This cabinet is designed to match the upper plate rack cabinet for the dollhouse kitchen and uses the same materials and tools as the other cabinets in the series. It is designed to be a scale model of a standard 24 inch wide by 30 inch tall cabinet. You can easily adjust it to make it taller or a different width to suit your kitchen plan. If you are going to build a full kitchen, make sure you have enough wood to build and trim your full series of cabinets from the same materials. I used craft basswood (tilia or lime) 1 inch (2.5cm) wide 3/32 inch (2mm) stock for the sides, shelves and top of the cabinet, and 3 inch wide(7.5cm), 1/16 inch (1mm) stock to make beadboard for the back of the cabinet. The miniature beadboard instructions are given separately, as you may choose to make a cabinet with a plain back, no back or a glass back to make a two sided cabinet for a ceiling hung divider.
When this cabinet is set into the full kitchen I will use small crown molding for upper trim
Basic Hand Tools Used to Make the Kitchen Cabinet Series
- Craft Knife for cutting wood to length.
- Pin Vise or Miniature Drill
- Sanding Block and Fine Sandpaper
- Metal Ruler and Marking Pencil
- Engineer's Square
- PVA or Wood Glue
- Razor Saw and Miter Box for cutting crown molding trim
- Acrylic Paint or other finish
Parts for the Basic Upper Cabinet
This cabinet is designed to set above a standard 2 inch wide base cabinet. It can also be built with double doors if you wish. The direction of the door should match any base cabinet placed below it.
- Sides - Cut two, one inch (2.5 cm)wide by 2 5/16 inches (6 cm) long, cut from 3/32 (2mm) thick stock.
- Top and Bottom - Cut from the same one inch (2.5 cm) stock to a length of 2 inches(5 cm)
- Back - cut one from 1/16 inch (2mm)stock. 1 13/16 inches (4.6 cm) wide by 2 5/16 inches (5.9 cm) tall.
- Shelf - Cut one, 1 13/16 inches (4.6cm) long. Width will depend on the thickness of your door once assembled.
- Door Trim - I used 1/16 inch thick stock 1/4 inch wide
- Clear Acrylic Sheet - I used 1/16 inch acrylic sheet (plexiglass) for my door, you can also use ridgid clear plastic from food packaging, although it may yellow or frost with age. The size of this piece will depend on your door trim. My plastic was cut to 2 inches (5 cm) by 1 1/2 inches (4 cm).
