Kitchen Cabinets Part 3- Face Frames & Toe Kicks

This week the countertop company came to take measurements for our countertops. I have no idea when they'll actually be installed; we have to approve the template on the stone first, then they'll cut it, and then install it.

I'm not sure what I expected when they said they'd make a template: paper maybe? Or a laser? Definitely a tape measure and level.

They used none of those things. The pro showed up with a battery powered glue gun (adding that to my Christmas list!), and a handful of pieces of plastic.

He laid the plastic on top of the cabinets, adjusting it for the 3/4" face frames, and the overhang. We didn't have the faceframes on, so he had to measure that part, but still used a tape measure way less than I thought he would.

When he measured the opening in the wall for the bar he had to account for the 1x6ish that will frame each side as well. I was very glad Scott was there to point out everything he needed to account for, but I'm positive all the extras we needed did nothing in terms of making us his favorite clients 🤣.

As you can see, we haven't started on the sink cabinet yet, but since it's surrounded by walls on 3 sides the shape will be the same, so we went ahead and had him template it.

Up until this point, the cabinets have really just been boxes, the only one with any identifying "cabinet" features is the corner cabinet, because it has a shelf. That changed this weekend though.

We started building face frames by working on the smallest cabinet first, the one to the left of the stove.

The face frames are built out of 1x2 and 1x3" poplar boards. Poplar is more expensive than the standard "whitewood" we use around the house, but it's also harder, and therefore better for the frames, which will inevitably have things banged into them.

We used the 1x2s for the top, bottom, and between drawers, and the 1x3s where two cabinets meet.

There was a lot of measuring, double-checking, and trial and error with the first frame. Once we had it down though, we had a "template" we could follow for the other cabinets.

Of course, this all went into our handy Black Book of Building, TM (just kidding, I just made that up, but maybe one day it'll be a trademark, ha!).

I color-coded the first diagram, which was for the first cabinet, and took note of how we got the measurements needed from the measurements of the cabinet.

With the measurements down, we made our cuts, trial-fitting each piece to be sure we got it right. Clover helped!

We used the Kreg Jig to make pocketholes on the backs of the boards to attach then securely to one another.

We cut two spacers the height of the space for the second and third drawers to keep everything level and even.

We filled the cracks between the boards with wood filler and sanded everything with 120, then 220. It was tough to get into the corners (and there were a lot of corners!), so I made a mental note to sand before assembly on the next frames.

Next, we turned out focus the the remaining cabinets to the right of the stove. These face frames would be two pieces that meet with a 90 degree angle at the corner cabinet, requiring two 45 degree cuts.

Before we could build these we had to put the shelf in the cabinet that will house the microwave.

We could have put this in with dados prior to cabinet assembly, but we hadn't decided on a microwave yet and needed to ensure we had 3" of clearance around the one we wanted, so we waited until that was chosen. We currently have a little $60 microwave that we bought when we moved in simply to have one, but we'll get a larger one in the near future.

We chose where to put the shelf, took measurements, drilled pocketholes, and installed the shelf using 2x4s cut to the right height as spacers to hold the shelf level while Scott drilled in the pocketscrews in place.

Now that we had the shelf in place we could take measurements for the face frame.

While making this section we got to play the fun game called "is it a 3 or a 5?":

It's Scott's writing, and re-measuring confirmed it's a 5, but I'm not convinced he didn't write a 3, but meant 5. This is a perfect example of why you measure twice, cut once.

Threes and fives aside, we were able to assemble the remaining face frame and then took it back to the garage for filling and sanding prior to painting.

I put two coats of paint on the face frames, sanding in between coats, and came inside to paint the exposed sides of the cabinets while that dried. I also sealed the insides of the cabinets with linseed oil. You won't see inside the cabinets once the drawers are in, but the linseed oil will help protect them just in case. The back is mdf, so we didn't seal it.

With the insides sealed, I focused on the exposed sides of the cabinets (really just the far left cabinet side), as well as the two sides next to the stove. I didn't have to paint the sides by the stove, but, much like the insides of the cabinets, I painted them to protect them.

The one part that DID need to be either painted or sealed was the microwave cabinet. I wasn't sure which way to go, but after putting the little microwave in the cabinet, I saw how visible the sides were and we decided we'd paint that too.

Paint makes things start to look finished. We are no where near finished, but that coat of gorgeous Halcyon Green sure has a way of making you think you're almost done 😍.

Once the paint on the frames was dry we put them up using glue and the nail gun.

The frames helped to make them look like "real" cabinets, but there was still the gaping hole at the bottom, where the toe kick should be.

That hole attracts dog toys and sucks them right underneath, multiple times a day. Toby doesn't understand, he's certainly not pushing toys under there, so it must be magic *eyeroll*.

Scott cut pieces of plywood the size of the toe kicks, three total: one for the cabinets on the left of the stove, and two for the right, that will meet at a 90 degree angle on the corner.

For the island, we had cut whole pieces of plywood to fill the gap under each cabinet and used picketholes to put it in, but felt it was overkill since we covered it with another piece anyway. These cabinets had some larger gaps due to the width of the cabinet boxes that Scott did fill with a piece of plywood pocket-holed into place for extra security, in case someone kicks it a tad aggressively. He also had to devise a plan for the corner where the two toe kicks meet under the corner cabinet. He cut a small piece of a 2x4 and cut out a corner with the jigsaw. He then attached this to the two toe kicks for extra stability.

Once This is in place, it'll prevent the toe kick from being kicked too far in, into the abyss under the cabinets.

The final step for the weekend was filling the holes with bondo and putting the stove back in place.

Ta-da! We are one (well, several) step(s) closer to having new cabinets! The unpainted side on the right will butt up against the pantry (to be built later), so it won't be exposed (I didn't forget to paint it!).

Next week I hope to get a timelime for countertop installation and forge ahead with the drawers for these cabinets.