In the last decade of building kitchen cabinets, we know a lot, everything from what materials to use to what methods, and finally, are ready to share our process from start to finish with you.
But first, let’s talk about exactly what we built right – because there are so many different ways to make kitchen cabinets, and so many different types of materials to use.
The Ana White Kitchen Cabinet
- 3/4 “plywood carcass with internal edgeband
- No problem – with the plywood carcass, there is no need for a surface frame for the structure
- Join the hole in the bag
- Full door and drawer overlays with hidden hinges
- 1/4 “difference in total between doors and drawers
- For open shelves or cabinets without doors / drawers, I like to add a face frame for a finished look
- I would like to use a 1×6 for the front drawer face with a 1×4 or 1×3 drawer box.
- I don’t recommend 1x12s for larger drawer faces, as they often warp or cup
How Much Does It Cost To Build Your Own Kitchen?
It just depends on how much work you do yourself. For this kitchen, I did a little math:
- 1/2 “plywood RTA cabinets that you assemble yourself and install and cut yourself: $ 6000
- DIY cabinets using Shelf Help and order wood paints, you build, install and paint or finish: $ 2500
- Complete DIY- cut your own plywood, build your own doors, make everything: $ 1200- $ 1800 (depending on wood prices)
If you do the hybrid DIY method, I find that doors cost almost the same amount as your carcass from Shelf Help. The total cost is usually about three times your quote from the Help Shelf.
What To Expect If You DIY A Kitchen
Building a kitchen is a big process, and many steps. The good news is you can get the hard parts (cutting carcasses and building doors), and solve the quicker parts – assembling, painting, and cutting – and even get a kitchen cabinet in place. a DIY budget.
Here is a video of my entire kitchen building process:
Tutorial Links for Making Kitchen Slabs
As promised in the video, here are the links to the steps.
- Free Carcass Configurator with Shelf Help
- Cabinet Base Template
- Wall Cabinet Template
- Corner Base Cabinet Template
- Video on Making a drawer for Frameless Cabinets
- Installing Hidden Hinges
- Building Shaker Cabinet Doors Tutorial and Free Calculator
Thanks for using our instructions, we hope it helps you with your build, and would love to see your final projects.