The Den of Slack

So I have this problem. Whenever I see Cassidy Creations kits for a decent price, I buy them. Even if I already built that kit. Even if I already have extras of that kit.

Keeping them in boxes was becoming unwieldy, so I unpacked all of them into three drawers in this junky cabinet unit we pulled out of the kitchen before renovating. I also have a spreadsheet.

Back in 2023, when I started the Mansard Victorian’s kitchen cabinets, I used two kitchen cupboard kits that I had searched far and wide for. Since then I’ve accumulated two more. I plucked one out of the drawer to make cabinets to go over the sink.

As a reminder, the cabinet is supposed to look like this. (Not my pic, I got it off an eBay auction.)

And here’s what I’m using from the kit — just the top and bottom pieces (with holes pre-drilled for pin-hinging), the “glass” cabinet door pieces, and the decorative trim, which will be flipped over to become a valance. Someday I can build the rest of the kit as a hutch without the doors.

I started by panting the door pieces. These are routed on the inside to hold the plastic.

I glued them together with tacky glue and physically walked away to prevent myself from breaking them before they dried.

Next I cut the top and bottom pieces in half. These were 1.5″ originally, so each cabinet will be 3/4″ wide.

Then I cut the rest of the cabinet pieces. The back is a 3/4″ piece that’s the same height as the door. The sides are 1/2″ and slightly taller than the back and door, to accommodate the top and bottom of the cabinet. The original cabinet had slightly deeper sides, but I didn’t have any strip wood that size, so I also cut two skinny pieces to make up the difference.

Continue reading

The kitchen sink cabinet I’m making from two Cassidy Creations Oak Washstand kits has decorative trim under the center cabinets (lined up under the sink). At the bottom of the left and right sides, I’d planned to put a plain piece of wood flush with the front of the cabinet.

But this looks weird to me. My brain is asking, “Why isn’t that another drawer?”

I tried setting it back to make it a toe-kick, but this also looks weird. Seems too tall for a toe-kick.

Okay, so why not use that space for another drawer?

But now I have another problem: I’d planned to use thin 1/32″ dividers between the drawers because the drawers would fit perfectly without sanding. I also think they look nice and proportional compared to the 1/16″ cabinet frame. But if that bottom space has a drawer in it, there are now two 1/32″ dividers and one 1/16″ divider. My perfectionist brain couldn’t stand it.

Instead I’ll use 1/16″ dividers between the drawers, and a thin 1/32″ piece at the very bottom. (If I had used 1/16″ there, the space I was left with would have been smaller than the drawers above it, and a smaller drawer at the bottom also would have looked weird.)

Continue reading