Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets (Popular Woodworking) [Paperback]

Danny Proulx (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003 | Series: Popular Woodworking

Build your own kitchen cabinets!

You don't need a showroom full of equipment or expertise in calculus to build your own kitchen cabinets.

In fact, Danny Proulx's concise, easy-to-follow instructions enable you to create incredible kitchens with just a few power tools - a table saw, circular saw, router and drill.

Completely revised and updated, Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets, Second Edition, provides start-to-finish guidelines for crafting upper and lower cabinets, plus practical information on kitchen design, material selection and tool shortcuts.

Proulx's instruction is practical, easy to understand and time-tested, refined in his own shop, and taught by him in countless seminars and workshops. You'll learn how to plan, design, construct and install your own complete handmade kitchen, from simple cabinets and over-the-sink cupboards to lazy-Susan shelving, stemware, storage and more:

• Combine the beauty of traditional face-frame cabinetry with the strength and simplicity of European cabinetry and hardware
• Build drawers, pull-outs and flip-outs to maximize storage space
• Use European hinges, adjustable legs and other specialized hardware to take the guesswork out of construction and installation
• Use simple butt joints to build strong cabinets quickly
• Customize your cabinets' looks with a variety of door styles, countertops and finishes

Page after page, Danny Proulx proves that you can build your own beautiful kitchen cabinets.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Danny Proulx opened his own custom kitchen-remodeling shop, Rideau Cabinets, in 1989. He is the author of Building Woodshop Workstations, Display Cases You Can Build, Build Your Own Home Office Furniture, Building More Classic Garden Furniture and Fast & Easy Techniques for Building Modern Cabinetry. He lives in Ontario, Canada.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Popular Woodworking Books; 2 edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558706763
• ISBN-13: 978-1558706767
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Carpentry

More About the Author

Danny Proulx opened his own custom kitchen-remodeling shop, Rideau Cabinets, in 1989. He is the author of Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets, Building Woodshop Workstations, Display Cases You Can Build, Build Your Own Home Office Furniture, Building More Classic Garden Furniture and Fast & Easy Techniques for Building Modern Cabinetry. He lives in Russell, Ontario, Canada.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent instruction using modern materials and methods, August 15, 2000

By 

George Huron (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets (Paperback)

Modern materials and methods means particle board and particle board screws with solid wood face frames and solid frame and panel doors that overlap the cabinet opening, and modern hidden hinges and modern european plastic feet and modern drawer slide hardware. If you want to optimize the look of your kitchen with minimum cost, this is the book for you. Step by step, very good writing, solid construction teaching. If you're into more traditional frame and panel construction using solid wood and/or high grade veneered plywood, rabbet joinery, mortise and tenon joinery or dovetail joinery, butt or knife hinges with flush fit doors, then this book is NOT for you. This book will teach you how to build cost effective cabinets using modern techniques and modern materials and it will teach you very effectively.

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, the example cabinets are UGLY..., July 5, 2006

By 

Frank Shic (vallejo, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets (Popular Woodworking) (Paperback)

but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater!

The late Danny Proulx was an EXTENSIVE contributor to cabinetry schools and magazines for many years before succumbing to a heart attack at a woodworking convention, but his passion lives on in this wonderfully simple and comprehensive book.

If you want to learn how to build high end custom cabinetry with all the nice details then look at udo schmidt's or jim tolpin's books. If you want to learn the basics to building a solid face frame cabinet with raised panel doors or frameless cabinets, this is an amazing introduction into the world of cabinetry as the author not only describes the steps but also gives you ACTUAL DIMENSIONS for both 5/8" and 3/4" materials for cabinets that are in the standard 3" widths. Not many people realize the merits of proulx's hybrid face frame/frameless cabinet which enable you to save yourself a lot of grief and pain in attaching european hinges and drawer slides to the cabinet sides directly without having to shim out to accomodate the inner lip of the face frame. This is the first book that I've encountered that describes this process. Finally, his section on frameless (or FULL ACCESS) cabinetry is invaluable for folks who don't want to buy a jointer and a planer (both are required) for machining solid wood for face frames. This is also one of the first books to explore this area of cabinetry. Lest you think that european frameless is junk, I recommend poggenpohl or omega cabinets as references.

Yes, the pictures of the cabinets are rather hideous because they utilize low grade plywood slab doors, but you can easily build cabinets that rival those that you see at home depot with SUPERIOR case construction methods but using raised panel doors. I would recommend using pocket screws to attach the face frame to the carcase instead of nails as well as using either confirmat screws, biscuits or assembly screws (NOT drywall screws) for assembling the carcases.

Realize that if you are serious about building your own kitchen cabinets and you want them to turn out good, you are going to need to INVEST some money in good tools including a table saw. You can forgo the slider by building a cheap miter sled but if you're going to be doing this in the future, I would strongly recommend the sliding table attachment by delta or jessem or dewalt or purchasing a guided circular saw rail like eurekazone or festool. Lastly, I would strongly recommend using prefinished material either plywood or melamine as the finishing process for my eleven kitchen cabinets easily consumed just as much time as building them.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book!, September 10, 2003

By 

Steven B. Miers "MacMusicStudio" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets (Popular Woodworking) (Paperback)

If I could give more stars, I would. I've never built anything out of wood before, and I just finished building all my kitchen and bathroom cabinets. I did not use melamine (the author is a fan of this material), as it would not be good for resale value in my particular area. I used polyurethaned birch plywood for the kitchen cabinets, and painted MDF for the bathroom cabinets. Using the author's instructions, they turned out very well, with very little hassle. The author has a no-nonsense approach to building cabinets (e.g., using screws in a butt joint, rather than time-consuming dados/rabbets). This saved me a lot of time and hassle. Since I was a beginner when I started this project, it was especially appealing. Certain other books were overwhelming to me because of the amount of space dedicated just to joinery. I've nothing against these other methods, but it was refreshing to see that they weren't actually necessary. Given the limited amount of time I had to build quality cabinets, it was the obvious choice for me.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to build his/her own cabinets, regardless of experience level.

Also, I emailed the author to make sure the cabinets/cabinet legs would support my concrete countertops, and received a reply within 24 hours. A lot of authors will forget about the little people once they are published, but not this guy! (BTW, there was no support problems.)