Attaching baseboard to built-in cabinet

[Jeremy Taylor]

I'm designing a built-in utilizing some base cabinets and attached bookshelves. I plan to remove the existing baseboard in the room and re-use it along the front of the base cabinets to help achieve the built-in look. The baseboard is about 5.5” tall so I'm wondering how I should construct the carcass / face frame. Should I just raise the bottom of the cabinet up to around 6” or add a fixed shelf at that height (leave the bottom open)? With either method, I guess I'll be building an oversize bottom rail to attach the baseboard. Since it'll be mostly covered by the baseboard and the whole unit will be painted, I was planning on using plywood for the bottom rail.


Thoughts or suggestions?


Thanks,


Jeremy

[Rob Bodenschatz]

This article may help:

http://www.workbenchmagazine.com/main/wb000-preview01.html

[Ben Grunow]

Plywood sides and face frame, if any, go right to the floor. It is nice to have solid plywood or lumber to nail the base to.

For face frame cabinets (all I know)I like to plan ahead so the width of the face frame showing above the top of the base is the same as everywhere else on the cabinetry. I also plan to shim the cabinet so I make it so it sits about 1/2" above the floor. THis means you never have to scribe the bottom of the unit to a crooked floor (unless the floor is more than 1/2" out of level).

hope this makes some sense.

Ben