Designing Your Cabinets

To begin a cabinet project you must first design them. This isn't as hard as it may sound, and the term design does not mean you need any interior design knowledge or backround. That being said you can get ideas from websites, magazines, or your local decor store.

But before you get artsy, you need to start with layout. I'm going to measure my kitchen and show you a great tool that can help you visualize your project before you ever start cutting a board.

I've measured my kitchen and actully sketched out the layout with measurements on the side of my tape measure.

Now to the computer. I am going to draw the entire project using SketchUp. If you haven't heard of SketchUp it is a free CAD program offered by Google. It is like Auto CADD, but way easier to use. There is a link on my blog in the sidebar. I will be posting some tutorials in the near future, but in the meantime you should download it and play around with it. There are tutorials in the software and on the web. I will warn you it is super fun, and very addicting.

In this first drawing I have simply taken the dimensions I wrote down and put them into SketchUp. Notice that I measured from each side of the window. You must also measure outlets and gas lines that are supplying power to appliances like the range, microwave, dishwasher, and refridgerator. These are you limits. You can move them and change your limits, but you will definitely want to solidify that before you install the cabinets.

Next I have given a basic outline to where my cabinets are going. Notice I have stayed 3" away from the outside corner of the wall and from the start of a doorway. You can get closer to a doorway, but you won't want to get much closer to the outside corner of the wall. The reason for this is so that you have wall to return your crown into. Also notice that I have given my base cabinets a depth of 24" and my upper cabinets 12". These are standards and you can deviate from them if you want because you're building them yourself. Keep in mind that if you plan on using a pre-fabricated countertop they are going to make it for a base cabinet that has a 24" deep box (that does not include the thickness of your doors or drawer fronts) so you'll want to stick with the standard depth You can also play with staggered depths and heights, but that is more about style and preference.

Finally I have given my layout some detail. The space has been divide  into sections to give me by box widths, and my appliances have been allocated to a designated place. As a preference, corner cabinets have both been put on a diagonal so that I can put a full round lazy susan inside. Both uppers next to the window have been held 3" away to stay with the theme, and I have centered my sink cabinet under the window. You should always try to center the sink under the window unless you have a quirky floorplan. It doesn't show it in detail, but I have drawn a cabinet over the refrigerator. I will that in the next step which is to draw elevations. There I can define what heights I want for the uppers, and if I want doors or drawers for my base cabinets. The elevation can also help me determine if the widths will look functional and aesthetic.

So there you have it in a nutshell. It's not rocket science, but along the way I'll give my two cents as far as what I think is functional and easy on the eyes.