{"id":23048,"date":"2025-10-19T22:39:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T05:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/?p=23048"},"modified":"2025-12-26T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:44:37","slug":"upper-cabinets-with-a-wooden-valance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/?p=23048","title":{"rendered":"Upper cabinets with a wooden valance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Back in 2023, when I started<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I started by painting the door pieces. These are routed on the inside to hold the plastic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I glued them together with tacky glue and physically walked away to prevent myself from breaking them before they dried.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I glued the top and bottom to the back, making sure to orient the holes for the pin hinges correctly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Next I glued on a skinny piece.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And then the side of the cabinet.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I repeated the process on the other side.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s how it’ll look. I’ll fill the gap at the top with trim.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

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! <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yikes, that’s a lot! I’m glad I didn’t try to sand off that much wood.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rather than sanding, I used a utility knife to cut off the excess. Then I glued the doors back together.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On to the valance. I started by sanding off the rounded sides, using the disc sander.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Next I cut a piece of strip wood the same width as the valance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s how that looks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

I’ll use a piece of crown molding to cover the rest of the gap.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I painted the unit green, and will pick up here next time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[38,19,39,100],"class_list":["post-23048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dollhouses","tag-cassidy-creations","tag-half-scale","tag-kitchen","tag-mansard-victorian","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23048"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23272,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23048\/revisions\/23272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilymorganti.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}