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I had a very productive day yesterday! I added all the basic trim to the cabinets in the office area of the studio. I ran out of time, so I wasn’t able to attach the decorative trim, but the basic trim went a long way to making this unit look finished and cohesive.
In my last post on this project, I built a cubby bridge between the cabinets. At the time it looked like this…
If you missed the post showing how I built the cubby bridge myself, you can find it here.
So with all the basic trims attached, the whole cabinet unit looked like this at the end of the day last night…
I know it’s hard to understand without the doors and drawer fronts, but I didn’t want to add them all for the pictures and then take them off again. The more I handle them, the more likely I am to scratch or damage them, so we’ll all have to wait until next week to see the whole thing put together. So let me show you how I trimmed this cabinet unit.
I started at the top and worked my way down. So starting with the cubby bridge, I cut and added 1″ x 2″ pieces to the top and bottom. In both, I lined up the top edge of the 1″ x 2″ piece so that it was flush with the plywood above and below the bridge.
Next, I cut the vertical pieces and attached them. I attached all of this trim using 1.5-inch 16-gauge nails in my nail gun. I did not use wood glue or construction adhesive. Just nails.
Next, I worked on the cabinets on the left side of the unit. I had already added 2″ x 2″ lumber to the sides of the unit, flush with the front edge of the IKEA cabinets in the previous steps. So just like that, I needed to attach a 2″ x 2″ piece to the top so that I would have something to nail the top trim to. I nailed from the inside of the cabinet and into the 2″ x 2″ piece, making sure the front edge of the 2″ x 2″ piece was flush with the front edge of the Ikea cabinet.
Then I started adding the trim, starting with the piece next to the wall. I measured the distance from the outside edge of the IKEA cabinet to the wall, then used my table saw to rip a 1″ x 4″ piece of wood to the correct width.
I ran all of these trim pieces through my planer to plane them to 5/8-inch thickness, which is the thickness of the IKEA wedding doors and drawer fronts. If I used 1-inch lumber (actually 3/4-inch thick), the trim would be 1/8-inch further apart than the doors and drawer fronts. I don’t think it’s really a big deal, and if I didn’t have a planer, I would have used the 1-inch lumber as is, and used a different thickness as a deliberate design decision. 😀 But since I have a planner, I decided to use it.
So with the piece ripped, planed, and cut to length, I nailed it to 2″ x 2″ so that it completely covered the space between the cabinet and the wall.
Here is another view. I’ll probably use some small trim (shoe molding, maybe) to fill the small gap that still remains between the trim piece and the wall. Or I might end up holding it. Let’s see.
Then I repeated the same process on the other side – rip, plane, cut and nail in place.
When attaching face trim around IKEA cabinets, you must be sure not to place the trim over the edge of the cabinet. at allthe trim can come up to that outer edge, but if you cover any of that edge, it will prevent the doors and drawers from working properly.
Next, I did the same thing on the bottom of the cabinet. Quite honestly, I’m just making up the design as I go. 😀 I originally planned to build this cabinet area with decorative trim (like you see on the bookcase) along the floor along the front of the entire cabinet unit. Then I thought I’d tock on the front of the whole unit. In the end, I decided to use both ideas and put decorative trim on the two outer tall cabinets and put a thumb kick in the middle drawer section with the countertop.
To attach the trim to the bottom, I first had to attach a 2″ x 2″ piece to the bottom of the cabinet. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but it’s the same thing I did on the top of the cabinet in the first step above. On the other three sides of this tall cabinet, this 2″ x 2″ piece gave me something to nail this trim piece to.
And then finally, I added the top trim piece.
Since I decided to do decorative trim on the outer cabinets and tock on the center section, I had to add another piece to this cabinet section before the basic trim was done. I cut a 1″ x 4″ piece of wood six inches long…
And I added it right here, perpendicular to the front trim piece along the floor. I nailed it to the front of the front trim piece and into the edge of this perpendicular piece. If you can’t guess the meaning of this passage, you will understand it in a bit.
Since I originally planned to do decorative trim (no tock) on the front of the entire cabinet unit, I installed these spacer pieces with the legs (this helped me hold the spacer easily when I screwed it in place). But now that I want a Tokic, I had to remove that little leg piece that was in the way.
I used my Dremel MultiMax oscillating saw for quick and easy removal, cutting the short leg flush with the bottom of the cabinet, freeing up space for the tock.
Then I ripped, planed and cut a piece of trim to cover that spacer. Since this is the section with the tock, I cut this trim piece at cabinet height and didn’t go all the way to the floor.
With the basic trim installed on the left cabinet unit, I repeated that entire process on the right side.
The last thing to do is to install Tokik. Since I added wood feet flush to the front of these cabinets, I had to move them back to make room for the Tokic. You can see what I mean in the photo below. See how those wood block feet line the front edge of the cabinets?
I attached them that way so I could nail the decorative trim to those wood blocks. But now they are on the way to Tokic. Just like I had to do on the mural wall cabinets, I used my hammer and gave each block foot a good whack (they were only held in place with hot glue, no screws or nails) to break them apart and move them back. Here’s a close-up picture I took when I did the same procedure on the mural wall cabinets.
Once they were where I needed them for the tock, I glued them back together (which was quite a challenge in the tight space under the cabinet). Here is another picture I took when I did the same process on the mural wall cabinets. You can see the feet moving backwards compared to the feet on the front edge.
So once I moved the feet back on these cabinets and glued them back into their new location, I cut and nailed the tock to the wood blocks. And now you can see the benefit of those pieces added perpendicular to the front trim pieces on those side cabinet units.
Without those pieces, there would be a hole. After nailing the tock piece, I took my hot glue gun into the crevice between the side perpendicular piece and the end of the tock, squeezed some glue onto the end of the tock piece, and then used a small prybar to hold it in place. Keep the piece perpendicular to the tock until the glue dries. So now that perpendicular piece is secured in place with the nailed edge in the front and the glued in the back.
And with that, the basic trim is done!
I’m disappointed that I ran out of time to do the decorative trim, but I don’t want to be outside using my tools after 9:00 p.m. So I still need to add crown molding to the top of each section…
Then I add decorative trim to the bottom of the side cabinet units.
I haven’t decided yet if I will add trim (shoe molding or quarter round) in this area where the plywood meets the wall. But if I do that, I’ll have to wait until I build the countertop. Since I will be painting the wall the same color as the cabinets, I can use caulk to fill those small cracks without using the trim.
So this is progress! It’s coming, and I’m thrilled with how it’s turning out!
Addicted 2 Decorating shares my DIY and decorating journey as I renovate and decorate the 1948 Fixer Upper that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and is unable to do physical activity, so I do most of the housework myself. You can learn more about me here.
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