A few years ago, we had a new home with a walk out basement built. We wanted to make the basement an entertainment area for the family and friends when they come over. One of the main things that I wanted to have was a place to use as a second kitchen area. This also gives Cheryl two different types of kitchens to be able to cook with also fast access to the grills outside. Before I go any more with how I built the cabinets I will say this is a long read with lots of pictures. Get you a cup of coffee or whatever you drink and let’s get started.
Cheryl found a cabinet on Facebook marketplace from a local business that fit right where we were looking to put the Bar/Kitchen. The main problem was that the bar was in a horseshoe shape. This was going to make it a challenge to build cabinets over, so that they all lined up. The first thing that I needed to do was build and install drops that would make everything level below the ductwork that was installed on that side of the basement. These drops will be what supports the weight of the overhead cabinets and later the ceiling when it gets installed.
As you can see in the pictures above where the drops come down and I am starting the outline of the overhead cabinets. With the picture on the left, you can see the outline of the inside, where the cabinets are going to be. I used a laser level that made lines both vertical and horizonal so that I could make sure that it was all lined up. With the picture on the right you can see where I installed the outside support for the overhead cabinets. I had to figure out how deep I wanted them, and I then got the idea to install shadowboxes on the outside. Because the cabinets were going to end up being so high I next built the framework for a soffit that is showing in the picture on the right.
In the two pictures above this is what the overhead soffit framework looks like, and we are starting to see the shape of how the overhead cabinets are going flow around the Bar. I have about 1,500 bf (board foot) of pin oak that I milled on my sawmill. These trees were harvested from our property and had been drying for over a year. I knew that I was going to use the pin oak for the cabinets and also use it to cover the soffit with. One of the problems with pin oak is that it can have many knot holes in the wood. I would have to pick out and place the boards where those knots would not be seen. I first needed to plane the rough lumber down to where I could see what I was working with.
The pin oak turned out looking very nice. Some of the boards had curl figures in them. But you can also see how big some of the knot holes are. When you are working with your own lumber and making your own projects you can move the wood around to hide those defects without losing a lot of lumber that others might throw out. In the case of the overhead soffit, I only needed to make sure that the wood that was exposed did not have knot holes showing. On the underside of the soffit, that area would be between the back cabinets and the bar cabinets. Which was about 54 inches long and 36 inches wide. I matched up the widest boards and then glued their edges to that the board as wide as needed to cover the bottom.
The picture on the right is showing the first board being clamped into place after I did the glue up, in the shop, and figured out the angle to cut the first turn.
Once that I got the two sides that will be exposed installed. I can use some of the smaller width boards to go around the outside and start installing the boards on the outside of the soffit.
Now, I am to where I can start building the cabinets. I started off with the ones over the stove and counter area on the back wall. Being that these are smaller it would give me practice on how I want to build the larger ones. These also have three sides that are exposed that needed to be pin oak boards. I started off by cutting out the shape I wanted from 3/4 plywood. Then glued the pin oak boards on the side along with using nails.
This one in the pictures is for above the stove. I had to make it where we could have a microwave above the stove. Once the frame was built, I then make the face frame out of pin oak to finish them out.
I glued and nailed the faces on both cabinets. The one on the right you can see a hole cut in the back. I had already prewired the walls and we changed which side the stove and microwave was going to be on. I did not want to cover the box up because if there was ever a need to get to the wiring I would have to remove the cabinet.
I got the back cabinets mounted and had to leave the back side of the soffit open for now to be able to run wiring and other piping.
Now it is time to start building the hardest ones and the ones that took the longest to make. There was lots of angle cuts that I had to figure out and also how many pieces of cabinets I wanted to make to go around the horseshoe. It might be a good time to refill your drink maybe take a little break before reading the rest of the story.
The size of these cabinets are 12 feet across and 6 feet deep to go all the way around the horseshoe. The lower base cabinets were built in two pieces and then put together. That would work but it would have made a split right in the middle of the one shadowbox to the front of the bar and also would have made a seam that would be harder to hide. I ended up placing cardboard on top of the horseshoe bar countertop and tracing this out to make a pattern. Then I cut three different pieces of plywood that was going to be the top of the cabinets. I then fitted and clamped them to the soffit to see if there were any changes that I needed to make to have the three different cabinets come together when mounted.
Once I knew all those fit right, I started to build the middle cabinet. The middle cabinet is the one that looks like a piece of pie with the middle tip cut off.
The picture on the left is the outside of the cabinet and the one on the right is the inside of the cabinet. This ends up giving each cabinet two face frames that have to be made.
Once I started to build the two different wings. I would keep that wing clamped and then bolt it to the middle one as I kept building them. Each of the wings also have one exposed end that would need to be made from the pin oak. I selected pieces of pin oak to glue up and make them as wide as needed.
I now have everything clamped and bolted together. The right picture is showing the face frames being glued and clamped to each of the three cabinets at the same time. I wanted to have the best match that I could when I unbolted them and took them to the basement to install. In this picture they are all upside down as you will see in a minute.
In the picture on the left, you can see that I had Cheryl come up with a wave pattern that I cut out and used a router around the edges. The picture on the right is the cabinets in the basement, bolted together ready to be installed, You can see the wave pattern at the top of each of the shadowboxes, I know you are wondering if they are all bolted together how are you going to lift them up in place and how many people are you going to need to be able to. Trust me I thought on this for many nights. Then I remembered watching the Iron Workers at work and how they would rig things, lift and swing equipment in place that weighed more than these.
So that was the plan to rig the cabinets and lift them using ratchet straps.
Here on the left, you can see the two heavy ratchet straps that are connected to eye bolts. There are eye bolts that are bolted to the drops above where the cabinets are going. You can also see where I used smaller width boards where they would not show to gain access for lifting and wiring. The picture on the right shows the painters tape with lines marked on them to make sure I got the cabinets in the right place. The red straps are the quick pull straps that I could lift the cabinets with and then tighten the heavy ratchet straps to hold them as I slowly lifted them up.
The left picture shows them almost in place and the right one is after they were bolted and screwed to the soffit. I was surprised that it only took me a few hours to lift the cabinets in to place and have them installed
Once this was all done, I still needed to wood putty all the seams and sand them out. I also wet sanded all the exposed wood surfaces to get them as smooth as I could before I started to stain everything. Once they had been stained, I put seven coats of urethan on all the wood while wet sanding after each coat. I really like how that they turned out after that.
I installed lighting in the shadowboxes that I can turn on and off with a switch.
The next thing that I am going to build for the basement is shadowboxes that go around the walls. These will also be built from wood that I have harvested from my woods and milled on my sawmill. Once they are installed all the lights to the showboxes will be controlled from one light switch. We can use just those lights while in the basement. If we want, we can also use the ceiling lights in each one of the parts of the basement.
If you made it to the end, I thank you for taking the time to read it and I hope that I gave you something to learn from.
