Our Cabinets are Like The New Kids on the Block.

They’re “Hangin’ Tough”!  In tribute to NKOTB, I found this video of the massive 1990’s hit.

Yep, this weekend we were able to get my Re-Store finds (mentioned here and here) up and hanging!  It all started while I was fast asleep on Saturday morning.  Ryan got up early to take out the dogs and Michelle decided to sleep in, something I never do.  Ryan surprised me and temporarily hung both cabinets while I snoozed away.  Because the studs are far and few between on this wall, Ryan needed to figure out where the holes were going to be so he could put in Molly’s for support.

Ryan stacked a few boxes between our dog-food-bin to hold the ‘big’ cabinet up.

After Ryan got the Molly’s in, together we installed the cabinets.  Okay, I just held them up, he did the actual installing.  Here is a pic of the two cabinets mounted to the wall.  As you can see there is a gap on the right where the two cabinets meet up.  I will fill this space will wood filler and sand it smooth.  After a few coats of glossy white paint you will never know this gap existed, just like the holes on the cabinet doors.

After Ryan got the cabinets hung I started getting the cabinet doors ready for their new pulls.  I filled the previous holes with wood putty and sanded them last week.  Once the cabinets were primed and painted those original holes became invisible.  The new pulls are going to be placed in the center of the door. If you tape the spot where you are drilling  it prevents splitting in the wood.  So I got out the Frog Tape and figured out my measurement for the new holes.

It’s a good thing I doubled checked my measurements because I was actually off by a half inch on one  door.  That would have been a wonky handle!  After I re-marked my spot on that door, all four were ready to be drilled.

Oh yeah, I also put a strip of Frog Tape on the back of each cabinet so the backside wouldn’t split either.  I’m a safety girl, better safe than sorry!

I pulled out a scrap piece of wood for Ryan to drill the doors on and then the new Milwaukee drill (and Ryan) did all the work.  The drill went through like butta.

The easy part (or so I thought) was putting the new pulls on the cabinet doors.  It turned out that the screws (that came with the pulls) were way too long for our 1960’s cabinet doors.  Major Boo.

Those screws were 3/8″ too long, seriously??!!!   That meant another trip to Lowes.  I think we hit up Lowes and Home Depot a total of 7 times this weekend.  Completely insane.  Once we got the proper length screws, the handles and hinges were back in business on Sunday morning.

Finally we have working upper cabinets to our kitchen countertop addition.  It took two days (both Saturday and Sunday) to get it to completely finished but we are both totally stoked to be “Hangin’ Tough”.  Here’s what the kitchen looks like with the new cabinets all pretty and white.

Don’t forget we still have the shelves to cut and hang between the two cabinets to tie it all together.  I did a photoshop mock-up so you can get a feeling of what that will look like.  The open air shelves will have a curved radius to mimic the granite below.  (We hope to start on that this weekend).

There you have it!  It may not look like we did all that much this weekend, but we worked like dogs to get this all up and in place.  One weekend at a time.   After the open air shelves are in place, all we have left to do is make/find the cabinet doors for the lower cabinet and lay the backsplash tile!  It’s definitely almost there!

What do you think?  Are my Re-Store finds perfect, or what?  Have you installed open air cabinets lately?  Have you had issues with door pulls and hinges on your 1960’s cabinets?  Let us know by commenting below!