Kitchen Renovations 101: Face Frame or Frameless Kitchen Cabinets
By Cheri WatkinsRefacingCabinet.com Columnist
With face frame kitchen cabinets, a hardwood frame masks the edges of the softer, manufactured plywood or particle board on the sides and back. This strengthens the cabinets and supports the hinges. European-style frameless kitchen cabinets are hardwood on the sides, front, top, bottom, and back. They are usually covered with veneer, laminate, or melamine.
Kitchen Renovations: Kitchen Cabinet Plans
Whether you drew your own kitchen cabinet plans based on the standard dimensions provided in part two of Refacing Cabinet's How to Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets series, or you use kitchen cabinet plans, such as those available at Workbench magazine, the first thing you want to do is cut and label all of your wood according to where the piece goes. You will also need to know how to make the joinery required for kitchen cabinets.
Inexpensive Kitchen Cabinets: How To Make Rabbet and Dado Joints
These common joinery methods are used for a variety of carpentry projects. Consult kitchen cabinet plans created by expert carpenters to get a feel for what rabbet and dado joints look like before cutting into your own wood. Practice joinery cuts on scrap wood.
Rabbet Joints: Remove a portion of one board's edge to accept the other. The proportion of rabbet to material thickness should be about 1/3. It is most efficient to use a power saw with a dado head or router. Use rabbet joints to set the backboard of a kitchen cabinet.
Dado Joints: This groove runs the length of one board and accepts the edge of another board. Cut dadoes for a snug fit using a table saw, router, or hand tools. This joinery method is most often used to assemble the sides of cabinets and shelves.
Whatever your level of carpentry expertise, you can build your own kitchen cabinets with the right "recipe." At RefacingCabinet.com, we suggest this as a formula for successful do-it-yourself kitchen renovations: Equal parts patience, determination, and elbow grease.
Next
In Part 4 of the Kitchen Renovations 101 How to Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets series, RefacingCabinet.com will teach you everything you need to know about Finishing Your Kitchen Cabinets.
To see the full list of articles in this series visit our How to Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets series page.
About The Author
Cheri Renee began her professional writing career at Greenspun Media Group's Showbiz Weekly magazine (now LVM). Several years later, she discovered an interest in interior design and home improvement, while on assignment for GMG's H&D magazine. Cheri has consulted as an English language arts editor for McGraw-Hill Education, and a biomedical research copyeditor for faculty at UNLV, and Sunrise Children's Heart Center. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Augusta State University and an M.S.T. in Adolescent English Education from Fordham University.
