How much does it worry you when you see cabinets separating from the wall? The cabinet next to the stove was about an inch off the wall at the top and secured and resting on the backsplash at the bottom. And we were freaked out.
I removed anything too heavy out of the cabinet. And tried to find a place to re-secure it to the wall. But it was the backing of the cabinet that was separating from the cabinet, so not possible without taking it down, anyway.
We were pretty sure one night while we were sound asleep the sound of it crashing to the floor would wake the whole house and likely result in a call to 911, as we'd be sure someone was trying to break in. Yikes.
To avoid that nightmare (if maybe a little dramatic) scenario, Dave agreed to remove the cabinet from the wall so I could hang open shelves in its place.
It was a pretty simply DIY project ...
1. Remove the old cabinet and assess the damage to the wall. In our case, it was minimal. As discussed, it was clearly not well-secured to the wall.
2. Patch the three screw holes and sand the paint lines. And scrub the hood vent next to it, because it's going to be more noticeable.
3. Paint with matching wall paint (which I had in the basement). It's Behr Polar Bear. When I was done painting, no one could tell where the cabinet had been. Zero wall damage, which is a good thing.
4. Caulk around the edges. Love a crisp edge.
5. Measure and hang the brackets. I used the same ones from the office project. I love them. Here's a link to them on Amazon. And a link to the reno office project, in case you missed it.
6. Trim the shelf wood. I had two in the house leftover from the office project, so I just needed to buy one and cut to size.
7. I skipped this step, but I should have poly'ed the wood. But it was too cold to paint outside, and too stinky to paint inside, so I'll have to do this step this spring.
8. Set the wood on the brackets and screw them into place. Simple simple. Fill up with all the oils and spices that I use a lot. And I added a pothos plant, for good measure.
Overall, I spent 50 on brackets and 40 at the hardware store picking up everything else. Not bad for a $90 investment!
We're seriously considering a kitchen renovation project in 2020. This isn't the only cabinet that's in poor shape. And the drawers are much worse off with little I can do to repair them (though, I've done a bunch of gluing and nailing rails to a few). This is a good test run on open shelves -- they're trendy but some people don't love them because they get messy and the things on them can get dusty or oily -- especially being next to the stove.
The cabinet sitting all alone next to the sink would also make a good candidate for open shelves, too. But I'm not sure I'm ready to open up two storage spaces to the elements -- and my eyeballs. For now, I'm happy with one test.
And for accuracy, here's the shelf in use ...
Complete with a chocolate cake!
I removed anything too heavy out of the cabinet. And tried to find a place to re-secure it to the wall. But it was the backing of the cabinet that was separating from the cabinet, so not possible without taking it down, anyway.
We were pretty sure one night while we were sound asleep the sound of it crashing to the floor would wake the whole house and likely result in a call to 911, as we'd be sure someone was trying to break in. Yikes.
To avoid that nightmare (if maybe a little dramatic) scenario, Dave agreed to remove the cabinet from the wall so I could hang open shelves in its place.It was a pretty simply DIY project ...
1. Remove the old cabinet and assess the damage to the wall. In our case, it was minimal. As discussed, it was clearly not well-secured to the wall.
2. Patch the three screw holes and sand the paint lines. And scrub the hood vent next to it, because it's going to be more noticeable.
3. Paint with matching wall paint (which I had in the basement). It's Behr Polar Bear. When I was done painting, no one could tell where the cabinet had been. Zero wall damage, which is a good thing.
4. Caulk around the edges. Love a crisp edge.
5. Measure and hang the brackets. I used the same ones from the office project. I love them. Here's a link to them on Amazon. And a link to the reno office project, in case you missed it.6. Trim the shelf wood. I had two in the house leftover from the office project, so I just needed to buy one and cut to size.
7. I skipped this step, but I should have poly'ed the wood. But it was too cold to paint outside, and too stinky to paint inside, so I'll have to do this step this spring.
8. Set the wood on the brackets and screw them into place. Simple simple. Fill up with all the oils and spices that I use a lot. And I added a pothos plant, for good measure.
Overall, I spent 50 on brackets and 40 at the hardware store picking up everything else. Not bad for a $90 investment!
We're seriously considering a kitchen renovation project in 2020. This isn't the only cabinet that's in poor shape. And the drawers are much worse off with little I can do to repair them (though, I've done a bunch of gluing and nailing rails to a few). This is a good test run on open shelves -- they're trendy but some people don't love them because they get messy and the things on them can get dusty or oily -- especially being next to the stove.
The cabinet sitting all alone next to the sink would also make a good candidate for open shelves, too. But I'm not sure I'm ready to open up two storage spaces to the elements -- and my eyeballs. For now, I'm happy with one test.
And for accuracy, here's the shelf in use ...
Complete with a chocolate cake!
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