabbet and attach the plywood to the back of the cabinet bottom with wood screws. This way you can leave the back and sides of the cabinets the same length as the fronts and use the moulding as a means to hide the edge of the plywood plus allow for easy removal of the plywood bottom to allow you to position and hide the wires for your under cabinet lighting.

Hope that I explained this well.

Jim