“I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it!”
This week on the One Room Challenge things have finally started coming together and I could not be happier with the results!
There’s been some mishaps along the way for sure, like this beautiful marble table top falling onto the cement garage floor and breaking into pieces (send me your tricks to fix a broken heart, *I mean the broken parts*) but overall this week has been smooth sailing.
Even the measurements and cuts turned out better than expected, and that stain?! – a near perfect match!
Thanks to pregnancy (limited heavy lifting) and an injury from an accident earlier this year (still hoping for a full recovery!) I had to rely pretty heavily on my husband and the hardware store to make this one possible.
I DID take measurements, select the materials, paint and stain each piece, AND take on the role of project lead and Lieutenant in Command, but as far as DIY, I left the cuts, nailing, and heavy lifting out of the equation.
If you are looking to add height to your existing cabinets (office, kitchen, or otherwise) I can still very much tell you what to do so let’s dive into it.
- First up, you are going to want to measure the length of your cabinet. Lucky for me, I only had one wall to contend with but if you do have a corner you will only measure that space once. See the diagram for details ->
- Next, measure the depth.
My outer shelves were not as deep as my middle so I measured the actual space available giving me a depth of around 18″. I knew I would rather have extra space in the back than have the new cabinet jut out further than the existing unit so I went with 16″ “to be safe”.
I went with the “safety measure” for height as well leaving a few inches at the top which I knew would be covered by the trim.
- Since the plywood sheets that we used came in 8′ lengths and not 10′, I knew that there would be a seam to contend with. I also knew that I wasn’t going to mess with door fronts so doing divider pieces helped both to hide the seams and make the top tie in more fully to the bottom. We used one in the middle and evenly spaced the remaining four pieces to give me a total of six sections across the top.
- From there it was just a matter of securing them all together. If this unit was more visible (eye level or below) pocket holes and wood filler would have been a must, but since both the top and bottom of the unit are hidden we were able to simply screw right into the top and bottom. I do of course always recommend pre-drilling your holes to reduce the chance of the wood splitting/splintering.
If you are planning a project like this, you will want to take an existing shelf with you when you pick up your wood to ensure that it is the right thickness. Mine ended up being 3/4″ thick pine which I stained in MinWax “Red Chestnut” to perfectly match the existing cabinet. Even I am completely floored by how close this colour match is!
All that was left was adding on the trim, which I selected and painted to match the existing unit below. We used a flat piece of trim for the top to take the unit directly to the ceiling and added a detailed piece directly on top of it to create some dimension. I still need to touch up the seams and let the smell evaporate out of the room for another day or two but I am in LOVE with the overall look!
I am also still patiently waiting on the arrival of the new light fixture (which I ordered this morning) so fingers crossed that it makes it here by the end of the challenge!
Until next week!
Angela
