The white cabinet is one step away from done. All that is left is staining the new surface, but that is most likely getting done when I do all the rest of the counters. Maybe. I’m still debating using this as my stain test, but I still haven’t settled on my color yet.
White Cabinet: New Doors and Drawer Face On
This looks a thousand times better than it did before. The lighting is crap and I think the camera on my phone has a layer of dust on it from being in the middle of the sawdust blizzard in the basement, but you can see how much better it looks than it did (below).
I haven’t posted a room update in a couple of days because very little of what I’ve gotten done has been photo worthy. Lots of little things like more painting and touch ups. I’ve also been kind of taking bites out of it between trying desperately to get caught up on other things I’ve been neglecting around here.
Finally, I had something worth sharing today.
I got the drawer face done for the white cabinet. I’m not posting any full cabinet photos until it is completely done, but this is the new face.
White Cabinet: New Drawer Face
I absolutely LOVE the look of this. I did discover that the face itself isn’t deep enough for my pulls, so I’m modifying my future drawer designs a smidge to fix that issue. For this piece, I did a little side fix that isn’t seen because of how this attaches to the drawer itself.
The other piece I finished off was the door to the access opening.
New Access Opening Door
I was really frustrated with this because the opening itself is not square AT ALL which made getting this to fit almost impossible. It covers the opening. It opens and closes fine, but there is a bit of a gap at the top that I’ll need a latch of some sort to hold it completely closed. There is trim that shows on the left near the top, but none at all on the bottom left. I think this opening was off by a good quarter of an inch, which is a lot when you are talking about needing to put a door over it. So much for the contractor guy bragging on his 90 degree angles and things being square because this is not.
After the cat decided to inspect my paint job and leave her review in the wet paint, I decided that the basement is off limits to them until this project is completely done. I came up with a temporary door, since my plastic wasn’t doing the job. This is ugly as hell, but works beautifully because I even put hinges on it. It allowed me to leave the plastic on the upper portion to help keep the dust and mess in the basement. The cat STILL tries to paw at this to try and get it open every night, but she’s not getting past this!
Temporary Basement Door
I am just 2 doors away from being ready to start my cabinets. Those are the two new bottom doors for the white cabinet. Now that I have the method down after doing the access door, these should be done in maybe 2 days and only that long because they have to be glued and clamped for a portion of that and paint touch ups are tedious with the paint and wait process.
But… only 2 and I can go get my materials and start building in the room itself!
I didn’t have a ton of time to work today as I have other things that I need to do. I’m seeing that I’m slacking in other areas because I’m so focused on getting this project done. I’m going to need to keep an eye on that.
The glass doors got their inner trim and some more touch ups and sanding. These should be ready for a final paint by tomorrow.
White Cabinet: Glass Door Inner Trim
Since I have to paint at least one more panel before I can start on the lower doors and I have a couple of touch ups on the rest of the cabinet, more painting will most likely be my focus tomorrow.
One thing I got done today that has been driving me up a wall because I hadn’t been able to figure out how to pull it off is the design for my drawer faces. I wanted them to have the same look and feel as the doors, but the outer frame pieces for the doors are way too wide to use on a drawer. I needed a compromise and I think I’ve come up with one.
Drawer Face Design
Obviously the above isn’t a full face, but it gives you the idea. The entire outer edge would be like the bottom layout.
It is such a relief to have that part figured out. It does mean more materials than I’d originally planned since the panels need to be backed in the same way I did my drawers for the recessed area, but I’m happy with the sturdiness and the look.
I’ve got a couple more stain samples drying, but I’m still not loving any of them yet.
Okay, it wasn’t really that bad. Just tedious and frustrating and tiring and messy.
The goal for today was to start on the replacement doors for the white cabinet. I decided to do the upper ones that have glass instead of a center panel first, just to get a feel for process. It really was a good place to start because I discovered all kinds of issues.
My router works great for doing the main groove that the center panels will sit it, but the bit that is supposed to cut the narrow piece that sits inside that groove is not consistent. At all. I ended up trying to pull off the same thing with my table saw.
That was a whole other ball of WAY too much. I had to take the normal guard off to be able to get my fence close enough to my blade for those really close, shallow cuts. This tripped my uncomfortable button, but I managed to work through it even though I was staring at a naked blade the entire time. It takes a lot of passes, but it is consistent. I’m not certain I love either process, but the table saw is the best one.
I got most of the parts for the new doors that will have the glass on them glued together. I still have to add the inside trim since there won’t be a center panel, but I need more of my clamps first (seeing a pattern here that means I really probably need to consider getting several more) and I will have to do some touch ups on the paint before I can attach the glass.
While it doesn’t look like I got much done today, I did learn a lot and I got confirmation that I was brilliant when I decided paint was the way to go because it is going to cover SO many mistakes and imperfections.
By the time I was done today, I was shedding a cloud of sawdust with every step, movement, or twitch and my whole body is yelling at me that I did too much today. I do feel pretty good about what I got done, though.
Apparently the Universe agreed that I needed a break. This is all I’m getting done today since it took all the clamps I needed to start on the doors.
I did manage to get another panel sanded and prepped for paint. Since I was already dragging today, that turned my arms to jelly by the time I was done.
I’m not going to complain about the little progress because the new surface is attached. I had to strip off the plasticy veneer to get this glued down because I really didn’t think it would hold if I left that in place. This white cabinet is one more step closer to done.
Today felt like I hopped from project to project, which is kind of true.
I did replace the backing on the upper portion of my white cabinet with my beadboard panels. I’m SO glad I opted to do that. Not only does it look 10 times better, but it is also a whole lot sturdier. The panels really don’t have much give to them, but that cardboard stuff did, which made this just a hair wiggly. Now, that sucker doesn’t move. And yes, there was a splinter of wood that popped out under that top, but I’ve got that fixed.
White Cabinet: New Panels On Upper Section
There was also the never ending task of painting materials. Since I had to use a couple of my panels, I had to start painting more so I can still do the doors. I also somehow missed the removable shelf for the white cabinet when I was painting yesterday, so that got painted today as well.
The new surface for the cabinet is now in the process of being built. I still have a few things to do to it before I can attach it to the base, but most of it is done. This most likely won’t get stained until I’m ready to stain the counters, which means the cabinet may not get completely put together until then either. I haven’t decided yet.
White Cabinet: New Surface Under Construction
I’m probably going to need to moderate how much I get done over the next couple of days. I was just dragging all day today and feeling bit worn out. I’m pushing so hard to get this whole project done, but I don’t want to get impatient and mess something up. Or, wear myself down to the point of burn out.
I know that once I start on the cabinets, things are going to feel like they start to fly because there will be huge visual changes each day. Right now, there isn’t a lot visually and there probably won’t be for a little while, or at least after I get these few doors done, because there is going to need to be a whole lot of painting prep of materials that will need to be done and that isn’t helping much.
Considering this project started the week after Thanksgiving and we are now in the middle of March, I really want to be done so I can start using the space.
Just to give you an example of how worn out my brain is, I posted today’s color post as day 4 instead of the 3 it should have been. I really can count. I promise.
I worked on finishing painting my materials and started on the white cabinet today.
All the old doors are off, the hinges are painted, the drawer is out and that face is off, and the main part of the cabinet is painted. Now I’m ready to work on building the new top surface and the new doors and drawer face.
Of course, after I took this photo and started looking at it, I realized that it would look absolutely amazing and SO much better if I replaced the crappy cardboard backing with my beadboard panel. At least for the upper portion since that is partially open and the upper doors have glass in them.
I can do it. I currently have the materials. It just means adding at least one more panel to my future supplies list and one more panel I have to sand down so it can be painted. Still, I really love that idea so I’m probably going to do it. It will add yet one more layer of sturdiness to the whole thing.
This time, it is getting the materials painted to start on doors. The plan is, for these materials at least, to work on the door for the access opening and the new doors for my white cabinet.
White Cabinet: Before New Doors and Paint
The more I got to looking at this, the more I didn’t like the idea of just painting the entire thing white. I can definitely do that, but I like the idea of the theme of the room reflecting in all the pieces. Since I decided that I’m going to stain the top of the dresser when I go to refinish it, I wanted the same kind of look for this.
The problem is that the tan wood look for that surface is a crappy wood looking veneer that can’t be stained. When I went for a materials run yesterday, I realized that there are several options for me to make changes to this to be able to do a stained surface. I can either take that piece off and add a new piece of good wood that can be stained, or I can build a cover kind of thing that just sits down over the top and edges of this.
Either way would work, but I think I’m leaning towards the second option to maintain the sturdiness of this (this is really just a crappy particle board kind of cabinet) and to cut down on what gets trashed from this.
That is going on my to do list once I’ve decided for certain on my stain color, something I was playing with yesterday, but didn’t come up with a final choice and still needs some work.
I realized when I went to take the doors off that the hinges are made differently than the ones I bought for the rest of my cabinets. Because I am worried about sturdiness, I decided to just paint these and reuse them. The won’t be the exact same look, but I’d rather that than do something that won’t support the new doors. The first coat is on those now and it ran me out of the basement for a while because that spray paint was nasty!
It will probably take me the rest of the weekend to get everything painted before I can start building again.
