First Project of the New Year

The new year is quickly moving along, second week already?? My mom and i have been very slowly renovating our house, and it really has been a slow journey. But, to quick start the new year we decided to make our own butcher's block/ baker's cabinet for our kitchen. We went to Lowe's and started looking at cabinets; we had planned everything out before hand so we knew which ones we wanted. We actually had to go to another Lowe's because the one closest to us didn't have them. After loading those onto the cart we found out that the counter we needed couldn't be cut so we were kind of stumped on that one. Obviously we can't just put cabinets in without a counter top! So my mom had the idea to just get a big slab of wood cut to fit the top so we went to the lumber section. By some fate, we found two blocks of wood that were the EXACT size that we needed, no cutting required, it was amazing. Feeling triumphant, we loaded everything into her car and headed home. We got some pegs as well to hold the slabs together. First we got the cabinets out and started with the painting. The cabinets in our kitchen are a blue, and luckily we still had some paint leftover from those so we didn't have to buy anymore.

We bought two, and were planing on putting them together, the wood slabs holding them in place. This way one side could be used fro spices and oils, then the other side for my baking things. Paint went on smoothly and we left them to dry in the sun.

After they dried, we put the hardware on and got some to match our other cabinets, luckily Lowe's actually had them! I took a picture of how everything was going to look when together, though the slabs aren't actually put together yet.

The wood gave us a little bit of trouble because we had to make sure they lined up perfectly while drilling, and a couple of the holes were slanted so the pegs wouldn't go in. It wasn't too difficult though to just drill again, but going in straight that time. Then we sanded it down and put on C clamps while the wood glue dried.

Next, we moved everything into the space we made for it and there my mom and I glued the wood onto the cabinets and also screwed them in. Let me tell you, trying to fit into the smaller cabinet was really tough haha. It fit so nicely with the rest of our kitchen and we loved it!

All that was left was to add a liner to the drawers and bottom of the cabinets and we were done.

I've been using it now for preparing cookies and other things. The first project of the year and it went so nicely! In total, we did it on the weekend and cost us around $200, which is so much cheaper than it would have been to buy one in the store. Plus, this way we get to feel a lot better about putting together our own furniture.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any projects planned for this new year!