Well guess its time for a little update. I had a blast demoing all of those cabinets from the donor house. OK not really, it was a lot of work. Still have a few more things to tear out and then build a 24 ft beam to replace a load bearing wall. But thats not really part of building my humble rusty little cabin in the woods.
As of today I am now self taught on how to build kitchen cabinets. You could say just about any type of cabinet, since there really isnt that much difference in construction.
There was a big down side removing these old cabinets. They were all built in, not stand alone cubicals like are made nowadays. The original set of cabinets were pine, fur, or something in the soft wood type. Since then there has been upgrades, additions, and face lifts.
After nearly destroying most of the kitchen cabinets, decided just to make use of what scraps I could and build the cabinet bases to fit my cabin. There are so many doors, in all different sizes, I can easily use to work for my needs. So plans have been adjusted to try and reuse as much of the wood I can. May be a little time consuming, but dont expect any real out of pocket expense to get them built this way.
This is a small pile of what I tore out in kitchen. Its the first of at least ten more truck loads to go. There is a garage full waiting to get moved. A lot of the original was so ingrained into the structure of house, had to be removed piece by piece. Really just torn out. Whatever it took to rip down. The newer addition was not so bad but still was built in. My original hopes was to pull complete cabinets loose from walls. Didnt quite turn out that way.
There are way too many drawers for the area I have to fill. Should be able to use most of the small drawers tho. Not much space for these bigger ones. I am getting an education of hanging these drawers. Some of the old slides and hardware is just cheesy. Should have plenty of the better stuff to hang everything.
There are piles of this stuff. Most wont be used again. Since there is ten times what I need, doesnt make a lot of difference.
Taking inventory of all the sizes of doors and existing pieces of larger wood, then cut down to fit the size in cabin.
The sofit had been converted over to cabinets sometime in the life of this old house. This gives me a ton of cabinet doors that will fit in other places.
The first box I have started constructing is for a built in oven and microwave. Very similar to the original one removed. Unfortunately one side of the old box was particle board and covered in 1/4" paneling. What looks good as a finished product doesnt look very well built after several remodels.
This side of cabinet will be covered up completely. The lower cabinets and countertop up the first 36 inches then a stainless steel sheet to surround the built in stove top. Above the ventahood is a set of upper cabinets. On this side here had white tile in the middle. It was difficult to remove and left a rough surface in wood grain. So the stainless steel panel will cover it over perfectly.
Right below built in oven is this lower drawer. It is the first one I have ever installed. So far things are starting to work out. I was able to narrow up this box about 1 1/2" leaving a new clean edge to work with. It eliminates some unnecessary dead space that is nothing but wasted. Since the kitchen area is fairly small, will take advantage of everything that can be scaled down.
Here is the side of cabinet that will likely be fully exposed. I had to replace the old piece here. It was a mismatch of different wood and particle board covered in that thin paneling. The oak plywood piece was rescued from a demo. It still has a very thin laminate on the inside. The other side of this cabinet box was cut about a foot shorter to fit my kitchen space. Some of the existing horizontal shelf supports can be cut down a little and reused. I moved the oven about three inches higher so a pair of smaller cabinet doors will fit above microwave.
Most of the original cabinets have this thin paneling over the old surface. Looks good enough until you realize how its built. Then not so nice. Hope to fix all of this.
I bought this miter saw over 5 years ago. Long term plans are finally paying off. Until today it had never been taken out of the box. Picked up when on sale really cheap back then, so I couldnt resist. It only took a couple of hours to get this set up to make square cuts. That sucked. The laser isnt too bad either. Now I can trust making cuts more than 12 inches deep to be square and actually fit.
My thoughts on these cabinets are to leave the doors with a wood finish. They are in great shape and look good enough for me. But the cabinet bases can go either way. With some work they can be refinished to match doors. But I am really considering painting just the cabinet bases. Possibly some shade of creme or off white. I need to make the small kitchen space look more open.
With all of the cabinets bases a light color will contrast nicely with the wood finish of doors and help lighten up the room. Will also be a whole lot easier and much less time consuming to go this route. I can hide a ton of imperfections this way and save on materials. Hopefully it will look close to what I have envisioned.
That is where I stand right now. Should have this big box finished in another day or two and ready to fit the oven and microwave. Maybe go ahead and paint the box to get an idea of how it will turn out.
If you have any decent ideas, dont hesitate to post. I need all of the input as possible. My green thumb in decor does not exist. So winging this blindly.