Tristan’s Master Bath Cabinets

With a summer off last year and tools to get my hands dirty, I decided to build my parents a new set of bathroom cabinets to replace the existing 30+ year old ones. With only a few well-trained months at school, it was all I needed to get started.

I choose maple and cherry because I absolutely love contrasting woods and these are perfect pairs. The cabinets were built to match the others and were increased to match the standard size of 21″. The drawer cabinet was also widened. A new addition of upper cabinets was added.

The carcass is constructed of 3/4 maple veneered particle board with a 3/4 cherry face frame constructed and attached with pocket screws. Dados and rebates holds it all together. The shelves are also maple with a cherry solid edge. The back is just white melamine.

I decided to build the face frame down to the floor to be different. There is a 4″ by 4″ toe kick with a cherry face.

The upper cabinet is 8″ x 24″ instead of 12″ x 30″ found in kitchens. It was too tall for the bathroom and too wide for the toilet overhead. A maple crown down on the tablesaw finished it off.

The doors are shaker styled with a 1/4 cherry veneered panel with a maple frame around it. The door is edged with a chamfer router bit. The drawers are done the same way. Simple frame and panel construction. The drawer box is joined with box joints.

The drawers have 18″ soft-closing slides while the hinges are Blum’s compact soft-closing hinges. The doors have a 1/2 overlay. The drawer pulls and knobs are on order.

The counter top is a 4×8 sheet of MDF cut out to match the wall and then finished with a Formica top and cherry edging. The edging was cut from a 10′ board for a continuous grain pattern around the counter top.

The cherry was first stained with shellac and then the entire project was finished with Mohawk’s waterborne pre-cat lacquer via HVLP.

Wallpaper, paint, a new lightning system and a mirror is all that remains. The last photo is the “before” shot.

This was my first solo project and my first set of real cabinets. It was also my first trip to a lumber yard. A lot of firsts for me. I turned 19 when I installed these. I am proud to call myself a cabinetmaker at 19!