Kitchen sink cabinet continued

Let’s get back to the sink cabinet bashed out of two Cassidy Creations washstands. Here’s where I left off:

Normally, the sides of the washstand are made by attaching long skinny pieces to thin rectangles.

I had planned to use the thin rectangles for the cabinet doors, but since they’re slightly too long, I decided to hold on to those pieces and cut my own doors. I have something in mind for the leftover washstand pieces. I’ll leave you guessing for now.

I have two of these washstands that I bought assembled, and in both of them the pin hinges split the wood when they were inserted into the wood. I used thicker wood for the doors to avoid this (1/16″ rather than 1/32″).

Here are the options I had on hand for the slats on the doors: 1/8″ x 1/32″, 3/32″ x 1/16″, and 3/16″ x 1/32″. The 3/16″ is what I used on the other lower kitchen cabinets, but these doors are narrower — the slats would have taken up most of the door. The 3/32″ looks perfect, but the 1/16″ depth would have been too bulky on the doors. What to do?

Rather than buy some 3/32″ x 1/32″ strip wood (and pay more for shipping than for the wood itself), I decided to cut down the 3/16″ strip wood. I used a piece of the 3/32″ x 1/16″ wood as a template and cut off the excess with a utility knife.

I glued on the vertical slats with the utility-knife-cut edges facing out, so the lines forming the panel would be the straight “factory edges.” Then I measured and cut the horizontal slats to fit between them, again cutting down the 3/16″ strip wood.

Next I painted the cabinet, doors, drawer fronts, and decorative trim.

While the paint was drying, I stained the drawer pieces with a Minwax Red Oak stain pen. At this point I just did the lower drawers, since the skinny ones at the top will need modification.

I used an emery board to round the outside edges of each door and then painted a second coat. Next I added the pulls, which are made from a silver bead with a pin stuck through it. Then I carefully pin-hinged the doors.

The spacing of the doors was determined by the holes for the pin hinges. When it came time to add the fourth door, it was too big.

I attempted to sand it and it didn’t go well. I ended up making a new door, this time starting with a piece of wood I knew would fit.

Woo! And they all open, too!

In the other kitchen cabinets, shelves keep the doors from swinging inward. I didn’t want to add a shelf to this because it would have had to go all the way across, and I wasn’t sure if the back edges of the doors would bump into it when I tried to open them. The shelves in the other cabinets are notched at the ends to prevent this, but in this double-wide cabinet it would also have to be notched in the middle, which just seemed weird.

Instead, I added a piece of wood to the top of the cabinet. (I stained it after taking the picture.) The doors bump into this and can’t move any further.

I couldn’t do that on the other side because of the hole for the drainpipe, so I instead glued a piece right up against the front of the hole.

I cut off the tops of the pins, and then glued on the top piece and the decorative trim.

I put a piece of strip wood behind the trim to make it more secure.

And that’s what I have for now. I will be going over the cabinet with wood filler and another coat of paint, as well as finishing the drawers.