The Anarchist’s Kitchen Remodeling Project

Okay, so what does anarchy have to do with kitchen remodeling? It’s kind of hard to explain really, but if you read the book The Anarchist’s Tool Chest by Christopher Schwarz, you might have a better understanding of where I’m coming from. The book conveys a philosophy that can be carried over from building high-quality furniture to building high-quality cabinets. When it’s all said and done, I just want a kitchen that’s durable, maximizes the existing storage space, and is built to last.

I’ll be honest. Up until a few months ago, I really didn’t pay one iota of attention to our 70′s era kitchen cabinets, that is until the drawer bottom to our silverware drawer fell out one day. I guess drawers made out of thin, MDF just aren’t made to stand up to constant use by an active family – imagine that! A few weeks later another drawer bottom fell out of yet another drawer, and it seemed like the whole kitchen was falling apart.

I started to inspect the rest of the cabinets in an attempt to come up with a repair/refinishing plan, but even the insides of the upper cabinet sides were in pretty bad shape – heck, everything was in bad shape. Re-finishing would be a waste of time. I contemplated gutting the kitchen and building all new cabinets from scratch, but it seemed like a daunting task (and it still is), but then I ran across a kitchen building article by Norm Abram in Fine Woodworking Magazine. Norm made it sound doable, so I decided to go for it.

I’m posting this blog rather late in the process. I’ve actually been working on the cabinets for a few months now after work and on the weekends. The photos you see are the fruits of my labor thus far. I’ve already finished the upper cabinets, but I’m still in the process of building the lowers.

I’ve decided to go the traditional, custom cabinet route. Since I’m taking all the time to build from scratch, I might as well go the extra mile – maple face frames and doors, custom bead work, and inset doors with traditional hinges. Here’s a picture of one of the larger cabinets before painting. I’ve borrowed some construction techniques from Crown Point Cabinetry. I happened to stumble across this company on the web, and they happen to be one of the top custom cabinet making companies on the east coast.

Yes, that’s MDF I’ve used for the door panels. Now before you call me a heretic, please hear me out. Making good choices in building materials are all about context – it’s perfectly fine to use this type of material for door panels. In fact, I prefer it. Since the panel resides in a frame, there are no stresses on the material that will wear it out over time, as it would in a drawer side or bottom. MDF is dimensionally stable – I can even glue the stuff in my door frames without worrying about them swelling and destroying the door. Plus it’s dirt easy to cut. If you’re going to paint your cabinets like I am, then MDF makes a good economical choice for door panels.

I’ll try to provide more construction details as I progress. Although I drew the upper cabinet plans on paper, I’ll be designing all the lower cabinets using Google Sketchup in order to make sure I get all the details right, so stay tuned.

Advertisement