DIY Cabinets

Shaker Style Kitchen Cabinets with inlaid drawers and inset doors with steel pulls.

Constructing and Installing new Kitchen Cabinets or Bathroom Vanities can be a daunting task if you've never worked with cabinets before. If you are, however, inclined to work with wood or at least have a drill, saw and a sander, you've got enough to jump into the project and start working. Of course, a table saw would make the project much easier, but a hand saw works just fine. there are plenty of other tools that we'd recommend tension clamps,

If you have a tiny room that will only require a few cabinets, it may be worth your while to just order cabinets or select an off the shelf, fully built cabinet. The only drawback with these is you usually will sacrifice some quality, durability, and customization. You usually will have a finished and unfinished option.

The first step of the process is tear out of your old or existing cabinets f this is a remodeling project and you, the homeowner, are acting as your own kitchen designer. Either that or you've just built or bought a new home. Either way, you'll want to have a blank slate with level floors and walls. Only then can you start taping off where appliances will go on the wall and secondly where the cabinets will go. Most cabinets are typically 24" deep, but that's all dependent on how "custom" of a job you want to do. Since you're potentially deciding to build your own cabinets. This would be the equivalent of a custom job by a professional kitchen remodeler.

A semi custom job would be more RTA cabinets from hardware stores that you can mix and match and be able to somewhat customize what you want. You won't have near the options you would as with a fully custom job when a remodeling contractor would come in, get measurements, suggest sizes of cabinets and how many to order based on the dimensions, do the full tear out once they are assembled and installed. This is essentially the job you are hiring yourself for when you do them yourself.

Maple plywood is a great solid material to construct you cabinets with, but a lot of the time a good option is to have maple doors and drawers and a cheaper, still durable and quality wood as the actual box or frame of the cabinets. A hardwood face for your cabinets is usually the priority for most homeowners since that face will be the main focal point.

After cutting your panels for the cabinet frames, doors, drawers, and toe kicks, you may want to either finish or paint the insides of the cabinets. This is a great option to save a little time and have a good looking, durable, log-lasting product. Usually cabinet panels are screwed together after the edges of panels are bonded together with some type of agent that will help secure it. It will help to have a brad nail gun to secure it together as best as you can. Now all that's left is mounting hardware for drawers and drawers to open and slide, and attaching them. Most people will opt for soft close hardware and drawers have the option to push and click to open.

After assembly comes installation of your new cabinets. The main thing here is that everything is straight and level from front to back and side to side. You will attach every cabinet to each other and to the wall and when you're done, you'll want to go back and check everything.

If DIY doesn't happen to suit your timeline or budget, give us a call and we'd be happy to come out and take a look at your kitchen or bathroom space and assess what it would take to get your kitchen renovation done in no time.