Upper cabinets with a wooden valance

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.

I glued the top and bottom to the back, making sure to orient the holes for the pin hinges correctly.

Next I glued on a skinny piece.

And then the side of the cabinet.

I repeated the process on the other side.

I wanted to see how this would look over the sink before making the next cabinet. I cut a spacer the size of the space between the counter and the upper cabinets on the back wall.

Here’s how it’ll look. I’ll fill the gap at the top with trim.

I made the second cabinet, and then got my nicely glued-together doors to see how they looked. And… they’re too wide.

The doors also have pre-drilled holes. I didn’t want to sand that side because it would mess up the hinging, but I also didn’t want to sand a lot off the other side and make them uneven. It would be easier and neater to shorten the horizontal slats. So much for my nicely glued-together doors!

I wiggled off one side, set the door inside the cabinet with the loose piece on top, and drew a pencil line to show how much needed to be removed.

Yikes, that’s a lot! I’m glad I didn’t try to sand off that much wood.

Rather than sanding, I used a utility knife to cut off the excess. Then I glued the doors back together.

On to the valance. I started by sanding off the rounded sides, using the disc sander.

Next I cut a piece of strip wood the same width as the valance.

I glued this to the back to give the sides of the valance more surface area, and then I glued it in between the cabinets. (Not shown: I sanded the cabinets before doing this.)

Even with the support behind the valance, the assembly was twisty and the cabinets didn’t want to stay put. I added another strip of wood across the top.

Here’s how that looks.

The bump-out isn’t square, so I purposefully used a piece shorter than the gap that needs to be filled up.

I’ll use a piece of crown molding to cover the rest of the gap.

At this point I realized I’d accidentally covered up my pin-hinging holes with that strip of wood. Oops. I pulled it off for now. While it was on there, the glue holding the valance to the cabinets had some time to dry, so it’s more stable now.

I painted the unit green, and will pick up here next time.