Free Standing Kitchen Cabinet

Every house seems to have that corner or nook of awkward space that leaves your head tilted far to one side wondering what on earth can I do with it?

That was this space.

My husband and I moved into this rental home a little over a year ago, and figuring out exactly what to do with this space was my number one project after “moving in” (let’s me honest, it took me a while to get everything unpacked and settled in).

This upper set of cupboards hung awkwardly alone in the dining room space. It matches the upper and lower cupboards in the kitchen, but … those cupboards are in the kitchen. And overall, I wouldn’t say the cupboards match well with the color or theme of the log home design. But what do I know, right?

The dining room cupboards kind of destroyed the space of the entire wall. I own a China-hutch that would have fit perfectly along the wall there. And there might have been a little devil on one shoulder who counted how many screws I would have to remove to take the whole set of cupboards down –

BUT the angel prevailed, despite the temptation.

The beautifully carved cherry wood hutch got placed in the basement, and I maintain that I try to be a solid good renter by keeping the home as intact and well-cared for as possible. Even when it means having an awkward set of cupboards hanging in the middle of the room.

Which brought me back to the question of what to do with the space?

Deciding what to do

Thankfully, the answer came rather quickly.

Upon unpacking my kitchen boxes, I soon discovered that not a single cupboard in the kitchen, upper or lower, was large enough to fit a saucepan. For a family that bakes almost every meal at home, that was a problem.

Lucky for me, the solution to one problem was the solution to both.  

A plan began to form in my mind to build a lower cabinet – one large enough to house my set of saucepans, yet small enough to not take up any more space than necessary because the dining space already seemed crowded once the table and chairs were in.

The biggest problem: I had never built anything like this.

Sure, I have built toy boxes and a few smaller bookshelves, coat racks, and even a couple of tables. But I had never built a frame with cabinet doors hanging off the front. Or removable shelves on the inside.

Plus, how was I going to build cupboard doors (which I’ve never built before, Major Problem A) that matched the upper hanging cupboards (especially when I know my identification of wood type is lacking, Major Problem B)?

Someone familiar with cabinet building wouldn’t have batted an eye at this simple, corner-of-the-room project. But this project had my eyes wide open. It was all going to be a new learning process for me.

And when almost every step in the build process requires a whole new set of learning, I knew this project was going to take me a lot of time – which it did! And like most of my builds, even in planning for this project to be a slow build, I still went over schedule.

[At this point, I think being painstakingly slow at project completion is just a trademark. I’m slow. I’m a full-time mama of young kids, we homeschool, and I’m lucky if I get to spend a full, committed hour working on any given project. I guess that’s just the way it is.]

Lucky Stroke

In the following weeks as I continued to unpack boxes and plan my build, I stumbled upon major luck when I found a set of cupboard doors and drawer fronts matching both the kitchen cupboards and this set in the dining room.

The cupboards were obviously a used set from another kitchen, and the two doors I found must have not fit in the current space.

I took the doors down from where they had been collecting dust and spiders in the rafters of the garage, cleaned them up, and started re-planning my build around the dimensions of these newly discovered cupboard doors.

Now, I realize not every situation gets as lucky as to find matching cupboard doors. Those situations require additional creativity. But for this circumstance, I was so thankful for this tender mercy that saved me hours of learning and building cupboard doors, the cost of the hard wood required to make matching doors, all topped with hours more of playing with stain color to find a match.

Finding these cupboard doors really was a blessing.

It saved me hours of labor, and it gave me a solid direction on my build.

The Plan

Because this shelf would be sitting directly under a matching hanging cupboard, I needed this free-standing cabinet to line up with the upper cupboards.

That length was 46.5 inches.

The upper cupboard was fitted in a corner, which limited how deep I could make this shelf. The wall space allowed for only 14.5-inches, and off of that short wall space was the main walkthrough between the kitchen and the rest of the house. So I really didn’t want this lower cabinet to overhang past the wall.  

Because I was limited on space, I wanted to capture every inch possible, including the inch of space between the wall and the baseboard trim line. If I enclosed the back of the cabinet, I would lose a full inch of space because the legs of the cabinet would but up against the baseboard trim, and I would essentially have an inch of waisted space.

Plus, there was an electrical outlet along that wall that I really didn’t want to lose access to (silly, but real).

For those reasons, I chose to not enclose the back side of the cabinet. Instead, the wall side for this build would remain open, with only the frame pieces. This allowed me to still fit some of my larger mixing bowls into this very narrow cabinet.

The width of the cabinet frame needed to be 14 inches.

I used the cupboard doors I found in the garage rafters to help me calculate the height. Those doors measured 14.5” x 29.5”

I wanted to give myself an extra 0.75-inch on all sides around the cupboard doors, straddling the doors in the center of my 2×2 framing.

Along the bottom, I gave myself 4.5 inches of extra storage space. Though the built-in cupboards from the kitchen had 4-inches of toe-kick space (which I believe is standard), I chose to raise mine by a half-inch so I could double this space for storage.*

Total height for the frame would be 35 inches.

For the inside, I planned to use plywood “walls” on both the outside and inside, which would help support the shelves within the cabinet. The floor and shelves would also be made using plywood.

For the top, I simply planned to use fir boards joined together to create a “counter top”.*I am all about finding creative ways to create additional storage space. In this case, that 4.5-inces between the floor of the cabinet and the floor of the room was the perfect space to store the extra leaves for our dining table so they were nearby, yet out of site!

Last-Minute Changes

Prior to discovering the cupboard doors in the rafters of the garage, I had thought to keep my build extremely simple and affordable. One of my main purposes in building projects myself, from scratch, is to save money. I am always cognizant of how easy it is to actually spend more money in buying expensive wood cuts than it would be to buy something cheap and pre-made (though there are other major benefits to building your own furniture).

In keeping my project very low on the cost scale, I planned to build this kitchen cabinet using construction grade lumber and sheathing plywood. Afterall, this was a specific build for a particular space in a home that I don’t own or plan to live in forever.

Of course, I always want builds in my house to look nice – it is my home, whether owned or rented. But ultimately, an affordable fir board, sanded smooth with stain and a finish coat, really can look nice.

And considering the log-style of the home, I thought construction grade, softwood material was the fitting choice.

However, after discovering the cupboard doors, I decided to upscale – ever-so-slightly – some of my materials. Which, at the time seemed like a better choice, but as you’ll read later on, was really unnecessary. More on that later.

In the end, rather than using construction grade fir boards for the frame of my cabinets, I decided to use clear fir lumber.

What is Clear Fir Lumber: For those of you wondering what the difference is, clear fir lumber is still fir, is still the same softwood material that is used in framing, but the “clear” rating indicates that it is knot-free. Which is a pro for looks if you prefer wood without knots (though I personally think knots look cool in most furniture pieces), but knot-free wood is certainly a benefit in terms of board strength. Knots, especially in smaller dimensional lumber, can pose a weakness to board strength.

Because I was building my frame out of 2-in X 2-in boards, and this frame would be housing all my glass dishware, pots, pans, crockpot, etc – I wanted to make sure this frame had as much strength as possible.

Though again, after nearly a year of having this project completed and using this cabinet daily, I am not convinced this last-minute change was needed. Nor am I convinced that my second change, which was to use furniture grade plywood instead of sheathing, was necessary either.

Hindsight contemplations aside, those are the materials I pushed out of the store with my cart and crew of little helpers.

Supplies

• (4) 2-in X 2-in X 8-ft clear fir board ($12/ea)
• (2) 1-in X 4-in X 8-ft clear fir board ($14/ea)
• (1) 2-in X 10-in X 8-ft fir board ($16)
• (1) 1-in X 2-in X 8-ft pine strip ($2)
• 1/2 inch full sheet (4’X8’) of maple sanded plywood ($61)
• Edge Banding

Once supplies were purchased and home, it was now time to cut everything to their final length for this project.

Final Cut List

• (4) 2-in X 2-in @ 35-inches – vertical legs
• (4) 2-in X 2-in @ 46.5-inches – horizontal frame
• (4) 1-in X 4-in @ 27.5-inches – vertical uprights
• (2) 1/2″ plywood pieces cut at 11.5″x 30″- outside walls
• (2) 1/2″ plywood pieces cut at 13.25″ x 27.25″ – inside walls
• (1) 1/2″ plywood piece cut at 11.5″ x 44″- cabinet floor
• (2) 1/2″ plywood pieces cut at 11.5″ x 16″- outer unit shelves
• (2) 1/2″ plywood pieces cut at 12.25″ x 12″- inner unit shelves
• (4) 1-in X 2-in @ 11.5-inches – floor supports
• (2) 1-in X 2-in @ 11.25-inches – inside floor corner pieces
• (2) 2-in X 10-in @ 48-inches

Project Walk-Through

After cutting all of my 2×2 and 1×4 board materials, I went through with a quick sanding to smooth everything out.

The next step was to router a groove in the center of the 1×4’s. This groove would support the two inside walls made from the ½” plywood. Those walls, along with the outside walls, would then be drilled to hold pegs, that would support the shelves in all three columns of the shelf.

I scrapped together a simple jig for routering my 1×4 boards, which like most garage-made jigs, was built for function not fashion.

With those boards routered and the 2x2s cut, it was time to put it all together and build the frame.

Building the Frame

Fitting the 1×4 grooved boards into the 2×2 horizontal frame pieces was the first step.

After marking out where they would go, I joined the 1×4 center boards to the top and bottom 2×2 boards of my frame using dowelled pegs.

I used pocket holes to join the front and back faces to my four vertical uprights, also made of 2×2 fir material.

If my but joints where my 2×2 boards came together showed a slight gap (a result of the blunt, cut edge connecting with the rounded, finished edge of the board), I simply filled the gap with wood putty to smooth out the joint. Definitely not perfect craftsmanship, but it worked.

With both my front facing frame and my back facing frame together, it was now time to drill peg holes into my ½” sanded plywood for both outside and center walls. These walls would be the sides of my frame.

Drilling Peg Holes

This was an all-new experience for me. Prior to this build, I had never drilled sets of holes, evenly mid-way into a board. I was able to purchase a shelf pin drilling jig, which made the job a lot easier, but even so, it still took some trail and error.

One of those errors was learning that bit collars can slide up and down the bit. The result: drilling a hole clean through the other side.

With a little putty, and some dark stain, I was to … mostly hide… the “oops” set of drill holes on one of the side boards.

For the two inside walls, because there was just a single sheet of ½” plywood with shelf pin holes drilled on both sides, I simply lined the holes apart from each other to avoid added weakness with drilling too many half-holes too close together. You can see in the image above that straddled spacing.

My outside walls, and the sides of my two inside walls facing the outside walls, were drilled 1 inch from the outside edge, and drilled in every hole slot along the shelf pin jig (which space 1.25” apart).

Whereas the inward facing sides of both inside walls were drilled, also using the jig for accurate spacing, 2.25” from the front and back edges, and drilled in every-other pin hole, spacing them out 2.5”.

Attaching the Side Walls

Attaching the side walls to the frame was pretty straightforward.

The two inside walls slide into place, settling into the grooves routered in the center of the vertical 1X4 boards. Because they were wider than my outside walls, they had to be slid in place before the outside walls were screwed in.

I used pocket holes to attach the outside walls to the 2×2 vertical legs.

In order to keep the two inside walls in place while securing the outside walls, I used pocket holes to attach the outside walls to one side of the frame, and then attached the remaining side of the frame once the inside walls were in place.

To do this, I attached both outside walls to the back face of the frame, set my inside walls in their appropriate grooves, and then attached the front face, again using pocket holes drilled in from the side wall.

Shelves

The shelves were by and far the easiest part of the entire project. I used the same ½” plywood for the shelves, edge banding both the front and back facing edges to give the board a smooth finish.

I painted the shelves and the entire inside of the shelf white. I realize white can easily look dirty with dust or the bottom of pots scraping in and out, but I thought the bright color would help light up the cabinet space.

For the shelves, I added a single coat of polyurethane, hoping this would help them wipe down easier – which, it definitely does! I go this idea from Melissa Woods’ and her YouTube/Blog Welcome to the Woods.oods. Melissa is a mom as well, and I love this very practical and functional addition. It only takes a couple of minutes to apply and then a day to dry, but it really can make such.a.difference. when it comes to cleaning and is well worth the added step.

For those of you wanting to build your own cabinet and shelves – definitely give the shelves a clear coat of oil or water-based poly. It makes cleaning the shelves so much easier!

The Cabinet Top

The “countertop” was made using construction-grade lumber.

A single 2”x10”X8’ board was cut in half, leaving two 4-foot length boards.

The 2”x10” boards (actually measuring 1.5” x 9.25” and now cut to 4’ lengths) were both trimmed down along one side so the total width was 8 inches. I then joined the two trimmed ends together using glue and pegs, and planed the boards flat.

Because I didn’t have a powered planer at the time, I was using a block plane (the only hand plane I owned at the time) to smooth the boards. My first attempt was not very smooth, my joinery was off, and using my little block plane was just not enough, so I ended up buying a second 2″x10″ and starting over.

But never fear, my first attempt did not go to waste. I was able to take that first “oops” board that didn’t work in the cabinet countertop and use that in a simple farmhouse table I threw together for my kids’ homeschool corner.

Next I sanded, sanded, sanded, until I had a nice, smooth surface worthy of being a countertop.

Because this was a countertop surface, and would be exposed to all of the abuse a countertop gets exposed to, I chose to finish the countertop using polyurethane.

The finished counter was beautiful (at least I thought so)!

HOWEVER, only a handful of months after completing this house and moving it inside for daily use, we had a mishap with a bottle of my daughter’s nail polish that spilt all over the top of my free standing kitchen cabinet (just another reason to despise nail polish). As a result, the entire top had to be sanded down, re-stained, and refinished.

When it came time to re-finishing, it was January, and I had no space in my garage amongst my other projects for finishing the counter with multiple coats of a polyurethane finish.

The meat of the matter is, I couldn’t use polyurethane right then, and I really wanted my kitchen cabinet back for everyday functional use.

For all of the reasons, I chose to finish the cabinet top the second time using a single coat of Danish Oil. It seemed to dry fast enough that I could apply it outside in the heat of the sunshine in the morning, and it was dry enough – I felt – in the evening to move into the house to finish curing in the warmer temperatures of indoors. All the while, it didn’t put off the fumes that polyurethane does.

In short, it was quicker and easier.

And honestly… the Danish Oil has held up equally to the polyurethane. It has been four months now with the Danish Oil, and it is handling the chaos of being a kitchen counter top really well. Plus, I like the overall look of the Danish Oil better than the poly. The Danish Oil offers a softer, more natural look, whereas the polyurethane has a really plastic look.

For future projects, I may be using more oil-based finishes over poly finishes … for all the reasons. We’ll just have to see how well the Danish Oil holds up over time.

With the fir board “counter top” on, the total dimensions for this skinny free standing kitchen cabinet were:  

48-in X 16-in X 36.5-in

Staining

Upon coming home with my wood and supplies, I immediately began to question how I would stain the cabinet so all the woods, across multiple species, could match.

Even before cutting all the boards into their final lengths, this was a real concern.

I was working with fir and poplar boards, and maple sanded plywood. Three different wood species, and trying to get them all to stain the same color.

Not easy!

The easiest thing to do would have been to paint the frame of the cabinet, leaving the cupboard doors to tie in with the rest of the kitchen and dining room. Yes, a creamy white would have looked quite nice, I dare say.

That would have been the easy thing.

It would have helped to lighten up the kitchen against the dark wood tones, and created a contrast against the wood doors.

The only problem was … I didn’t need anymore contrast in the room.

The room was already sporting three different wood types and colors, which was about two too many in my book. But, hey, I’m just a renter! And ultimately, I’m just working with what I’ve got, trying to do the best I can.

I chose to stain the outside frame of the cabinet a dark, walnut-like shade. This would not only match my vintage dining table and chairs, but also the Pantry Bookshelf I was building at the same time.

The support beams in the dining room and kitchen were also stained a similar color, on what appeared to be pine or fir, so I figured staining this cabinet – also made of fir – would tie those pieces in nicely.

Vinegar and wool has become my go-to stain for the last couple of years when staining a darker shade.

After playing around a little to get the right color – one that matched fairly well across all board materials – I figured out the right proportion of vinegar, wool, and time to stain my project.

Doors

After staining, the only piece left was to put the doors on.

Because these doors are “borrowed”, they belong to the house and to my landlord, not myself, I really wanted to take care not to alter them in any way (apart from cleaning and polishing). I was able to find three hinges that matched the one existing hinge already on one door, and with the doors screwed in place, the cabinet was ready to move inside.

Mishaps and Mistakes

I always fall prey to thinking that once I’ve drawn everything out, calculated my measurements, planned the exact length and placement for every board, and then purchased all the wood – I somehow think that putting everything together will go smoothly.

The trouble is, it rarely does.

There are always minor things I failed to calculate for, or maybe the look just isn’t quite right.

Then the obvious and unfortunate fact that I am still very green when it comes to the woodshop. I have a lot to learn still, and my limited experience I am sure slows me down and gives me hiccups.

And of course, as I mentioned before, playing full-time mom every minute I’m working on a project often adds to the mess.

This project was no different.

Mistake #1: This project took me waaaayyyyy  longer than I anticipated. In planning, I thought I gave myself plenty of time. I figured working an hour a day, five days a week, I should be able to have this project completed within a month.

That didn’t happen.

Some days, I didn’t make it to the garage to work on the project. Other responsibilities required me else ware, but – hey – that is just the way life goes!

On days that I did make it to the garage to work on a project, it wasn’t necessarily a full hour of dedicated work time. Even if I was technically standing in the garage for a full hour, there were always interruptions that mentally set me back. Someone fell down and scraped up their knee, or got stung by a bee, or is just having a hard time playing kindly with their siblings that day. Ultimately, I often was called away to fulfill much-needed mom responsibilities.

But then my train of thought would be broken, and I would have to “get back in the groove” of things. Time in the garage wasn’t always a rocking-rolling rail of productivity.

In the end, this project took me about 2.5 months.

Mistake #2:  Upgrading original supply list

As I mentioned in the first part of my article, I originally planned to make this project out of all construction-grade materials. It was only after I found the cupboard doors that I decided to upgrade slightly with using the clean cut 2x2s and the furniture grade sanded plywood.

Looking back, I would say those were two unnecessary upgrades that cost me on this project.

The clean cut boards I got were more expensive because – you guessed it – they were knot free. But I don’t think the added cost to my build was necessary. I am pretty confident that I could have found a couple solid, fairly knot-free 2×8 boards at the hardware store, and used those. If I could do it all over again, I would probably notdo clean cut 2×2 clean cut boards. Instead, I would just strip my own 2×2 boards from a 2×8 fir board. That change alone would have saved me … close to $30.

Mistake #3: Using 1/2″ instead of 3/4″

For the furniture grade sanded plywood, I went with a ½” which cost me $61 at time of purchase. In hindsight, I should have used a full ¾” plywood instead. The ½” was just really thin when it came to drilling the shelf pin holes, and overall, I think I would feel more comfortable – even now – if those pegs had a little more leverage balancing them in the hole, rather than the 1/4”-3/8” that is there now.

These shelves house not just my metal pots and pans, but also some of my glass storage containers and nice glass or ceramic serving bowls.

With a ¾” sheet, those holes could have been drilled a full ½” or more deep. Again, just giving those pegs, and the shelves that set on them, more leverage for holding and balancing that weight.

A ¾” sheet of furniture grade sanded plywood would have been an extra $24 (selling for $85 a sheet when I purchased my wood), but I could have offset that added expense with using construction grade fir boards for my frame rather than the clean cut 2x2s that I used.

OR, I could have kept my original idea to use fir sheathing plywood ($40 for a ¾” sheet), then patched any knot holes and sanded it myself, which would have still saved me money overall.

Original List of Supplies:

• (3) 2-in X 8-in X 8-ft fir lumber ($12/each)
• (2) 1-in X 4-in X 8-ft softwood boards ($8/each)
• (1) 1-in X 2-in X 8-ft pine strip ($2)
• 1/2 inch full sheet (4’X8’) sheathing plywood ($25)

Total expected cost:

Final List of Supplies

• (3) 2-in X 2-in X 8-ft clear fir board ($12/ea)
• (2) 1-in X 4-in X 8-ft clear fir board ($14/ea)
• (1) 2-in X 8-in X 8-ft fir board ($12)
• (1) 1-in X 2-in X 8-ft pine strip ($2)
• 1/2 inch full sheet (4’X8’) of maple sanded plywood ($61)

Total cost: