# My shaker kitchen build



## thomashenry (6 Jun 2016)

Hi all. Thought I'd share my progress/experiences of (slowly) building my own shaker kitchen, in case anyone else finds the information useful, or is inspired to try and take on such a project themselves. This is my first significant joinery project - in the past I've made some shelves, and done some rough carpentry like making stud partition walls etc, but making a kitchen is a big step up for me!

However, I figured that with time and patience I could give it a shot, and the cost of a bespoke shaker kitchen was just prohibitive for me. So about 6 weeks ago, I got cracking. The rough layout looks like this:







The construction will consist of 18mm plywood carcasses with poplar face frames. In order to get everything to fit into the space, these will be 20x35mm, rather than 20x40mm as is more common - one of the compromises I had to make. I don't have space to make all the cabinets and them fit them in one go - I need to build and install as I go along so some degree. The first stage (which I just completed) was building the tall fridge/freezer cabinet on the left.

Details of the build in the next post...


----------



## gregmcateer (6 Jun 2016)

Looks interesting - certainly the drawing looks the part!

Looking forward to seeing progress pictures


----------



## thomashenry (6 Jun 2016)

Ok, so onto the building of the first cabinet. The first thing was to decide what Fridge/Freezer to buy. A few things influenced this decision. Firstly, my cabinets will have doors hung on mortised butt hinges - including the Fridge/Freezercabinet. This means the door mechanism must be of the slider type, rather than the type which has you just screw on a door fascia to the FF door. Secondly, I wanted a narrow one, as I'm pushed for space, and I wanted to a 50/50 fridge/freezer split. I like Bosch, so ended up getting one of these - a Bosch KIV32X22GB 
http://www.bosch-home.co.uk/product...s-with-freezer-at-bottom/KIV32X22GB.html#tab2, quoted as being 541mm wide.

The next job was figuring out how wide to make the cabinet, with the goal being to make it as narrow as possible. The FridgeFreezer doors measured 538mm wide. I figured I needed a gap of at least 23mm from the Face Frame to the fridge on the hinge side in order to allow room for the cabinet door, with a few more mm if I wanted the door to open any wider than 90 degrees:






On the right hand side, a gap of around 3mm would be needed to allow the fridge door plus sliding attachment to clear the face frame without fouling it. So I went for an opening of 565mm - just enough room if my theory was correct. On the LHS, the face frame was to be flush internally with the carcass, on the RHS it was going overlap 8mm externally, to allow for the cabinet side to be clad in beaded TnG panels.


----------



## thomashenry (6 Jun 2016)

Then I ordered the wood - poplar in 2metere lengths, planed to thickness (I don't have the tools for this). I also specified cut sizes for the 18mm plywood, as I don't really have room to rip 2400x1200 sheets. It all arrived, and the assembly of the carcass and face frame was then straightforward. The face frame was joined with glue and pocket screws, and attached to the carcass with pocket screws from behind. Soon enough, the raw carcass was built:






The only point of interest to me while making the face frames was cutting the mortises for the butt hinges. After several failed practise attempts in scrap wood with a chisel, I took the time to make a jig which allowed me to cut them with a template cut router bit:






Doing this made it trivial to cut perfect mortises each time and made the whole process of hanging the doors very easy later on.The doors were next. Construction was to be rails and stiles of 70x20mm poplar, with 9mm plywood panels. I used a slot cutting router bit to cut grooves into the rails and stiles:







Then joined the doors with pockets screws and wood glue:






When all was dry, things seemed to fit fairly well:






The only problem was that one of the doors came out slightly wonky (one corner proud of the face frame by about 2mm). I wasn't too bothered as I knew the door would end up being connected to the fridge freezer door, which would pull it into position.

Then came painting, and cladding the exposed side of the cabinet with TnG panels:






Then came a bit of a break while I prepared the area for the cabinet to sit in - this involved getting some pipework moved, some wiring, etc. After offering up the unit to its space several times and scribing the bottom to get a perfectly level seat, I fixed the cabinet in place.

The next stage was figuring out how to deal with the middle stile dividing the top and bottom door. Off the shelf cabinets don't seem to have one, but I was pretty keen to do one, both for aesthetic reasons, and to keep the face frame square. Obviously it needs to be removable in order to take the fridge in/out, and after some thought,I did it like this:






It can slot in and out easily enough. When taken out, the cabinet does bow inwards a bit, so I'm very pleased that I went to the effort of doing it.

Hanging the doors took a while but went fairly smoothly - it was just a case of hanging a door, deciding how much needed to be trimmed off each face for a nice even gap, then taking the door down and trimming the sides with a flush trim router bit. It took a few iterations of this process on each door until I was happy. Only final step then was to add a top - just a bit of pine furniture board from Wickes, with a simple round-over moulding cut with the router.

Finally, it all turned out pretty well - I couldn't have hoped for anymore on my first project, and it's given me the confidence and enthusiasm to get on and do the rest of the kitchen!


----------



## deema (7 Jun 2016)

Beautiful work, we'll done. You should be very proud of your achievement, looking forward to seeing the rest of the build


----------



## thomashenry (7 Jun 2016)

Thanks. Few more things to note - paint is Fired Earth Basswood Eggshell. Next time around I'll paint the door panels before assembly! I found it harder than expected to get a good finish with the paint - it went off very quickly, making it very easy to leave unwanted brush marks. In the end it took 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of of Eggshell, the final one diluted with 25% water. I sanded down with 120/240 grit paper in between coats.

Tool list for the job:

Bosch 1400 ACE Plunge Router, plus a selection of bits
Makita MLS 100 chop saw
Variety of clamps (G-Clamps, F clamps, sash clamps, etc)
Makita portable drill & impact driver set
Kreg R3 pocket hole jig plus kreg clamp
2 Marples chisels
Spirit Level
2 BnD workmates
Bosch Random Orbital Sander
Hammer
Marking knife
Cheap digital calipers 
Tape measure

Screws were Ulti-Mate II wood screws, hinges were Simonswerk 63x35 plain butt hinges. 

The doors on the cabinet open just beyond 90 degrees. This is perfect for me, given the location of the cabinet. If you were going to do a similar cabinet (fridge freezer inside a face frame cabinet with inset doors on butt hinges), then you'd need to make a wider opening if you wanted the doors to open beyond this. My formula for a 90 degree opening is: 

width of Fridge door + thickness of cabinet door +7mm.

Increasing that last value will allow the door to open wider.


----------



## thomashenry (25 Jun 2018)

Well it’s an old topic now, and I (more or less) finished the kitchen a while ago, but never posted an update. I thought I would, just in case it encourages anyone else on here who is thinking of making their own kitchen but unsure if they can do it. You can do it! But it might well take longer than you thought......


----------



## memzey (25 Jun 2018)

Very nice indeed. The in-set doors make it look more like real furniture than a kitchen.


----------



## custard (25 Jun 2018)

I was just complimenting you on your bench build, but having seen the job you've done on your kitchen, well I guess you didn't find building a workbench that much of a challenge! 

This looks really professional, hope you keep us updated on any furniture projects that you have planned for your new bench.

=D>


----------



## dzj (25 Jun 2018)

Nice, tidy, equal gaps around the doors...Well done!
Extra points for the dog bowls on the floor.


----------



## MattRoberts (25 Jun 2018)

Looks fantastic, nice one. I like the colour too.

What materials / joinery did you use?


----------



## thomashenry (25 Jun 2018)

I put quite a bit of detail about that in earlier posts but in brief: cabinet carcasses made from 18mm ply joined with housing joints, wood glue and screws. Face frames made of poplar, joined with pocket screws, and attached to carcasses with pocket screws. the doors are poplar frames, again joined with pocket screws, with 9mm plywood panels. Hung with butt hinges mortised into cabinet and door. Paint is Fired Earth Basswood.

The only power tools I used were a chop saw, a plunge router and a hand held drill & impact driver. I bought the poplar cut to size from a timber merchant, and cut the plywood to size with saw horses and a handsaw. I tried using a circular saw but found that a handsaw worked just as well.

If I was doing it again, I'd ditch the pocket screws, and the carcass/face frame construction method, and go with 'real' joinery - but at the time, pocket screws were a good match for my skill set, and allowed me to achieve an end result I'm really happy with.


----------



## dtecting (17 Jul 2018)

Great Job Like the Shaker Style Myself nice clean line's


----------



## Retired (16 Jan 2021)

Hi,

Our kitchen evolved over 25 years and is mostly made of Meranti hardwood offcuts bought from a local timberyard; it started when we moved here 33 years ago with an absolute maximum mortgage; we had a Citroen 2CV and would visit the timberyard filling the car at about £25 per load; back home I had restored cast iron machinery such as saw and planer.

No fancy jointing machines for the frames; who would know the top cabinet frames were made using nothing other than planted glued and screwed sections of hardwood these hidden from view and they are exceptionally strong; the shelves are white Contiplas simply screwed from above into glued battens.






The underside of the Contiplas could do with a wipe but it's not been touched for around 30 years. The middle section of timber is one of the joints for the face frame upright each side are battens for shelf fastening; nothing fancy just off cuts secured with adhesive and standard 8g wood screws. This is a wall unit. Our kitchen doesn't fit where it touches it's bespoke fitted kitchen.






A corner underside showing the back of the bottom face rail; this is a strong kitchen of solid hardwood. against the walls are screwed battens to accept the shelf edges; couldn't be cheaper of simpler.






Wall paneling added later as funds allowed; plywood and Meranti frames.






My wife fancied a Welsh dresser so I squeezed this one in; all off cuts apart from the plywood.






Work in progress; The balcony was added when horrible sliding doors were installed to ceiling height which I later removed when I made the new Meranti doors; the cooker hood too is bespoke it located over a kitchen extractor fan. The camera flash has changed the colours it being dark outside when this was taken.






Sorry about the dark picture but we live in Yorkshire and using the camera flash washes the picture out but I'm just giving an idea that a bespoke hardwood kitchen can be installed for the less price of a Kreg jointer. The seven wall cabinet doors have hand cut mortice & tenon joints using only hammer and chisel these taking a full two days; having done these my wife bought me a Freud biscuit jointer and I used this for the seven floor cabinet doors and what a difference; I had the timber ready to be jointed one Sunday morning when my wife said dinner will be in about an hour; in the hour I'd cut all 28 joints and tidied up; machines do speed up the work but if money is tight as it was with us it doesn't mean such a kitchen can't be installed; we like the dark wood. Across the street neighbours have had four brand new modern kitchens installed at high cost getting bored with them; 30 years on we still love our kitchen and don't care if it looks old fashioned.

The finish is after sanding; staining with spirit Jacobean Dark Oak then two coats of matt polyurethane varnish brush applied and denibbed after the first coat; I'm fortunate that my wife doesn't want things yesterday; we can now afford a brand new kitchen to be installed at one go but we know in ten years time it would look more dated than our kitchen as it is.

I like woodworking finding with patience and looking around a fortune can be saved whilst new skills are learned. These are old pictures and I can't improve upon them because as usual we're still living in a black hole.

Kind regards, Colin.


----------

