The Long Crawl

The following story is one of bravery and adventure…actually, it’s about me building a cabinet. What’s new?

The mission? Fill this gap. It may seem like a simple task. It wasn’t. The reason there is a gap here in the first place is because I wanted to space these cabinets far enough apart that I didn’t have to worry about the drawer hardware hitting each other when I open drawers in this corner.  I had to choose drawer pulls wisely in my Pantry because my corner cabinets were very close together.  I found ones that didn’t stick out very much at all but I don’t want to HAVE to choose wisely.  I want to be able to choose whatever I want — so I left more space this time.

I planned on installing a faceframe piece in the corner, at an angle.  I should have done that before installing the countertops but I hadn’t attached the faceframes yet so I couldn’t.

I helf a small piece of faceframe in place and then screwed a block of wood to the countertop behind that.  This gave me something to secure the faceframe to at the top but the bottom was another story.

I used clamps to pull the piece into position and hold it snugly where I wanted it to be secured.  Then I began preparing myself for the long crawl.

I’d be taking a few supplies with me on my journey.  I cut a block of wood to sit behind my faceframe filler piece.  I cut the ends at 45º angles so they would sit against the cabinets and make it easier to secure.  I wasn’t sure how much room there would be between the block and the filler piece so I gathered up a big handful of shims to use if needed.  I also brought a drill, a pocket full of screws of various sizes and a flashlight.

With my hands and pockets full of what I hoped would be ample supplies, I readied myself for cobwebs, dust, critters unknown and a really uncomfortable sideways scoochy kind of shuffely crawl through this tunnel of terror.

I ain’t afraid of no ghost!

I secured my block and surprisingly, it was the PERFECT size for my needs and I didn’t use a single shim.  I stuffed all the shims I had brought with me through the open space under the toekick along with my phone charging cord that I found back here!  (I had recently accused Madison of “borrowing” it and she asked why she got blamed for everything…)

Mission accomplished! But then I had to crawl… back… out again.  :-O

The reason I have this wasted space is because of my slanted ceilings.  I built this little wall to bump my cabinets out so the upper cabinets could be taller.  The electrical is yet to be hooked up in the island and you can see the “pigtails” that will eventually be connected to one of the existing outlets.  This space won’t be used but it’s an access point for the electrical connections.

Obviously it was a useful access point for my empty blind corner as well.  Hopefully that was a ONE time deal.  The faceframe is secured, holes are filled and it’s caulked up and should never budge or have to be messed with again.  And so the craft room journey continues…

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Add Beadboard Paneling to Cabinet Sides

Using beadboard paneling is an easy way to hide all those imperfections that are exposed when using the “quick and easy” method of building like I did with these cabinets.  Quick and Easy building method: butt joints and screws driven in from the outside of the cabinet. In addition to the exposed screws, this sanded plywood has only one “nice” side.  The other side is rough and full of knots, which I placed facing the outside of the cabinet.  In short, the outside of these cabinets are pretty ugly and need to be addressed.

Add Beadboard Paneling to Cabinet Sides

After I attached the face frame, it had about a 3/4″ lip (overhang) on the outside edges of all the cabinet runs. I use this to my advantage because it allows me to add beadboard to the outside of my cabinets.  I don’t want much of an overhang left on my faceframes when I’m done so I start out adding 1/2″ cleats to the outside of the cabinet.  I literally went down to my scrap pile and grabbed all the 1/2″ plywood scraps I could find and attached them to my cabinet with wood glue and nails.  Then I attached the beadboard using caulk and nails.  The beadboard I’m using is slightly less than 1/4″ so I still have a very small overhang on the outside edge of the faceframe (although I don’t really care either way).

I cut the angled piece of beadboard the same way I cut the sides of the angled cabinets.

I covered every exposed cabinet side with beadboard including the sides under my desk area. 

The beadboard finishes it all of very nicely and it’s an easy way to address ugly cabinet sides.  Once I fill all the nail holes, I’ll paint beadboard with my airless sprayer when I paint my cabinets.  Check out this post if you want to see how to easily paint beadboard with a brush and roller.

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Installing Decorative Trim in Faceframe Columns

All of the little details in this studio are killing my time frame.  One of the details I’m adding is installing decorative trim in all of the faceframe columns.  There are two, single sided columns in the upper cabinets and two three sided columns in the bottom cabinets at the end of the island.  I’m treating all of the visible sides in the same way.

Installing Decorative Trim in Faceframe Columns

I’m creating a box out of faceframe material, which is 1×2 poplar.  Then I’m adding glass bead moulding around the perimeter, inside the box.  This glass bead moulding is tricky to cut because the two sides look very similar.  I have to make sure I have the correct side laying on the floor of the saw every time.  It’s easy to flip it around backwards and then the profiles don’t line up in the cabinet.I cut all my pieces to size before installing them.

Installing decorative trim this small is tricky business.  It’s quite flexible so it bends and bows and unless you use 20 nails per side, it’s hard to get it to lay flat.  I lay a bead of caulk into the corner of the faceframe where I’ll be installing it.

Then I push each piece into place.  The excess caulk squeezes out but theres enough caulk behind the moulding to grab it and stick it to flat to the cabinet.

I nail each side of each piece of moulding to secure the joints and shoot a few nails down each side.  Thin moulding splits easily if you use too large a nail.  I’m using 18 gauge nails in my DeWalt battery nailer.  These nails are small enough not to split the wood.

The excess caulk can then be used to fill the cracks in the seams.

My columns will house electrical outlets so I had to make sure I left room for the outlet cover when planning the whole thing out.

Right now the junction box is empty and it will remain empty until after I get everything painted.  I didn’t tape off a couple receptacles when creating my faux brick wall and now I have to replace at least one of them because it’s full of joint compound.  It’ll be better if I wait to wire up my receptacles the very end.

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