The next project in the Beaubilt shop was a set of custom built-in cabinets that would flank a fireplace.

Here is the space before the cabinets were installed and one thing to note is the foundation that extends into the room. The client wanted the top of the cabinets flush with this protrusion so it acted like one big surface.

YouTube Videos

Video 1

Video 2

Plan and Materials

The initial visit required a number of detailed dimension recorded (legibly) with pictures/sketches etc. The right cabinet is roughly 51″ wide, about 20″ deep and 40″ hig and the left cabinet is roughly 37″ wide. I selected poplar for the face frame/door frame material, MDF for the door panel and decorative work and then 3/4″ and 1/2″ maple plywood for the cabinet . I also needed a bit of maple to edge the shelves. Looking back I would not use MDF for the side panels that are exposed. It took a lot of sanding and work to get the edge grain smooth”ish”. Poplar would have been much better choice. The cabinets have face frames and 1/2″ overlay doors. The way I was going to achieve a flush top with the exposed foundation was leveling feet.

Face Frames

Typically, I start with the cabinet carcass first and build a face frame to fit. For this project, I tried the reverse. Honestly, I don’t think it matters as long as you are keeping dimensions accurate. After milling all the lumber, I ripped my face frame parts down to size. The lower stile is 2 1/4″ where the rest is 2″ wide. The lower stile is wider, so I had some meat to attach the baseboard to. To connect my face frame pieces, I am using the Domino. I originally didn’t think a 51 inch cabinet was large until I glued up the face frame. Oh boy. I also experienced my first case of fence drift or extreme user error with my Domino and had one joint misaligned. After gluing up the large frame, I glued up the smaller one.

Cabinet Carcass

After moving the face frames out of the way, I started to cut down the plywood sheets with the tracksaw and size them on the table saw. Then, it was time to add some joinery. The backs of all pieces received a 1/2″ rabbet for the back. The sides recieved a 3/4 dado for the bottom and a rabbet on the top for the sub-top.

After getting the cabinet dry fit and confirming I made everything correctly, I took some dimensions for the back. Unfortunately I did screw something up. I was using the overall height of the face frame as my ‘dimension’ and come to find out that is not the best method. I should have used the top of the face frame to the top edge of the lower stile. My lower stile was about 1/8″ narrower than I had planned, so I had to shift the face frame up 1/8″ to cover the plywood bottom edge. Not the end of the world. After cutting the back to size, I could glue up the cabinet. Everything was clamped except the back was glued and nailed (18ga).

Of course, I had a bit of glue squeeze out to clean up after everything dried. Chisel, card scraper, sandpaper.

Side Panel and Face Frame Attachment

After removing the cabinet carcass from the clamps, I flushed up the rabbet joints and added the “faux frame” to the side panel.

The rear most section doesn’t have anything since it will be hidden behind the fireplace brick. Later I added another horizontal stile. As I mentioned before, MDF was not a good choice here. The edges are so fuzzy and rough. The reason I added this panel first was because the face frame was going to be flush with it. So, the next step was to glue on the face frame. I had already drilled some pocket holes in the top and bottom where they would be hidden. The sides would still need to be clamped. Before I could actually attach the face frame, I realized I had to rabbet the inside edge a bit to get the hinges to work properly. Let me explain: The hinges have little teeth spaced 3/4″ apart. My face frame was almost 7/8″. So I used a router and rabbeting bit to remove a little bit of material on the inside of the stiles.

Attaching the face frame was pretty straightforward. I had to clamp the smaller cabinet square while gluing the face frame on which was a bit of awkward. Thinking about it now, I could have ‘pushed’ the cabinet square from the inside, which may have been easier. Once the glue dried, I flush trimmed the top of the face frame and the side with the faux panel

Shelves and Tops

The adjustable shelves were made from 3/4″ plywood and got a 1 1/2″ tall maple edge glued on. The shelves will only get poly, so they needed maple since poplar would have looked like garbage on there. The very top of the cabinets is a separate piece of plywood with hardwood edging. The top had to be separate since I would have to get the cabinet box installed and then make a template. Transfer that template to my tops to get the top to fit within the fireplace and adjacent walls tightly. The template was made with hot glue and 1/8″ hardboard after the cabinet boxes were installed on-site.

Doors

The doors started with ripping down my milled material to 2″ wide. Then, I cut a 1/4 groove in each piece with stopped grooves in the vertical stiles and full grooves in the rails. Carefully keeping track of which face was against the fence and needed to the “outside”. Since I am using 1/2 MDF for the panel, the inside will be flush while the outside will be recessed 1/4″ for the decorative bracing. FYI, 1/2″ MDF makes doors very heavy, but left me enough material to attach the decorate bracing with pin nails and glue.

The panel for the doors received a rabbet leaving a 1/4″ tongue to fit inside the grooves above.

Diagonal, Decorative Bracing, or X Stips

The trickiest part of adding the bracing is getting it cut to the right size and angle. So, here was my process:

• Clamp up the door frame without the panel
• Lay out center lines on the diagonal pieces
• Lay the door frame on top of the 2″ brace strips
• Align the center lines with the corners of the door frame
• Trace the door onto the diagonal pieces at both ends
• Trace the overlap section onto one brace piece
• No measuring or geometry needed

After the doors were glued up, with the panels installed, I could get out the miter gauge and use my table saw to cut the brace pieces to size. Always sneaking up on my lines. Then I used glue and some pin nails to hold them in place. (after I sanded them quickly). Since the brace material was about 1/4″ the brace material and door frames are almost flush.

Fitting Doors

In order to ensure the doors are correct, I did a couple dry fits. First, I had to drill the 35mm hole in the doors and attach them to the cabinet carcass. I knew my doors were a bit wider than necessary at this time, so I closed each one independently and marked where they landed on the face frame. I could measure the distance between my marks and cut off half from each door. Then perform another dry fit to confirm. It was at this stage I realized I cut my smaller doors too large, way too large, and had to remake them. Measure twice, cut once.

Finishing Shelves and Interior

I should have mentioned that before attaching the face frame I applied 3 coats of poly to the internals of the cabinet with a brush and roller. Since the shelves take up so much space in my shop and they are getting poly instead of paint, I sanded and finished these first to get them out of the garage. I applied a number (2or3) coats of GF poly with my HVLP

Paint Prep

The most dreaded part of the project. Sanding, filling, sanding, filling, masking, priming, filling, sanding………….

I noticed a number of flaws prior to priming, but some didn’t pop out until I primed everything. Also, when painting with a dark color, I noticed even more flaws. So I had to do some filling and sanding after the first coat of paint.

Since the insides of the cabinet are poly’d maple, I had to mask everything before spraying the boxes. At some point in time, I also cut the recesses for access to the outlets, cable, and gas valve in the boxes. The boxes were kind of a beast to move around the shop to spray them. Later I found a way to get them both on my turntable stool back to back which was awesome, but scary since it was a little unstable.

Painting and Installation

I applied two coats of paint to everything (Gauntlent Gray – SW Color but used BM Advanced-Satin). Including some baseboard and fill strips. Before installing, I drilled holes for the door pulls and packed up a bunch of tools. I also cut the cope joint in the baseboard pieces. The clients were nice enough to help me deliver and carry the large boxes and I followed the next day with all of my stuff to install these guys.

I don’t have many pictures of install day, but here goes the process:

• Cut existing baseboard
• Attach leveling feet to bottom of cabinet (lower shelf)
  • 4 on the small cabinet
  • 6 on large cabinet
• Mark stud locations on wall
• Get cabinets set into place and leveled with foundation
  • This took quite a bit of time using the leveling feet
  • Rather tricky to reach the back ones
  • Next time something that can be adjusted from top would be nice
• Use shims and drill/screw cabinets to wall to firmly secure them
• Breathe a sigh of relief that all of the outlet holes matched
• Measure and cut the fill strip to get between cabinet and wall
  • Not perfect, still needed some caulk
• Cut 1/8″ hardboard into 1 1/2″ strips
• Use hot glue and strips to create a template for the cabinet top
  • Kind of like they do for countertops
• Transfer to tops and cut to fit
• Attach tops to cabinet with screws
• Cut baseboard to size and nail into place
• Fill holes, caulk seams, let dry
• Paint the caulk and filler
• Attach shelves and doors
• BOOM!