The Den of Slack

When I left off with the uppers, I’d built the main part of the cabinet and was ready to add a row of smaller cabinets above.

I assembled the “glass” doors so I could use them to determine how big to make the cabinets. I put these together with super glue, which more or less worked, but then I had to sand them a bit and some of those joints came apart and needed to be re-glued. Looks crunchy here, but nothing that can’t be touched up.

I added a piece to the left side of the cabinet because that side was a bit bowed, and I thought it would help. Also, the right side was thicker than the left side — the right side is made from a piece of the original Cassidy Creations cabinet and I didn’t have any scrap wood the same depth — so the double-wide left side will now be closer to that.

In the lower part of the cabinet, the shelves prevent the doors from swinging inward. The upper cabinets have no shelf, so I need to add something to the inside to force the doors to sit flat.

I found some thin 1/2″ strip wood in my stash.

The inside of the cabinet is 9/16″ deep (5/8″ minus the 1/16″ back), so the 1/2″ piece of wood is exactly the right size to hold make the 1/16″ thick door sit flush in the cabinet.

(Actually, that’s not completely true, as you might be able to tell in the picture. I was scrounging scraps out of the kits I was bashing, and used a slightly thicker piece of wood on the left than on the right, so the strip wood leaves a little less of a gap on the left side. When I build these for the other side of the stove, I’ll make sure the backs are the same depth.)

Oops, but there’s a problem! In spite of using the doors as spacers, I made the cabinets slightly too tall.

More strip wood to the rescue. These pieces are flush with the front, to fill in that gap.

Then I added another piece that goes all the way to the back, to keep the door from swinging inward. I added a piece to the bottom of each cabinet as well.

Now the doors are flush and the gap is filled in. I’ll have to repeat this on the other cabinet, so they match.

In the inspiration photo, I like how the glass cabinets have mullions.

I found some very thin trim in my stash. Before doing this, I didn’t double check to make sure I had enough for the second cabinet — dangerous! — but later I found another piece set it aside. Hopefully I won’t lose track of it before I need it.

Here’s how it’s looking (with some sanding to the front where that vertical crosspiece stuck out slightly).

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Just as my idea to bash a changing table into kitchen base cabinets came from staring at the nursery furniture on the Mansard Victorian’s second floor, I got an idea for the uppers when I was staring at the bedroom.

As a reminder, here’s how the cabinets look so far.

I made these out of the bottom portion of Cassidy Creations kitchen cupboard kits, bashed together with parts of a changing table. Here’s what the kitchen cupboard looks like if you build it like you’re supposed to. (This picture is not my cabinet, but one that sold recently on eBay.)

And here’s my inspiration photo.

I like the tall cabinet on the left. Geoff and I are redoing our kitchen right now (mostly him!), and we’re going to have tall cabinets like that in our pantry area. Here’s an early render from the kitchen designer we’re working with.

The inspiration photo and my own kitchen remodel were both on my mind as I thought about how to tackle the Mansard Victorian’s uppers. I can use the upper portion of the Cassidy Creations kitchen cupboard over the larger base cabinets, but I need something else to go at the ends, over the portions made from the changing table parts.

And I just kept staring at this wardrobe…

Hmm…

Is this crazy? We’re about to find out!

This wardrobe is an assembled Cassidy Creations kit I got in a furniture lot on eBay. I have another of these made by Pam Junk and painted by Cheryl Hollis, and yet another that I built myself for the Queen Anne Rowhouse. So I had no qualms about pulling the unbuilt one out of my stash to pilfer it for parts.

Here are the pieces I had to work with.

I used one of the wardrobe’s 3/4″ wide side pieces to create the back of the cabinet, and created two new side pieces by cutting 3/4″ strip wood down to 5/8″ (the same depth as the upper part of the kitchen cupboard kit). I cut the wardrobe’s top piece (which has pre-drilled holes for the doors) in half to create a top and bottom.

Inside the cabinet, I used the two small shelves that came with the wardrobe kit, and half of the wide shelf. Since I had reduced the side pieces from 3/4″ to 5/8″, also had to cut 1/8″ off the back of each shelf.

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