bathroom cabinets

so i've been working part time on these cabs for a few weeks now. slow going despite my best efforts.

the project: a bathroom in the top floor of an old farmhouse in tacoma park maryland. the bathroom is tucked under the roof and has a sloping ceiling as a result. the cabs tuck into this space below the ceiling to make the most of the awkward area there. as a result they are shallow at the top and get deeper as they go down, to a final cabinet depth of 29". the cabs are 45" tall and 72" wide (in three units, 2x21" & 30" set of drawers.) its a white bathroom and the cabs are gloss white with custum made oak handles stained dark chestnut.

to save time (which was important), off the shelf parts were used as much as possible while still striving for a custom look. i figured ikea drawer pulls and hinges were fairly economical and would be a fast way to go (the client lives near an ikea.) the blum hardware ikea uses is some pretty nice stuff and gloss white doors are pretty much gloss white doors, or so i thought. the cabinet boxes themselves were of course purpose built, out of prefinished gloss maple 3/4" plywood.

of course all was not as easy as it seemed. the handles are 1/4" x 1 1/2" and attached by being screwed into the side. this created the biggest problem, the cabinet door would split from the side as they were attached. i've overcome this after trying a few different ways, after pre-drilling i then clamp the area on either side of where the screw comes in. this clamp compression causes the screw to bite into the wood versus just splitting it open. its cumbersome and awkward, but its the only solution i've found that seems to work. the cab doors were on the low end of the price at ikea and thus probably the low end of the quality too. the savings was too much otherwise, $315 versus a more expensive door which ran up to $700 in materials (and these were not the cheapest either.) in the future i think i would just make the door. the time savings were not that great, and probably the same money, better quality, and at the end of the day - probably not that longer to make. plus the more handmade stuff i'm doing the better. for everyone.