DIY: Kitchen Cabinets

We always seem to be on a budget with our renovation projects, which means we have to be creative with the way we accomplish our renovation goals. We priced out new cabinets for one wall and refacing all the cabinets and the estimate was over $5,000. I don't know about you, but we don't have that kind of money laying around!

This is where the brainstorming comes in handy. Just down the road from where I work is a place called the Habitat Re-store. Builders donate cabinets, building supplies and assorted things they take out of construction sites they demo. We've taken quite a few things to the Re-store ourselves and my parents have picked up some amazing used appliances for their rental units at great prices.

So I stalked the Re-store for several months. Luckily, we have cabinets that were standard for builders in this area and quite a few people have been redoing their kitchens and donating their used cabinets. It took a couple months to find all four cabinets we needed, but we finally found all we needed.

Probably the most important thing about installing cabinets is finding the studs in the wall if you have drywall walls. If you DON'T find the studs, you'll have cabinets falling off the walls. The best way to find the studs is to get what's called a stud finder from a home improvement store. Basically, you move the stud finder over the wall and it starts beeping and blinking when you find the stud.

Before you start, you should find and mark the studs. You should also determine the space between the counter (or floor) and cabinets and mark what's called a plumb line to guide the placement of your cabinets. Mark them high enough that when you have the cabinets against the wall and ready to drill, you don't have to go hunting for the lines.

Gather up your drill and your screws - there are special screws made especially for this purpose that are long enough to anchor the cabinet to the wall. Don't be stupid, as I was, and get screws that are too long. Measure the length of the screws against the width of the wall and the cabinets so that you don't go through the wall and out the other side. Trust me on this. Not good. Creates a bit of a new mess to fix!

Next, you should either get a helper to hold the cabinet steady and in place or find a way to prop up the cabinet you want to put on the wall. We first tried the jack to our truck, but that didn't work very well. We ended up using a large bucket and building up height with various things laying around the house to get the right height. Very scientific let me tell you - especially when we pulled out the cardboard boxes!

Put the cabinet in place so that the bottom is right on your plumb line and in the right place. Pull out your screws and drill, find your studs and start drilling. After the second or third screw, you will be able to pull the prop. We were super careful and put in like 6 screws per cabinet - mainly because I have heavy things to store and want to make sure they're secure.

Continue with the next cabinet, propping and putting in the screws until you have all your cabinets in place. It's easier to accomplish all this with the doors off of the cabinets. When you're done, put the doors back in place!

When we finish the refacing, we'll post that as well!