When installing a kitchen cabinet, you must know how to do it.
Otherwise a single mistake can ruin the looks of it.
With the abundance of online tutorials explaining in detail the procedures involved in how to install kitchen cabinets.
The first thing is the decision to replace the cabinets.
If you just want to freshen up the look of your kitchen and the existing cabinet fits well in to the available space, don’t rule out refinishing and refacing.
Both of these options are most likely to cost less than replacing entire cabinets.
A point to remember is that if you can not get the work done yourself, do not do it. Its better to get it done by known professional.
When I made the decision to change my cabinets, though I did not want them renovated, with my budget allowing me to do so.
I visited my friends house who had replaced his kitchen cabinets a few weeks ago and asked him about a few tips and tricks.
He told me his tale of how he had done it, even though he did not have any past experience with such work, he told me that it was a piece of cake.
He showed me the sites where he had got those tutorials.
After having a look at the few tutorials, I thought OK it is really a piece of cake.
The next day I went to the market, compared the different prices each wholesaler offered, and finally got the one I thought was best for me.
When the time came for replacing the cabinets, I opened up the sites my friend had told me about, did a little reading and started working on the different procedures.
The problem was I did not know how to use some of the equipment. But I kept working and finally replaced the cabinets.
Since I lacked the expertise of using different tools, the alignment of the doors and knobs were kind of out.
Therefore I had to call in a professional to set them up again, he told me that I had made a mistake in installing the door hinges and other accessories with wrong tools and I did not screw them up properly, even the studs were not properly drilled in.
I had it all wrong. First thing I should have done was to assemble the cabinets while they were not mounted, then install the top cabinets first after marking the studs positions then test fit everything and then install the cabinets one by one.
Whenever you decide to replace your kitchen cabinets make sure you know what you are doing, or you could end up in a mess or spending up more than the actual budget, or to make life easier, you could just hire a professional to do it for you.
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Kitchen Cabinet Installation Made Easy
When you think you need a new kitchen cabinet, and you are on a tight budget, consider building your own.
Renovation can prove to be costly and it can take up 40% of the budget if you opt to do the project.
Last week, during the holidays I was in a situation where I had two options, either to buy a new Unit or to remodel my current one.
At first I did not know that the remodeling cost for my kitchen cabinet would go beyond my budget, even though I wanted to do it. I was sort of confused and did not really know what I should do.
So I called in backup, a friend of mine who had experience with cabinets of all kinds.
He took me to the market; where we visited different DIY wholesalers, I learned a lot of stuff about kitchen cabinets that day, about the different kinds of materials they are made of, the variety of kitchen cabinet hardware there is and its accessories.
I found it helpful and pretty interesting; since it was the first time I was going to build a kitchen cabinet on my own. Even a housewife can do it as a holiday project.
With plenty of on line DIY tutorials on DIY kitchen cabinets, all you have to do is carefully follow the procedure.
After you have decided on what you need, do a little research about the materials and equipment that you will be handling and the different kinds of kitchen cabinet hardware and accessories.
Also consider visiting different wholesalers just to get an idea about the so that you can choose the one that is you think best for you.
After our little campaign in the market, I bought the materials from the shop, which provided prices that were easily covered in my budget and also saving some of it.
Now we just needed equipment that we will be using to build it, but the problem was we had been on the move for more than three hours and were really tired also the sun was beating on our backs.
So I asked him to let me borrow his equipment.
At first he was like, “No way!” because he knew I had zero experience in handling this kind of hardware, but in the end, a friend in need is a friend indeed, I asked him to come over and help me build my own, he agreed and we started working on it the next day.
Just remember whenever you want to build a kitchen cabinet, do a little research on it and remember it takes time, patience and some skills with equipment.
For your own safety, if you know you can not handle the equipment yourself, just ask a friend to help you.
How to Organize Kitchen Cabinet
I always had some trouble in maintaining my modern kitchen accessories such as dishes, spices, spoons, forks and other such stuff and I always forgot where I put those things.
It was very irritating.
I had no clue of finding a solution.
So one day my mom came over to my kitchen and went through my cabinet doors and advised me to use, to manage mycabinet accessories, so I asked her that what does it do and where can I find it so she told me all the details about her experience of this small but effective product.
She told me that there are many kinds of kitchen cabinet organizers depending on your needs.
I went down to the store and bought few organizer, I got one organizer which was revolving and can hold different spices or cookware, so when ever I need one of the spices, I do not have to reach all the way in, I just give it a spin and get what I want.
This kind of organizer is generally referred as lazy Susan kitchen cabinet organizer.
Another type of organizer that I got was the spice holder which is generally held on the cabinet shelf close to the stove or oven because spices are used more often in the kitchen while cooking.
The store keeper preferred me another type organizer which is pretty famous these days it’s like a drawer which can be kept in one of the lower shelves and is used for containing bottles and jars mostly but you can use them to store cups, cans and dishes too.
These organizers were made of plastic and they were pretty inexpensive to buy.
My cabinet accessories are way easier to manage since I started using these organizers.
Kitchen Cabinets the Fun Way
Kitchen cabinets, though they seem to be a subject of ultimate boredom, but in reality they play an important role in our kitchen life.
Without them you would not be able to store or place you spoons, forks, cookies, coffee cups the list goes on and on.
Although invented in the early 20th century, previously known as Hoosier Cabinets, now have evolved just like the humans.
Their hard ware or foundation can vary from laminated wood to delicate but strong metal structure or even solid earth like marble.
Last month when I was planning to install new cabinets, I had to choose from a wide variety of designs.
Since I greatly admire hand crafted woodwork, I quickly came to a decision about what I needed, but the problem was which design I should choose.
For people like me, who like traditional wood crafting and the essence of natural wood color to the eyes, a custom face frame design made of hard maple wood or any wood of your choice and that is easily affordable along with a hardwood floor, but if you are a modernized person the best design that would suit you is the frameless European cabinet, which can also be in traditional woodwork but metal work would really give you the look you want.
The problem was I had a limited budget and the one I wanted; I knew it would not fit into my kitchen renovation budget, so I chose soft maple wood for the doors, knobs and frames of the cabinet and its drawers and plywood for the body, drawer and shelf trays.
The only question still remaining was the finishing. Since I had chosen soft maple for drawer faces, doors, knobs and frames I had to find something that would bring out and conserve the grain and pore patterns of the maple and provide good durability.
The answer was water based polyurethane, a transparent varnish with good durability, also UV stable and safer than the other varnishes chemically.
Now I had a cabinet that I am happy with. When my sister visited my house she really liked what I did with the kitchen cabinets, she was amazed to see how the drawer and shelf trays were made of plywood.
Even though a drawer can hold up to 75 to 100 pounds of weight, the drawer tray you use does not really matter as it is fixed in a frame of wood, your frame needs to be strong or else the tray will fall.
Although there are several designs, patterns and materials to choose from when making a kitchen cabinet, like the face framed or the frameless and others, I would prefer the face frame as it delivers both quality and good design.
Metal Kitchen Cabinets Are Latest Trend
My wife asked me to get a new kitchen cabinet set because I just shifted to my new apartment, this place was quiet bigger than the last one and the space covered by the kitchen was huge.
So the old kitchen cabinet set did not fit in this kitchen so we had to find something a bit more accommodating, more durable and of course stylish for this place.
I had no information on kitchen cabinet designs or kitchen cabinet hardware so I went up to one of my friend who was in this kitchen designing business for quite a few time.
I was shocked when I reached his store, he used to be a great wood cabinet maker but now he was only dealing in metal kitchen cabinets.
I asked for reasons so he told me that metal kitchen cabinets had an impression of only being used commercially, which is to say that they were only used in restaurants, pizza parlors, bakeries and places like that but due to their sleek look and durability.
People have begun to use these cabinets in their homes since late 20th century, they gain popularity and are quite famous these days, he showed me some of the model cabinets and I found them inspiring, I decided not to rush things and came home to do some research on the internet.
When I started looking I was pretty amazed to know that they are much more durable, stylish and maintainable as compared to regular wood cabinets and most of all metal kitchen cabinets were pretty economic too.
But I had few other questions like metal becomes rusty and stuff like that.
So I went up to my friend’s store and asked him about these details he told me that metal cabinets are made of an alloy such as stainless steel which prevents it from corrosion, stain and rust.
He also told me that the kind alloy can be changed according to your desired looks and never the less you can paint your metal cabinet with a new color whenever you want, to give it a brand new look.
So I asked him to come over for the measurements and space description, my wife chose the design suiting with the appliances and we placed our order.
It took 3 weeks to complete but when it was installed and finished it satisfied every one in the house and for the first time in our life my wife did not complain.
Little More About Unfinished Kitchen Cabinet
So when I decided to redo my entire cabinet section, the first choice that I had to make was whether to choose unfinished or finished one.
I started looking for clues and ideas about both types and decided to go for an unfinished kitchen cabinet, because unfinished kitchen cabinets gave me freedom to customize my cabinets according to my choices.
I didn’t have to choose from a predefined designs, styles or color.
It gave me opportunity to make my own designs, styles with my desired colors while finished cabinets didn’t give me this freedom.
When I got up to the cabinet dealer he told me that people usually prefer unfinished cabinets due to same reasons.
So started with thinking of a design, style and color that suited with my apartment’s space and environment.
I referred many catalogues and internet for inspiration and finally came up with a design, it was not something very modern looking, my design was more like an old classic English cabinets, with a sleek stylish look.
I added some gloss coatings to give it a shiny look and asked my cabinet dealer for the best wood for my cabinets, he gave me a choice between Birch, Alder, Cedar, Para wood or ash.
I went with Para wood because it gave my design a more mature look and Para wood was also suitable for the humidity and weather conditions of my location.
Next thing that I had to do was take measurements according to kitchens available space and the amount of cabinet space that I needed for my dishes and accessories, it took me a day for this work.
I gave all the descriptions and measurements to my dealer.
I got my cabinets one week later and it was as good as I thought they would be and I thanked myself for choosing unfinished cabinets.
Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing
I took a deep breath and started with clearing all the things from shelves and cleaning it with a dry piece of cloth.
I removed all the doors and drawers and placed it some where clean. All I needed to get from store was a varnish and a wood polish.
After getting all the accessories apart, I started with cleaning it gently with a wet sponge and then used sand paper to rub it for a little while, looked for any severe damage to my cabinet, found a few holes and dealt with it before applying the varnish.
My friend advised me to make sure that the wood is completely dry before I start to apply any chemicals on it, I dried the wood for few more hours and applied the varnish and wood polishing chemical on it and left the cabinets to dry up for two days.
I worked on other parts of the cabinets while the doors and drawers were out to dry, removed stains from the inside of the shelves and followed the same procedure on wooden parts.
When I put all the cabinet hardware together, I was shocked to see the outcome. It was as good as new kitchen cabinet, my grandmother was pretty happy to see it.