Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets Kindle Edition

I've been buying books on kitchen cabinet construction in anticipation of building some cabinets for my house. This particular book doesn't really work for me:FIrst off, he's building ugly, 1970's style cabinets. The cases are melamine coated particle board with oak face frames. Overlay door and drawers. Iron-on edge banding. That is a turn-off for me. If you want that kind of cabinet it's probably cheaper to go buy them at a discount big-go home center. Or Ikea.Looking past the style and materials, there are nice pictures of the construction process he uses, dimensions and decent information to build this style of cabinet.But there is no discussion of materials and hardware and alternate construction techniques. Inset doors or drawers? Forget it. THis book is kind of a one trick pony, if you want to build this particular style of cabinet it has all the information you need. Well, most of it, he shows pictures of arched top frame and panel doors but no information on making them.I think a good book on kitchen cabinet construction should cover different materials and construction techniques for building the cases, the pros/cons of each and the tools required for different approaches. A comparison of hardware - hinges and drawer slides - is essential. Some guidance on planning the work, Bob Lang and Jim Tolpin cover this reasonably well. If you have to make a kitchen full of cabinets you need some sort of system to plan the work, organize the process and ensure you get all of the materials you need in fewer than 50 trips to the lumberyard.I gave this three stars because the material it presents is well done, but it's inadequate coverage of the topic in my opinion.

I'm in the process of building my own house and plan on building my own kitchen cabinets. Cabinet building has always kind of intimidated me, but after buying Danny's book i have the confidence to tackle the job myself. I've bought a few cabinet building books and quite frankly most of the writers are more tuned in to telling you their own little tricks of the trade to do things like they do, but they never get down to the "nuts and bolts" of actually doing the job.Danny makes the job seem so much easier and his writing style makes you feel like he is right beside you guiding you through the process. His book also has drawings and dimensions and cut lists for various types of cabinets making the job so much easier for the novice cabinet maker, instilling a great deal of confidence (at least for me) to get the job done, and have it look great when you finish. I like that in his book he almost exclusively uses Melamine particleboard to make the cabinet carcasses. which is the basic material for European style cabinets and this method also saves you a good deal of money over laminated hardwood faced plywood cabinets The melamine coating is also easy to clean and very strong, and the use of hidden hinges and adjustable legs make for easy installation, a time saving feature. There are so many pluses to buying Danny's books that there just isn't enough room to list them all here. If you really are thinking of building your own kitchen cabinets this is the book to buy.

If you are interested in building cheap and ugly cabinets, this is the book for you. Most people would be far better served by going to their local Ikea or Home Depot and buying what's on sale.There are 2 real issues with this book. First, everything in it is hideously ugly (as other reviewers have noted). There are a lot of pictures, which is a good thing. It warns you off building these things. The author is in love with particle board, and that esthetic infuses everything. If you thought the 80's were a heyday of kitchen design, this book is for you.Secondly, the practical instructions aren't very good. I can sum up the entire book like this - make butt joints with particle board, and put on face frames with half overlap doors. If that sentence is helpful to you, then you don't need this book. If it isn't, you won't get much out of this book - that's as detailed as the instructions get, basically. The rest is just useless cut lists (if you don't want custom cabinets, why build them?)I bought this book because its from Popular Woodworking (whose endorsement now means much less to me) and because of the ratings. Don't make the same mistake I did. Buy Lang's Kitchen Cabinet book instead, which is around 1000 times better.

I found this book clear and useful. I am building cabinets for my workshop,and its utilitarian approach is what I was looking for. If you are interested in solid wood, high end cabinets, it will prove less useful.I did find an error (I think) in the calculation for cabinet drawers in the top diagram on page 100. Mr. Proulx includes the 3/4 (or 5/8) inch thickness of the bottom of the cabinet as part of the "free space", i.e., the area where drawers can be installed. This doesn't make sense to me. I believe the free space should be 28 1/4 inch, not 29 inches (for a 3/4 inch bottom), which throws the ensuing calculations off a bit. He also doesn't indicate the one inch clearance below the bottom drawer, but it is included in the calculation.Still, this book works for me.

As many others have said before this is really just an overview of how to build cabinets, and ugly ones at that. He goes over a lot of the dimensions and some of the techniques involved in making the cabinets but honestly I kind of feel like this book was made by "Tim the Toolman Taylor" a regular handyman just sharing some of his thoughts on building a cabinet, he does not appear to be a pro in any way, and his techniques are fairly primitive even in this newer second edition. If you really want to read something written by a pro, and with much better techniques (and results) I'd suggest you buy Building Kitchen Cabinets by Udo Schmidt. I bought that book along with this one at the same time and I've found myself constantly refering back to Schmidt's book as it is excellent, and this one I've barely cracked since I opened the other.

Fairly good book with good explanations on how to make you’re own kitchen units.

Not happy with format or variety. Wasn't what I was looking for when I read it.

The only real downside is it is American so sizes are imperial. There are always metric equivalents given but only that way around so for European sized cabinets you have to work out your own cutting lists. Other than that, very useful introduction, clear photographs and generally good explanations.

Well written and covers all aspects making kitchen cabinets as you would expect

Very comprehensive.