Kitchen Upper Cabinet: Double Doors by Cabinets from Scratch Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 1
Disclaimer Our Home from Scratch LLC and its legal owners cannot be held responsible for any loss, damage, disappointment, injury or death resulting from following the procedures or techniques described in these plans. Our Home from Scratch LLC and its legal owners assume no risk and cannot be held responsible for any misuse of these plans either directly or indirectly. They make no statements as to the weight or strength capacity of the item described in these plans. These plans may contain errors and Our Home from Scratch LLC and its legal owners cannot be held responsible for any error. No guarantee is made as to the quality of any product that is described herein. Always use appropriate Personal Protection Equipment when working with tools and exercise caution if taking any action associated with these plans. Attempt at your own risk. Some woodworking skills are required. Sorry if that s a bummer. This procedure contains affiliate links. Distribution Policy By downloading these plans you consent to this distribution policy. These plans are not to be distributed in anyway without the express consent of Our Home from Scratch LLC or its legal owners. The individual pictures or procedures contained herein are also not to be copied or shared. Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 2
Introduction These plans for an upper kitchen cabinet are nearly identical to the kitchen cabinets I built from scratch in my first home in Philadelphia. They design has been updated to include better joinery methods and the door is overlay instead of inset, which makes the project easier for entry level woodworkers. The cabinet box is made from 3/4 thick plywood and includes a 3/4" thick back board. While this thicker back board makes the cabinet heavier and slightly more expensive, it also adds strength, rigidity and reduces the different types of plywood you ll need to purchase and manage. It s the same approach I took in my kitchen cabinets. Feel free to add additional fasteners to this project if the sides of the cabinet will be between other cabinets or walls. If you get stuck on any particular part of these woodworking plans, feel free to email me at John@ourhomefromscratch.com with any questions. For full cabinet building training, visit for more information on our comprehensive video training course. I hope you enjoy the challenge of building this project. R, John Gerard Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 3
Getting Started These woodworking plans will take you step by step through the build of a kitchen upper cabinet with double doors. The first thing you should do is read through these procedures to familiarize yourself with the materials, tools and skill requirements necessary to complete them. Tools The tools and miscellaneous supplies I used for this project include the following, some of which are optional: 1. Table Saw with 60 tooth saw blade 2. Miter Saw (also with 60 tooth saw blade) 3. Pneumatic Brad Nail Gun with Pancake Compressor 4. Pocket Screws 5. Dado Blade Set 6. Router with 23/32 cutting bit 7. Cordless Drill 8. Wood Glue 9. 3/4" Long Brad Nails 10. K-Body Clamps Dimensions This cabinet is designed to the following dimensions: 1. Width: 33 2. Height: 42 3. Depth: 12 This version of the cabinet has two 3/4" overlay doors. Feel free to modify the plans to meet your needs. A customizable version of these plans in MS Excel is available to Cabinets from Scratch subscribers. Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 4
Material: Listed below in Table 1 is a list of all the lumber you ll need to build one cabinet. All of this lumber should be available at your local large hardware store (Lowe s, Home Depot, True Value, etc.). Avoid softwoods like pine for this project. Use oak or maple for stain-grade projects. Choose poplar lumber with birch plywood for paint-grade cabinets. TABLE 1: LUMBER PURCHASE LIST Item Description Width Length (in) Qty 1 3/4" Thick Birch or Oak Plywood 48 96 1 2 3/4" Thick Birch or Oak Plywood 24 48 1 3 3/4 Thick Poplar or Oak Hardwood 2 ½ 96 5 4 1/2" Thick Birch or Oak Plywood 24 48 1 Hardware: You ll also need to purchase the following material to complete your cabinet build. 1. Shelf Pins 2. Door Pulls (you pick) 3. 3/4" Overlay Hinges Preparation: To begin this project, you ll need to take your purchased lumber and cut out all of the parts listed in Table 2. Plywood parts should be cut to their final size using a combination of a table saw and a circular saw. Refer to the plywood cut sheets at the end of these plans Hardwood components however, should be cut to their final lengths, but not their final widths. All hardwood boards should be cut slightly wider than their final width on the table saw then brought down to their final width using a jointer or thickness planer. If you skip this process and simply cut your hardwood boards Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 5
down to their final widths using the table saw you ll end up with boards that have a very rough-cut and uneven edge. It won t look as clean or professional. TABLE 2: CABINET PARTS LIST Hardwood Cabinet Parts Item Name Length (in.) Width (in.) Thk (in.) Qty. Material 1 Stiles 42 2 3/4 2 Oak or Poplar 2 Top Rail 29 2 3/4 1 Oak or Poplar 3 Bottom Rail 29 2 3/4 1 Oak or Poplar 4 Vertical Divider 38 2 3/4 1 Oak or Poplar 5 Shelf Front 30-3/4 1 3/4 3 Oak or Poplar Hardwood Door Parts Item Name Length (in.) Width (in.) Thk (in.) Qty. Material 6 Door Stiles 39-1/2 2 3/4 4 Oak or Poplar 7 Door Rails 12-1/2 2 3/4 4 Oak or Poplar Cabinet Plywood Parts Item Name Length (in.) Width (in.) Thk (in.) Qty. Material 8 Sides 42 11-1/2 3/4 2 Matching Ply 9 Bottom 31-3/4 10-5/8 3/4 1 Matching Ply 10 Top 31-3/4 10-5/8 3/4 1 Matching Ply 11 Back 42 31-3/4 3/4 1 Matching Ply 12 Shelves 30-3/4 10 3/4 3 Matching Ply Plywood Door Parts Item Name Length (in.) Width (in.) Thk (in.) Qty. Material 13 Door Panels 36 11-1/2 1/2 2 Matching Ply Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 6
Machining: With all of your lumber cut to their final dimensions, we can begin machining the lumber to add grooves and pocket screw holes, which will allow us to assemble the cabinet. Face Frame Let s start with the face frame. Lay out all of your face frame boards down on a workbench. Evaluate each board to determine which side looks best. Using a pencil, lightly mark the better side so you know what side is which. Flip all of the boards over. Drill two pocket screw holes on both ends of the backsides of the Top Rail and the Bottom Rail. Next, drill two pocket screw holes on both ends of the vertical divider as well. Refer to Figure 1 for an illustration of pocket screw hole locations. The stiles then get a 1/4 deep by 23/32 wide groove down the length of the back. These grooves will allow the cabinet box to recess and attach to the face frame during assembly. This groove needs to be located 1/4 in from the outside edge of the stiles. Figure 1 illustrates what the back of the face frame will look like once assembled. You don t need to assemble it at this point. Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 7
Figure 1: Face Frame Back with Pocket Screw Holes and Stile Grooves Doors Moving onto the doors, you ll need to expose a 3/4 long tongue (or tenon) at the ends of each door rail. For a clear instruction on how to accomplish this using a table saw, watch this YouTube video from my channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtwrxyhvhfg Once the tongues are exposed on the door rails, you can cut a 1/4 wide by 1/4 deep groove down the middle of each door part. Next, raise the table saw blade to 3/4 high and make a 2-1/2 long groove on the ends of the door stiles. This will allow the tongues on the rails to plug into the stiles. Test for fit. For another example of this technique, you can watch this YouTube video from my channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vywnpv8dgx0 Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 8
At this point, you can cut a 1/4 deep by 1/4 wide rabbit all along the edge of the door center panels. You should be able to assemble doors dry without any glue to test its fit up. Make adjustments where necessary. Plywood Boxes Machining the plywood box will require adding 23/32 grooves in a few places. First, we ll add a groove in one of the side boards for the back board. Using a router table with a 23/32 cutting bit or a 23/32" dado blade stack on your table saw, make a groove 3/8 deep down the length of the side board and locate it so it leaves a 1/4" space between the groove edge and the back edge of the sideboard. Refer to Figure 2 for reference. Next, you ll need to add grooves in one of the side boards to receive the top and bottom boards. Locate these 3/8 deep grooves so they leave a 3/4" space between the groove edge and the top and bottom of the side boards respectively. Refer to Figure 2 for reference. You ll need to repeat these cuts on the other side board, but make sure they are a mirror opposite of the first side board. Figure 2 illustrates that mirrored reference. Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 9
Figure 2: Box Side Boards Left and Right Side Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 10
The back board will need one 23/32" wide by 3/8 deep groove 3/4 up from the bottom edge and a second groove 3/4" down from the top edge. See Figure 3 for that image. The bottom and top boards won t need any modifications. Figure 3: Back Board (Not to Scale) Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 11
Assembly: Using wood glue and 1-1/4 long pocket screws, assemble the face frame as per Figure 1. For the box assembly, dry fit the box components together first before gluing the assembly together. The sides can be stood upright, while the back is inserted into the grooves in each side. You can then insert the bottom and top boards into the grooves in the sides. The bottom and top boards should fully seat into the grooves in the back board and will be 1/4" recessed from the front edges of the sides. Use clamps to help you keep the assembly together during dry fit. If everything fits together well without glue, you can disassemble it and glue it together. Liberally apply a bead of wood glue into each groove before you reassemble. You can shoot in a 3/4" long brad nail at an angle into the joints to keep the assembly together while you are clamping it up. Make sure to clamp the assembly in multiple spots as you proceed. At this point, you can also glue the face frame to the box assembly and clamp both units together by applying a liberal bead of glue in the face fame groove. Check to ensure the top of the face frame and the top of the box assembly are flush. It might help to position the cabinet upside down on a workbench to ensure they remain flush. Measure the cabinet from diagonal to diagonal at the top of the cabinet to verify the cabinet is square. If it s out of square, use a long clamp over the longer corners and tighten it down until it comes into square. Keep the cabinet clamped together overnight to make sure the glue cures properly. The doors will go together similarly. Only apply glue to the tongues. You don t need to glue the center panels in, but you can if you want to since it s made Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 12
from plywood. Make sure the stiles ends are flush to the rails and clamp together overnight. The shelf front board can be attached to the plywood shelf board using glue and brad nails. For the door hinges, it s best to simply follow the manufacturer s instructions provided with the hinges you purchase as they vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. The door should be installed temporarily to ensure fit and functionality then removed for finishing. Finishing: Before painting or staining, sand every surface lightly using 120-grit sandpaper. Sand every surface again using 220-grit sandpaper and then wipe clean with a clean rag. You can use a tack cloth and a rag with denatured alcohol as well. If you want to paint your cabinet, you should apply two coats of a primer followed by two coats of your finish paint. It s best to spray both applications using an HVLP gun. You can use a shellac-based primer like BIN and a satin lacquer for the final coat. If spraying your paint is not an option, you can use a brush to apply your paint. Read more here about best practices and products for painting cabinets: http://www.ourhomefromscratch.com/2014/09/cabinet-painting-101/ If you plan to stain your cabinet, apply a pre-stain conditioner first to avoid blotches. Follow that with your stain and then either a clear coat lacquer as a topcoat or satin polyurethane. You should generally avoid anything glossier than satin or eggshell. After the finishing process is complete, you can re-assemble your cabinet permanently by re-installing the door. Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 13
Resources That s it. If you find any errors, have any suggestions for improvement or any questions, drop me a line at John@ourhomefromscratch.com Thanks and good luck!! Our Home from Scratch LLC Page 14
Upper Cabinet 3/4 Ply 10 Jul 2017 21:52 Project Summary Number of cutting layouts: 2 Panels utilization rate: 62.31% Number of used panels: 2 Total panels area: 5760 inch² Total cut length: 409 5/16" Number of cut parts from all panels: 7 Number of parts have not been cut: 0 Number of produced waste parts (cut-offs): 7 Saw Kerf: 1/8" List of used panels # Panel ID Panel Length Panel Width Count 1 2x4 3/4 Birch 48" 24" 1 2 4x8 3/4 Birch 96" 48" 1 Produced by Online Panel Cutter from Optimalon Software Ltd. Page 1 of 4
Upper Cabinet 3/4 Ply 10 Jul 2017 21:52 List of used parts # Part ID Part Length Part Width Count 1 Shelf 30 3/4" 10" 2 2 Bottom 31 3/4" 10 5/8" 1 3 Top 31 3/4" 10 5/8" 1 4 Sides 42" 11 1/2" 2 5 Back 42" 31 3/4" 1 Produced by Online Panel Cutter from Optimalon Software Ltd. Page 2 of 4
Upper Cabinet 3/4 Ply 10 Jul 2017 21:52 11 1/2" 11 1/2" 3/4" 1 2 42" 24" 5 7/8" 42" 42" Layout: 1. Parts with indices Length Width Count Utilization 1 of 2x4 3/4 Birch 48" 24" 1 85.03% Page 3 of 4 Produced by Online Panel Cutter from Optimalon Software Ltd.
Upper Cabinet 3/4 Ply 10 Jul 2017 21:52 31 3/4" 10 5/8" 5 3/8" 2 1 31 3/4" 16 1/8" 42" 10 1/8" 31 3/4" 10 5/8" 10" 10" 17" 3 4 5 31 3/4" 48" 30 3/4" 7/8" 20 1/8" 22" 30 3/4" 31 3/4" Layout: 2. Parts with indices 1 of 4x8 3/4 Birch Length Width Count Utilization 96" 48" 1 57.74% Produced by Online Panel Cutter from Optimalon Software Ltd. Page 4 of 4