Marineboy
Established Member
I thought I'd share a couple of pics of my kitchen upgrade.
Existing units are B&Q 15mm chipboard carcasses, a few years old now but structurally in OK condition. As my wife has trouble bending to get into the back of floor cupboards I am installing 3 drawers per unit instead. I've used 12mm ply for the drawer boxes, simply varnished, on Blum tandem soft close runners (from Isaac Lord, recommended).
My wife likes the retro type look of chalk paint so I decided to make the drawer fronts out of 18mm MDF with some V bit routed detail on the front (I've made a jig to easily repeat the routed groove). I've given the paint 3 coats of wax - I know not the most durable finish in the world but no kids at home now so shouldn't get too much wear and tear and chalk paint is easy to touch up. Handles are satin nickel finish from More Handles. Drawer boxes and fronts all cut with Festool TS55, a marvellous bit of kit.
Trickiest bit was lining up the drawer fronts to get reasonably consistent gaps. I got some tips from forum members and went with drilling one oversize hole in the drawer box front and screwing though into the front with a narrow gauge screw and large washer. This allowed adjustment of a few mm in all directions. The tandem drawer runners also allow for some vertical adjustment on each side (I believe the Movento runners also allow for and aft adjustment).
I will work through replacing the rest of the kitchen drawers and wall cupboard fronts as time and budget allows.
Existing units are B&Q 15mm chipboard carcasses, a few years old now but structurally in OK condition. As my wife has trouble bending to get into the back of floor cupboards I am installing 3 drawers per unit instead. I've used 12mm ply for the drawer boxes, simply varnished, on Blum tandem soft close runners (from Isaac Lord, recommended).
My wife likes the retro type look of chalk paint so I decided to make the drawer fronts out of 18mm MDF with some V bit routed detail on the front (I've made a jig to easily repeat the routed groove). I've given the paint 3 coats of wax - I know not the most durable finish in the world but no kids at home now so shouldn't get too much wear and tear and chalk paint is easy to touch up. Handles are satin nickel finish from More Handles. Drawer boxes and fronts all cut with Festool TS55, a marvellous bit of kit.
Trickiest bit was lining up the drawer fronts to get reasonably consistent gaps. I got some tips from forum members and went with drilling one oversize hole in the drawer box front and screwing though into the front with a narrow gauge screw and large washer. This allowed adjustment of a few mm in all directions. The tandem drawer runners also allow for some vertical adjustment on each side (I believe the Movento runners also allow for and aft adjustment).
I will work through replacing the rest of the kitchen drawers and wall cupboard fronts as time and budget allows.
