Cabinets

A kitchen is not just a collection of cabinets, although in its simplest form, it is nothing more than a box.  However, for most of us, it is a place of comfort and the heart of today's homes.  If you are planning to build your own kitchen cabinets from scratch, careful planning and thoughtful design is a must.  A kitchen cabinet style depends upon an individual's personal taste and preference.  The kitchen cabinet layout depends upon the requirements of the cook.  A gourmet cook definitely has different cabinet layout needs than say a hurried executive who often cooks with canned goods or ready to cook meals.  A candy maker on the other hand requires some cabinets to store specialized utensils and a marble countertop on which to cool the candies while a baker needs to have extra cabinet space for flour and sweeteners.  There is no universal perfect kitchen design rather the details of each will be as individual as its user and which makes it perfect for a specific individual. 

The kitchen is made up of cabinets working together, although we see it as one unit, each cabinet should be separately made.  For ease of transportation, construction and installation, a plan should be made so that these cabinets can be broken into separate units.  The size of each unit depends upon several factors.  It could depend on the size availability of plywood.  Most plywood comes in sheets that are 96 inches long.  Creating a cabinet longer than this size could pose some problems although long cabinets are not impossible to build but these could be awkward to handle and difficult to install.  In designing each unit, you should also consider the transportation of each cabinet from your workplace to the kitchen.  Very large units can be difficult to transport.  The dimension of the doors and halls the cabinets must pass through should also be considered.  The breakdown of each cabinet unit should be done correctly.  If properly executed, the joints between cabinets won't show.  Joining two units is quite tricky and care should be taken in order to come up with a design that won't obviously show the joints.  A good place to join two units is at a corner or at a tall unit like a pantry, broom closet or oven cabinet.  Make one of the cabinets about 1 inch deeper than the other in order to come up with a tight neat joint of cabinets joined side to side, especially those with flush face frames.  When breaking down units, you should also think about function and installation procedures.  There are cabinets that when put together will look exactly alike but provide different functions altogether.  Care should be taken especially when joining corner cabinets.  Some designs will render corner spaces useless while there are those that provide usable and functional space.  

Individual cabinets when beautifully joined and executed can provide a functional and attractive kitchen that will become the center of family activities and entertainment.