There are some things you can do when having a 100% custom kitchen built – assuming you’re working with the Rod Tidwell cabinet shop. Two of those are "what to do with the space under the kitchen sink?" and "how to hid the dishwasher?"

The typical solution under the kitchen sink is to install a set of doors and just hide everything. However, if you want some organization and you are installing drawers in all of your base cabinets, you might consider a split drawer design. The idea is to install two narrow drawers that fit to either side of the plumbing. In my case, I designed the plumbing under the sink to all line up front to back and thus maximize the available space to either side. In keeping with the look of the other cabinets, I wanted a single drawer front. As you can see in the photos, the large drawer front is attached to two narrow drawers.There is plenty of drawer space and it still leaves clearance for the plumbing.

Concealing the dishwasher is personal choice. Some people want the front to match the cabinets while others want it to match the appliances. There are special dishwashers with unfinished fronts designed to take a custom panel. This may seem strait forward but there are some caveats. Not all panel designs will match up to the dishwasher attachments points. I would go further to say *most* cabinet designs will require the installer to get creative. For example, to insure clearance when opening the dishwasher, the bottom of the panel front was beveled on the back side and the supplied metal cover was lowered.  The larger issue will the the handles. The dishwasher requires a reasonable amount of force to release the spring loaded catch when opening. The typical panel front dishwasher does not allow for pull hardware that mounts from the back; however hardware that mounts to the front is weaker. Add that a panel front (rails, stiles, and a panel in the middle) has only a thin layer of wood for the hardware attach points. All this is to say that you might experience some additional costs from your cabinet installer or some grumblings or a less than perfect job … hopefully not all three and ideally none at all. My solution was to two fold. First, I used a urethane glue and add a filler band of thin material to the back of the panel where the hardware would install. Note: The material must not extend beyond the back side of the rails and stiles holding the panel. Second, after pre-drilling the panel for the bin-pull hardware, I used a slightly smaller bit and predrilled into the metal face skin of the dishwasher. Note: Be careful to just penetrate the metal so as not to hit anything that might be inside.

After installing the panel to the dishwasher front, I then installed the pull hardware with the screws now having a good "bite" into the panel, the filler band, and the face skin of the dishwasher.

The three pantry cabinets are in. There were lots if issues. All told, I’d say there were 8 things that did not come out nearly But, of those, only two can be discovered and then only by close scrutiny. All of the others were addressed with an excess of labor. I am staring my graduate studies in "craftsmanship". (They say, the difference between a carpenter and a craftsman is how well they hide their mistakes.") I had more practice with this project than I care to admit.

I definitely learned a lot. And for anyone who is considering building pantry cabinets as large as these, here are a few tips …

• If you are going to paint them, definitely use MDF for it’s superior stability. All three of the pantry doors had an 1/8" warp. Two bow out in the middle so the latch resolves those. I’ll need to add a back stretcher to the third door.
• Add a fixed shelf in the middle of the carcasses for stability. At a full 8 feet tall, there is just not enough stability in the sides of the cabinets. Keeping everything square and true is nearly impossible and an 1/8" error will show if you are building inset doors.
• Seriously ask yourself if you want inset doors rather than overlay doors. If you want inset doors, repeat this bullet point. An 1/8" error shows and while it’s easy to get get your lengths and widths accurate, consider an 1/8th of an inch error over 8 feet is only 0.075 degrees !
• Rather than one full height door, consider two doors, one above the other. They will work well with that fixed middle shelf.
• Invest in joint connector screws and nuts. There may be other ways of pulling adjacent cabinets together but these are easy and can be added as needed during the installation process.
• Get help on installation day. The larger the cabinet, the more likely of bumping something and scratching that finish you worked so hard to achieve.

Given how small the kitchen is relative to the amount of cooking I do, the pantry is a great addition. Storage is the key to shopping on a budget because you can buy extras of non-perishable items when they are on sale and you can take advantage of big box shopping – especially when that big box store is a half day trip away.

I built a wide shallow pantry. This has a few advantages. First, the light from the kitchen is more than enough for the pantry and there are no dark deep places. Additionally, shallow shelves prevent stuff being pushed to the back and getting lost. Even with my wide stiles, I have about 76 inches of usable width. Each pantry has 8 shelves and could easily accommodate two more. That provides over 60 feet of shelf space. When it comes to canned goods, I can go 4 deep with bulk items. With shallow shelves, it’s not necessary to put different items in a row.

I still have the "bulkhead" cabinet that goes above the pantry. Then I will add the base trim for both the pantry and back side of the peninsula cabinets plus the toe kick for the rest of the base cabinets.

The next project is the large spiral staircase !

The pantry cabinets are progressing, albeit slowly. The carcasses are done. The face frames are finished but not as perfect as I would hope. I think I need to find a finer mesh strainer for my sprayer. I kept getting crystalline bumps. I also need to accept that more of my supplies need to be considered "single use" items. The finish is good but it took two extra sandings and spray coats to get there. The shelves are all finished and I’ve order 140 shelf pins – 80 for this job and 60 for the next. The face frames have been attached using the same biscuit technique i used on the kitchen base cabinets.

Since the pantry will have inset doors rather than drawers, I used a trick I learned from a cabinet making shop. I lowered the face frame about 1/4" so the door would close against the bottom of the carcass. This required I cut the bottom of the carcass 1/2" shallow and then install a 1/2" piece of finish wood. I glued and screwed a complement piece of finish wood to the back side of the face frame at the top such that it hung down 1/4". When a pantry door is closed, it is now fully supported along the top and bottom so it will remain square and flush. At the bottom, it is advisable to add an extra strip of carcass material below the finished edge so there is something for the biscuit joints. Technically it is possible to get by without it but with a 1/4" reveal, that only leaves 1/2" of the carcass for the slot and biscuit joint and that was not enough for my comfort. (The insert at the bottom of the photo is a zoom of the bottom of the center pantry cabinet and highlights the technique.)

Next weekend, I will build the three large doors. If it stays warm enough, I might be able to cut all the parts over the course of two or three evenings. The rail and stile material has already made a pass through the router table to receive the panels. However, the panels are large so cutting them will be a task for when I have patients and am not tired. They will also need to be rabbited just a little since the plyboo is true 1/4" and the shaker panel bit set is made for undersized stock. (such is life)

I was supposed to work on the face frames for the pantry and in a way I did. I needed to clean the shop up a bit. So I did.

I knew I was going to cut some large stock so I needed my feed rollers. However, the feed rollers were in the paintbooth being inappropriately used as rack stands. So, I needed to build a pair or rack stands. So I did.

The weather looked to be one of the last good (enough) days to mow the new lawn for the first/last time. I needed the mower. It needed fuel. So I got fuel.

I also needed to clear a path out of the shop / garage. That meant using the Barrett to pick up and stack 10 of the pallets left over from the paver project. so I did.

I cut the long stock and then came the dicey challenge of figuring out the spacing since the pantry cabinets must go in as three separate units and then looked like one seamless piece. After a few different ideas, I finally did a test layout that looks to work.

I mowed the lawn. Found a soft spot – @#$&^$%#R@*#^! Ferris did a nice job all the same.

Today’s work and lots of prior kitchen cabinet projects generated a bunch of bamboo scrap. I decided I’d see if some of it might turn into something useful … perhaps even Christmas gifts. So, in between measuring and cutting for the pantry cabinets, I started gluing bits of this and that together … then planing down smooth … and more gluing … a bit of fill … then some sanding … a little router action … a bit more sanding. Mineral oil for the finish and WALLA ! An 18"x18" cutting board (with a two tone 3, 5, 7, 5, 3 stripe pattern).

I did manage to make some progress on the pantry. Tomorrow the face frames go into the paint booth which needed a thorough cleaning. So I did that too.

This weekend was dedicated to building the pantry cabinets. The pantry is tall (floor to 9 foot ceiling), wide (just under 8 feet), and shallow (interior shelves are just 12 inches deep). The last dimension means I won’t lose stuff to the back of shelves and it also means the light from the kitchen will illuminate the contents not matter how tight the shelves, so I won’t need to install lighting within the cabinets.

After cleaning the shop (it’s nice to start with a clean space), I set out to build the carcasses, and layout the shelving. The back fits into dados on the sides. The bottom fits into dados on the sides and back. The top fits into a rabbit on the sides and back. The sides were easy. I installed my stacked dado blades into the table saw and rand all the sides. Then I had a brain gap. With the sides and back being a full 8 feet, running a dado across was dangerous without a special jig and an extra set of hands. Then I remembered you can dado with a router if you have the right size bit. fortunately, my old router had an edge guide so after a bit of experimenting, I was set to dado for the bottom panel and rabbit for the top.

I finished the glue ups of the three cabinets and did a little more cleanup with the plan to start face frames on Sunday. However, that plan was premature.

Each pantry cabinet already weighs about 60 lbs and given the size, they need to be assembled inside the kitchen. So, I decided I would layout the necessary blocking and spacers for the eventual cabinet installation. This will help with the rest of the manufacturing and will let me separate the three to move then into the kitchen while insuring they will go back together with nearly invisible seams. The blocking also helps keep the cabinets true given their large size and minimal internal support structure along the front.

I took advantage of the relative mobility of the separate cabinets to drill for all of the shelf pins. Some of the shelves will be rather close together given the pantry will hold canned goods. There will likely be as many as eight shelves (plus the bottom) in each cabinet. That will provide better than 50 square feet of shelf space. this does not include the long term storage in the bin that will go above the pantry cabinets.

Each row of shelf pins has 19 holes. That makes the math 19 holes per row, by 4 rows (front and back for left and right), and 3 cabinets. My wrists are not happy but the job if finished. If you drilling more than just a few shelf pin holes, the jig is well worth it. The plastic is not the valuable piece by itself. You could make that yourself from scrap wood. The sleeved, self centering drill bit is what makes this work.

I also built the base (not pictured).

I’ll spend evenings this week building the shelves. They will consist of a 3/4" of the same prefinished plywood used on are carcasses and will have a 1" front edge of bamboo. The extra 1/4" will create a small lip on the under side of each shelf and add additional strength and stability for canned goods and other heavy storage.