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Installing DIY Kitchen Cupboards

After you've finished with the sink corner unit and 4 drawer it's time to fit the other side of the kitchen. The method with the kleet works really well with a L shap corner unit. Once you rest the corner unit on the kleets the front pvc legs don't even have to touch the ground for the unit to stay in place.

Here you can see the diy corner cupboard and 3 drawer unit resting on the kleet. You are still using the pvc legs to carry the weight of the kitchen cupboards and do the fine tuning with the level process. It just saves you so much time doing it this way TRUST ME!!

Next we have to install the wall units. Again we have to start from the corner. If you have a tall unit in your kitchen like a broom cupboards or pantry unit you will first need to put it in place and level it. Once you've done that you must draw a line straight across the wall on top of the tall unit towards to wall corner unit to determine the height which you're going to fit the wall unit at.

So let's see how we're doing with our kitchen renovation. Looking abit raw still but we're making progress. If you want you can draw out on the wall exactly where the kitchen cupboards must go. It also helps so that you don't make mistakes with the installation by forbetting to fit a glad panel before you fit the unit next to it. Later on that :)

Before we go on let me explain how I leveled the kitchen wall units. You will see that the wall unit has a white wall hanging bracket fitted in the corner of it. This bracket is hammered in to the side of the unit and then fixed to the side with chipboard screws. Towards the front of the unit you can see the predrilled holes for the hinges. I fixed the next door unit to this one by screwing it between those two holes because the cabinet hinges will cover that screw. One less screw cover to worry about.

Here my cabinet maker is adjusting the wall unit forward and backwards. This is very handy as it closes all the gaps between the cupboard door and the cupboard as you adjust it.

Adjusting the wall unit up and down is just as easy as adjusting it forward and backwards. You don't even need a fancy cordless drill you can just use a normal screwdriver.

Earlier on I spoke of leveling the tall unit and then drawing a line on the top of it trough to the corner of the wall units. This is what I meant. I fixed the Broom cupboard against the wall and fitted the panels and the door on it. Now I know the cupboard is level and looking right. I don't trust a level. I've got a Stabila level and it still lies to me but if the door looks right then it is right not so?

In the picture above you can see the line drawn above the tall broom cupboard and wall units.

Now it's time to fit the wine rack diy wall unit. Don't mount this unit against the wall but against the corner wall unit because a wall is never level. In this case there was actualy a 10mm gap at the bottom between the wall unit and the wall. Thank goodness they were going to do tiling.

Here you can see how the wine rack wall unit looks when it's fitted onto the corner wall units panel.

Moving forward with the next day kitchen cupboard. In the picture above you will see that I've installed the next diy kitchen wall unit. This cupboard is screwed to the wine rack wall unit with 6x30mm screws. This allows the screws to sink properly into the chipboard and not to go right through.

Remember that the chipboard we use here has a thickness of 16mm. Sometimes it's manufactured in 17mm as well with you even knowing it. But don't worry. 6x30mm chipboard screws will cover the depth you need without penetrating right through the chipboard.

When you look at the photo above you will see that the wall brackets are already mounted to the wall. Next to the brackets and above it you will see where I marked out with pencil lines where the brackets must be positioned. The outer lines are drawn by placing the 450mm diy kitchen wall unit in place and running a pencil on the outside all the way around it. The inside line on the left was drawn 16mm away from the outside line. This is the thickness of the 450mm units side. The mounting plate of the wall hanging bracket will then be spaced 10mm away from that inside line towards the inside of the wall unit.

The reason the bracket is so far away from the outside of the kitchen wall unit is because our backing boards of our diy kitchen cupboards slide into grooves that are cut into our side panels. The backing board isn't fixed to the back of the cupboard, it slides between the sides at the back.

The top line in the picture was drawn from the top of the wall unit next to this one. Make sure you use a level when you draw this line. From that line you will measure 35mm down and draw another line. You can then line the top of the bracket up with the bottom line.

Stay tuned for part 2 of installing kitchens

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