So, back at the end of Dec I ran across THIS link. And although my spice cabinet isn’t THAT bad, its not good, and after looking at my kitchen I realized I had a perfect spot to put it.
This is the cabinet end that is at my back when I’m standing facing the stove. Perfect!
Course, then the “how to make it work for me” started…..
That cabinet you see is CHEAP. Those sides aren’t solid, what you’re looking at is a very thin (not more than 1/8″) piece of laminate attached to the solid piece corners and a 1/2″ or so gap between it and the INSIDE decorative piece of laminate. So mounting anything to it is an issue. My spice cabinet had to be wide enough to mount to the solid corners. About 11 1 /2″.
That cabinet is 32″ tall, but thats out of my reach, I’d not be able to reach the top shelf most likely. So, I made mine 30″.
Also, that cabinet isn’t square to the wall, or else the doorway right there is wonky. There’s just over 3″ of protruding wall at the bottom of the cabinet, and a solid 4″ at the top. Since I don’t want to be banging my shoulder on the bottom corner the spice cabinet can’t be more than 3″ deep.
Color….I really don’t care for that fake medium oak color that my cabinets are. Dammed if I’m going to stain this spice cabinet to match. But staining it to match the wood in the living room (a medium cherry-ish color) would look odd in the kitchen. I’d about decided I’d just paint it black like in the link when my Husband suggested a dark stain instead. It looks very nice despite not matching.
Which way to swing the door….I really wanted it with the hinges on my right (facing the cabinet), but if I did that, and made the door the same width as the base cabinet, the door would bang into the wall before opening all the way. Thats not going to work….After some discussion with an acquaintance who does woodworking professionally (and has built kitchen cabinets) I considered an inset door, that sits inside the cabinet frame, but that takes a degree of accuracy that I wasn’t sure my woodworking skills were up to. After playing around with the idea I came up with a solution I’ll detail in a bit.
I had a few issues getting going, basically I was having a bad day and shouldn’t have been allowed to touch power tools since I couldn’t even manage basic subtraction correctly. But we got that straightened out.
Here it is while I figure out the shelf spacing. No, the picture’s not upside down, the spice jars are.
No comment on my wonky shelves…I have a level around here somewhere….
And the door after its first, fresh, coat of stain.
Yup, we went with a solid door. Mostly because I couldn’t find a metal grating that I liked that wouldn’t double or even triple the cost of the whole thing. But also, because even though it would have looked cool to have a glass or grated door, spices aren’t supposed to be exposed to light all the time. So, solid door it was.
Here’s how I mounted the door:
Basically the body of the cabinet is 2.5″ deep, but the one side is 3″ deep, and the door is 1/2″ to match.
And finished and hung:
And I discovered that I don’t need to buy cinnamon any time soon….ooops lol
Costs:
Wood:
Birch 2’x4′ plywood for door $17.95 (but I used less than half of it, so really, less than $9 for this and I still have most of it to do other things with)
Poplar 1×3 (actually 3/4″ x 2 1/2″) $13.10 ( I didn’t use it all, but I did use most of it, close enough)
Poplar 1×6 (actually 3/4″ x 5.5″) $7.14 (again, I didn’t use it all, but most of it)
Hinges: $2.58
Handle: $1.28
Magnetic Catch: $0.98
1qt of stain: $7.77 (but I barely used any of it, I’d have bought a smaller can of it if they’d had it)
Birch edgeband for the door: $6.35 (but I used less than half of it for this so really $3.15)
1lb nails: $3.29 (but there’s most of them left….)
So, less than $40 if you don’t count the stain and nails (and considering how much is left I don’t). I can live with that!