As with any project, installing your own kitchen cabinets requires good prep and planning. Before you start, make sure your surfaces are finished, including walls and floors. Having your flooring done is very important as it will affect your measurements and could result in a bad installation if you do it after the fact.
Start off by giving yourself an easy visual template to follow. Draw lines with a pencil to mark the location of all your wall studs, and then the cabinets themselves. At this point, make sure you are allowing space at the corners so you don’t have to cram the cabinets too tightly. Then you should inspect your cabinets, especially if you have purchased them ready assembled. Many times, mass produced home store models are not built to perfection, and you will not be able to return them once they are marred with screw holes. After you assess your items, you must take a look at your walls and your floor to determine if they are plumb and level. If they are not, you may have trouble fitting everything in, and you will want to know this beforehand. In this layout phase, make any adjustments with your drawings to head off problems before you encounter them later.
With your helper and stepladder on hand, you are ready to go. Following these basic steps you can install your cabinets piece by piece with success:
1. Secure a straight 2×4 with its top edge where you want the bottom of your cabinets to be. Level the 2×4 and attach it to the wall with a few screws in the studs. This piece, called a ledger, is the best way to put up cabinets correctly as it provides a sturdy, fool proof level for you to balance your cabinets on as you fasten them to the wall.
2. Begin attaching cabinets in a corner. Have a helper hold the cabinets, using the ledger for support, and check again for plumb in both directions. Once positioned, drive in your 2 1/2 to 3 inch screws through the cabinet framing pieces and into the wall studs. At this point your markings for the studs are going to be essential.
3. Each cabinet is then installed completely flush to the next. Check both the front and top surfaces and clamp them tightly before you drive in your screws. It is recommended that you drill pilot holes and sink in the screw heads for both aesthetic and structural reasons.
4. Where the last cabinet meets a wall, you are going to need space for the door to operate properly. Install your spacer that you left room for previously and then attach the cabinet to the wall with the same technique.
These two setups show how we installed new kitchen cabinets in Santa Monica and Culver City. As you can see, no two setups are created equally, but by following our simple rules of thumb, you can have a new, great looking kitchen in about a day.
A few months back, we had the pleasure of installing this new kitchen cabinetry in Brentwood, with a sleek modern design. Any number of arrangements are at your disposal to make your space not only functional, but visually striking with some good planning.
502 San Vicente #105 Santa Monica, CA, 90402 USA
marc@jannonedevelopment.com • 310-989-3499
