So, you want to put glass in your kitchen cabinets? Oh. You don’t think you can?! But, guess what, you can!
First we started out by routering a cabinet. We knew that it could be done this way. It would take a little practice, but we could do it, so we grabbed the router and did one. I nearly had a panic attack. I was so nervous about messing it up.
It worked great. And would have worked just fine for all the cabinet doors. But then we started thinking. Of course, that always gets us in trouble, because we always have to buy a new tool.
The boys went out and brought this bad boy home:
The Dremel Saw-Max. It’s great because it can be used to cut tile, wood, drywall, metal. It will be a great tool to have.
We set the dremel measurement to just short of what the router was set to for the first cut, just to make sure we didn’t go through the front trim piece.
I placed the glass on the cabinet door and traced it. You can see a little of the marker towards the bottom of the next picture. Then we set up a straight edge to make sure it was done exactly right.
It worked perfectly and quickly. Piece of cake. The centers just pop out with the back pieces that are cut out from the frame.
I like this way better because you can get a very close cut and you don’t have to take out extra framing. In the router method you have to router out until you get to the edges of the cabinet face (the insert). And that can leave a lot of extra space for the glass, unless you have the glass cut after you router the cabinets….that’s not what we did. Because I have no patience. But in any case, I feel the more wood supporting the frame and glass the better.
After these were cut and painted, I lined the edges with clear kitchen and bath caulk and dropped the glass in. The glass and the caulk provide a suction and seal it. No nails or staples needed.
Then, the doors went back up. We’re nearly finished with the kitchen! The concrete counter will get done when it gets warm out!
I still need to finish painting the bases of the cabinets and I’m trying to decide if I want to paint the inside of the cabinets yet. What do you think? Paint them? No paint?
I’m so impressed with what you’re accomplishing with your new house. Custom details everywhere! Looks fantastic.
I vote for painting the insides of the cabinets. Just the back wall though. Maybe a darker shade of the gray of the lowers? Make the dishes pop cuz in the pictures, they’re blending in.
Ok, the first 93% of that went over my head. Nothing new.
My heart sang a lovely tune though when I got to the photo of the windowed kitchen! Glory! It’s so beautiful! Definitely swirl some fun color inside those cabinets! OH MY GOODNESS! If I could be so bold and suggest a different color in each one!? Heee! (I do have a life. In case you were wondering)
We were lucky with our 1970s cabinets. The innards just popped out.
XO
~K
Looks fantastic! I vote for painting this inside. I did my uppers inside and out in ASP Old White and lower cabinets in French linen outside and Provence inside (drawers too). Kinda bold but I loved it.
I think you should do something to the backs of the cabinets. If you don’t want to paint, you could do some pretty wallpaper or even wrapping paper on pieces of foam core cute to size and just popped in to the spaces. Then you could change it out on a whim.