Almost. I’ve got some touch up painting to do, but I’ll explain that later. On Saturday, Ben built eight cabinet doors including two glass frames. Details to come later, but you can bet I filled the doors right away. Sunday morning I sanded those babies down and filled a few areas again. While impatiently tapping my fingers waiting for filler to dry, I dreamed about installed cabinet doors. A few hours later, I gave the doors a final sanding and started painting with my two in one Behr paint. Love that I don’t have to prime.
I don’t know why, but Behr paint seems to dry faster than any other brand. Which is good news for me because I got two coats of paint on the fronts of the cabinets on Sunday. Then I flipped ’em over on Monday and gave the backs two more coats. Tuesday morning, I flipped back to the front for one more coat.
Once that coat dried, I hauled the doors up to the kitchen and propped them in place. You know, just to get a feel of what they would look like. Because I’m impatient like that.
That’s when I discovered a problem. The two glass door frames were about 1/8 inch wider than their lower counterparts.
Ben happened to come home to get his wallet during this and I pointed out the problem.
When Ben got home that afternoon, I politely asked begged, pleaded, and whined for him to install the cabinet doors. He ripped down the glass door frames to make everything even and flush. Then he started with the install of the fridge and bar doors. To install the hidden hinges, Ben measured and marked his the hole locations. He carefully drilled into the frames to hollow out a hole to recess the hinge in.
I admit, I was holding my breath while watching this. Ben is skilled (as you all know) but I imagined him drilling too far or popping a screw through the front. Luckily, everything went smoothly, other than one screw head breaking off. Then he popped the hinge in, used a square to keep it straight and put 3/4 inch screws in to hold it in place.
Handy Sammy was over for dinner, so he held the door up for Ben to hang. I’m too short, I can’t reach. Okay, I’m not that short, but it is nice to pawn a job off on an unsuspecting guest.
We didn’t want the wood cabinet frames to split, so Ben used a small drill bit to make a pilot hole, followed by a 1 1/4 inch screw in each hinge to hold the door in place. After the two bar and two fridge cabinets, Ben called it quits for the night and took a shower. While I was in the shower, Ben did a little more work. I walked out to see two door knobs in the fridge cabinets.
Speaking of the knobs, I had a little trouble deciding on the placement. Like Goldilocks, one was too low; centered in the bottom corner.
Another was too high; the outer edge of the knob above the bottom edge detail.
But one was juuuust right. And Ben agreed. Centered width wise on the edge detail, but also centered on the cross edge.
Fortunately for me, this made measuring a cinch. I just lined my ruler up with the raised detail and marked 1 1/4 inch from the edge (because our banding is 2 1/2 inches wide).
Yesterday afternoon, Ben finished installing the doors. Where’d the microwave go? Oh, it’s hidden behind a cabinet door. Sneaky us.
And now you can’t see our pile of mail or the toaster. But you can see our pretty dishes!
Add a few sparkly knobs and we’re done. Wait, we’re not. I’ve got to paint the crown moulding, those MDF brown trim pieces we’ve added, repaint the edges of the glass frames, and, oh yeah. Get glass! Notice the lack of glare? Ben thinks we should leave the doors glass-less so we always have clean and clear glass that’s under control (not to be confused with the face cleanser).
And I’ve already made this a long post, so why not make it a little longer, all in the name of eye candy? Oooooh, shiiiny.
I did realize why the knobs were so cheap, though. Some of the bolts are bent. Nothing Ben and a little man muscle can’t fix.
Edit: Here are the pictures I promised to add. I’ll have to touch up the paint on the glass frames.
And, here’s something I really love. Ben bought soft close hinges. No more slamming doors.
We’ve got tons more storage on the bar side, too. So far, the only thing inside is Ben’s food dehydrator.
We used three hinges on these heavy guys.
Once we get the glass in the frames we’ll have a full cabinet building post. I’m just excited we’ve covered the gaping holes and you can’t see our junk. Before, it was like we left our zipper down, but no one told us. Well, we figured it out.
One more thing checked off our to do list, one step closer to a finished kitchen, but it’s finally starting to look finished. Just a little more sanding, priming, and painting… Of course then we’ve got organizing and little building projects to do, but nothing that has to be done.
What do you think? What’s your favorite part? Who’s excited to see some paint on those walls?