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Building Base Cabinets For Kitchens

Building Base Cabinets For Kitchens

Part One - Where To Start

Building base cabinets for kitchens, is really a pretty straight forward process. The cabinets are pretty basic, and with some careful planning you can save a bundle, and in the process, end up with a much better product.

First thing you should do is have the main user of the kitchen, also known as the boss, make a wish list. It is much easier to scale back than it is to change things after the fact. A big help in this area is to buy a couple books on kitchen design. A few days spent now on going throught these books, as well as trips to a few appliance stores will make things much easier later on. Many appliances, such as cook tops, and ovens have specific requirements regarding the cabinets they are installed in. This will give you a realistic idea of the appliance budget, and prevent you from building a cabinet to fit an appliance you can't, or won't, afford.

The next step would be to get cut sheets on all of the appliances you have chosen. (Just ask the dealer for them, and they'll gladly supply them, as this is expected).These sheets will give you all the requirements regarding cabinet clearance, wiring and plumbing if any.

Now it's time to start the layout of the physical space. Many home centers sell kits with little mock ups of cabinets, appliances, tables, pretty much everything found in a kitchen. Or if your handy with computer, you can buy programs for under $ 50.00 to do a kitchen layout. The advantage to this is you are able to get views of the finished kitchen, even before you begin. From wall colors, to floor tiles, to cabinet design, these programs will help picture the finished product.

The other option is graph paper, while a little primitive in today's world, it still works just fine.

When doing the layout, keep in mind where the existing sink and appliances are now. If you want to move them, it would be a good idea to get a plumber, or electrician to verify that it's possible, and reasonable to do the move. If you want to move the sink to the opposite wall, and you have a slab floor, you might want to rethink that. 

Also bear in mind, the working triangle associated with kitchen layouts. If you're not familiar with this, you will be after reading through the kitchen idea books. They all cover this in depth.

In the next installment, we'll get into the actual construction of the cabinets.

Making Kitchen Cabinets, Fine Homebuilding DVD The first thing people notice when they walk into a kitchen are the cabinets, and Paul Levine will show you how to make yours something to be proud of. Levine’s building system is ideal if you’re just.. Making Kitchen Cabinets, Fine Homebuilding DVD

     Continued with base cab. sketch

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Written by: Lee A. Jesberger  © 2006

Inventor of Ezee-Feed systems  ®

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